KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With a little nod, a little flick of the eyebrows, Alex Forsyth acknowledged fate.
He is a believer, he affirmed in a dingy locker room in Kansas City, the place that could’ve broken him. A believer in what, he didn’t say. He simply believes things happen for a reason. And that meant Thursday night on Christmas must’ve happened for a reason, 411 days since the special-teams rep that made him infamous.
“It was just a special, special day,” Forsyth said. “Special night.”
The cards fell. On Monday, three days before a return to Arrowhead Stadium, reserve offensive lineman Forsyth found out he’d be starting at center for the Broncos. And starting for a while, in the most critical juncture of the season for Denver. Incumbent Luke Wattenberg had a shoulder injury, bad enough to land him on injured reserve. Forsyth would need to stare down the Chiefs, and with All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones.
Forsyth, too, would need to stare down the memory of a play he acknowledged he could “never forget.”
On Nov. 14, 2024, a younger Broncos team was poised to shatter a streak of eight straight losses to the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. Kicker Wil Lutz set up for a 35-yard field goal with Denver down 16-14 and a second left to play. Ex-punter Riley Dixon set up a hold, and Lutz swung. But on the snap, Chiefs outside linebacker Leo Chenal bowled Forsyth over.
Chenal swatted Lutz’s try away. Ballgame. Broncos tight end Lucas Krull stood on the sideline, head on hands. Denver had its most painful loss of the season, and one of its most painful losses to the Chiefs in a recent franchise history of painful Chiefs losses, and Forsyth was the goat.
“It’s always tough to come back from that — kinda get your mind off it, as much as you want to say focus on the next game and stuff,” Forsyth reflected on Thursday. “After a game like last year’s, it’s always tough to bounce back.”
That being said?
“Can’t let a bad play,” Forsyth noted, “ruin a career.”
And the story of Forsyth bloomed Thursday night, in a 20-13 win that served as some vindication for the entire franchise after a decade of misery at Arrowhead — and vindication for Forsyth. The Broncos’ offensive front surrendered just one sack and six hits on quarterback Bo Nix in a grind-it-out affair, and Forsyth, Nix’s teammate back at Oregon in 2022, was at the center. Jones did not beat him. Chenal was hurt. Forsyth opened up holes in the run game, with the Broncos totaling 128 yards on the ground.
He earned a game ball in the process, as the Broncos’ front didn’t skip a beat without Wattenberg.
“It was a tough trip home last year,” head coach Sean Payton said postgame, on Forsyth. “And it’s a little life lesson for someone like him to come back. And starting role, that was pretty cool.”
Payton dismissed Denver’s decade-long struggles at Arrowhead as “someone else’s demons.” Not the demons of this particular Broncos team. But in a way, those demons only piled on Forsyth’s shoulders after surrendering that field-goal block in 2024. Enough criticism floated Forsyth’s way that Nix and guard Quinn Meinerz came to their teammate’s very vocal defense.
Facing those demons again, Meinerz knows, is hard. The Broncos’ last time playing on Christmas came in Meinerz’ second season in 2022, when Denver got blitzed by the Rams 51-14. Even the prospect of playing again on such a holiday three years later, Meinerz told The Post, brought anxiety.
“Everybody gets scars a couple times here and there throughout their career,” Meinerz reflected.
Forsyth has scars deeper than most. Still, his Instagram and Twitter bios read “RIP Dad,” the man who’s served an inspiration in his journey. In general, the center is “extremely mentally tough,” as Meinerz said. And in warm-ups, as the memory of 2024 could’ve descended along with twisting tendrils of fog at Arrowhead, Forsyth didn’t pay much mind to the past.
“I gotta flush it, and move on,” he said postgame.
Since he was drafted in the seventh round in 2023, that sheer professionalism has endeared Forsyth to those in his room and beyond. Take Meinerz.
“Alex was ready for this moment,” the All-Pro guard told The Denver Post, on Thursday night.
Or take right tackle Mike McGlinchey.
“He works as hard as anybody in the (expletive) building,” McGlinchey said. “He’s been waiting for his opportunity to come in and do what he needed to do and there was never a doubt from us that that was how it was going to go today.”
Or take Nix himself, who gushed over Forsyth at the podium Thursday, after the Broncos’ second-year quarterback finished 26-of-38 for 182 yards, a touchdown and an interception in the Chiefs win.
“Nobody prepares more in this league than he does,” Nix said. “I would say that he’s one of the most in-depth preparers I’ve ever seen. And it’s awesome to play behind him.
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The Broncos will need plenty more from Forsyth in the weeks ahead. The soonest Wattenberg’s eligible to return is the AFC championship game, if Denver makes it that far. Forsyth filled in for Wattenberg in a four-game stretch last season, with up-and-down results: eight pressures and a couple of sacks allowed in that timeframe, according to Pro Football Focus. The Broncos need a bigger leap in Forsyth’s third season.
They got the first jump, on Thursday. And they, and Forsyth, left the past behind at Arrowhead.
“I think it’s just sort of a God wink that he got to come back here and start and play the full game,” Nix said, “and we get our first win here in a long time.”
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