Merry very early Christmas, Broncos fans.

Under the tree this year: The Kansas City Chiefs and quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

Denver is visiting Kansas City on Christmas Night, the league announced Monday. The Week 17 tilt is set for 6:15 p.m., will be streamed on Amazon Prime and is one of what are expected to be several prime time slots for Sean Payton’s team this fall. The NFL releases the full schedule for all teams at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Not many on the schedule will be bigger than this one, though. The late-season, holiday time slot against the Chiefs could represent Denver’s best chance in years to end the Chiefs’ reign atop the AFC West.

Kansas City has won the division nine straight years and waltzed to the title again in 2024. The Broncos have not won at Arrowhead Stadium since 2015, when Peyton Manning was at the helm of Denver’s offense.

The Broncos should have won last fall at Kansas City, but a Wil Lutz field goal to win the game on the final snap was blocked by Chiefs linebacker Leo Chenal.

The division rivals have matched up once before on Christmas Day, back in 2016, when the Chiefs won 33-10 and knocked the Broncos out of playoff contention in the process.

Broncos sign 3 tryout players>> A few minutes after the Broncos’ rookie minicamp ended in a final huddle Saturday, Sean Payton made clear two tryout rookies had caught his eye.

“There’s a couple we want to discuss,” Payton said then, “that I think have a chance of going to camp with us.”

Those two, evidently, were Michigan State inside linebacker Jordan Turner and Utah State wideout Kyrese White, both undrafted free-agent tryouts who took the field at minicamp in Dove Valley, as the Broncos inked both to three-year standard rookie deals Monday.

Turner was a key starter for two years at Wisconsin before transferring to Michigan State in 2024, a proven run-stuffer who had 66 tackles and 11 tackles for loss. The Broncos didn’t pick up an inside linebacker in April’s NFL draft, and he’ll compete with fellow UDFAs JB Brown and Karene Reid for a spot in training camp.

White, meanwhile, is the son of former Utah State stud running back Emmett White. After sparse playing time for a few years with the Aggies, he caught 44 passes for 526 yards in 2024, primarily lining up from the slot at 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds.

Denver also brought back long snapper Zach Triner, just three days after cutting him, insurance behind current starter Mitchell Fraboni. And in one final swoop in a tiny flurry of adds, they inked tight end Cole Fotheringham after a veteran tryout Saturday — a Utah product who’s spent a couple of years with the Las Vegas Raiders.

The addition of one Utah tight end, however, meant the subtraction of another. Those four additions brought the Broncos’ countable offseason roster total over the NFL’s offseason limit of 90. And Denver cut former Utes tight end Thomas Yassmin Monday, per the wire, to make room for Fotheringham and others.

The Broncos also cut linebacker KJ Cloyd, a UDFA signing in 2024 who participated in the Broncos’ minicamp Saturday alongside Yassmin. And to create space for UDFAs Turner and White, they parted ways with a couple of post-draft signees, also cutting former Florida A&M cornerback Kendall Bohler and UT Martin nose tackle Christian Dowell.