Pro Picks: Broncos will upset the Chiefs on Monday night

Patrick Mahomes is back. Denver's tough defense is waiting.

Mahomes is ready to start Kansas City's season opener after tearing an ACL last Dec. 14. The Chiefs are coming off their first losing season under Andy Reid and they'll need Mahomes at his best to return to power in the AFC West.

But he's facing one of the NFL’s best defenses led by 2024 AP Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain and All-Pro Zach Allen.

Bo Nix returns for the Broncos after an ankle injury forced him to miss the AFC championship game, a loss to New England.

Denver has won three in a row in the series and four of five after losing 16 straight.

The Chiefs are 2 1/2-point favorites against a team that was the AFC's No. 1 seed. Pro Picks split the first two games. We like the upset.

UPSET SPECIAL: BRONCOS: 23-20

Line: Titans minus 1 1/2

Robert Saleh’s first game as coach of the Titans is against the team that fired him in 2024. He has Cam Ward. The Jets have Geno Smith. Saleh is in a better spot now.

TITANS: 19-16

Line: Lions minus 6 1/2

Jared Goff, Jahmyr Gibbs, Amon-Ra St. Brown and the Lions have too much offense for the Saints, who had a promising finish last season but lost a few key players in training camp.

LIONS: 30-20

Line: Jaguars minus 8 1/2

The Jaguars won 13 games last season and have most of their starters back. The Browns traded Garrett and are giving Deshaun Watson his first start since Oct. 20, 2024. This won’t be close.

JAGUARS: 27-12

Line: Bears minus 3

Both teams won their division last season though Carolina did it with a losing record. Expectations are high for Caleb Williams in his second season in Ben Johnson’s offense. Get ready for the first “Good, better, best” chant in Chicago’s locker room of the new season. Not predicting whether Johnson keeps his shirt on.

BEARS: 24-18

Line: Bengals minus 3 1/2

After starting 0-2 four times in Joe Burrow’s first five seasons, the Bengals opened 3-0 last year before things went downhill. They bolstered their defense to go with a prolific offense. Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers will be a tough test for that new-look defense featuring Dexter Lawrence.

BENGALS: 26-24

Line: Steelers minus 6

Tua Tagovailoa is injuried so Cooper Rush will start for Kevin Stefanski as Atlanta tries to spoil Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy’s reunion. Bijan Robinson gives the Falcons their best chance. Rodgers goes against a depleted pass rush so he should have time to throw to DK Metcalf and Michael Pittman.

STEELERS: 24-17

Line: Bills minus 1 1/2

Joe Brady’s first game as Buffalo’s coach will be a major challenge against DeMeco Ryans and his stingy defense in Houston. C.J. Stroud plays his first game since his turnover debacle in the playoffs. Pro Picks has Josh Allen and the Bills beating the Texans in the AFC title game.

TEXANS: 19-17

Line: Ravens minus 3 1/2

Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry and the Ravens have high expectations in coach Jesse Minter’s first season. Daniel Jones is back for Indianapolis. So is Sauce Gardner. The Colts finished last season with seven straight losses after opening 8-2.

RAVENS: 23-20

Line: Vikings minus 1 1/2

Jordan Love and the Packers were 0-5 without Micah Parsons last season. He’s not back until October so they can’t afford to wait for a win. Kyler Murray makes his first start for the Vikings, aiming to become Kevin O’Connell’s next reclamation project.

VIKINGS: 23-20

Line: Eagles minus 5 1/2

Jalen Hurts begins his fifth straight season with a new offensive coordinator as Sean Mannion replaced Kevin Patullo. Hurts could have a big year if Mannion unlocks Saquon Barkley and the run game. The Commanders had a terrible defense last season. They added Sonny Styles and some veterans but a banged-up offensive line will struggle protecting Jayden Daniels against Philadelphia’s fierce defense.

BEST BET: EAGLES: 31-16

Line: Raiders minus 3 1/2

Two rookie coaches meet in a matchup of two teams that aren’t going to win many games. Kirk Cousins and the Raiders get the first one, though stopping Dolphins running back De’Von Achane will be a tough task for Las Vegas’ defense.

RAIDERS: 20-17

Line: Chargers minus 9 1/2

Jim Harbaugh’s Chargers have won 11 games in each of his first two seasons and brought in Mike McDaniel to run the offense led by Justin Herbert. Rookie coach Mike LaFleur is starting the season with veteran Jacoby Brissett. Los Angeles has dominated inferior teams under Harbaugh.

CHARGERS: 30-16

Line: Cowboys minus 3

The Cowboys can score behind Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens. They hope new coordinator Christian Parker, rookie safety Caleb Downs and other additions improve the defense enough to make them a contender. John Harbaugh is the new man in charge in New York. Jaxson Dart, Cam Skattebo and the rest of the Giants will be better for it. Not enough to win this week.

COWBOYS: 26-20

Overall: Straight up: 194-90-1. Against spread: 149-128-8.

Best Bet: Straight up: 15-6. Against spread: 9-11-1.

Upset Special: Straight up: 14-7. Against spread: 15-6.

Pro Picks is a weekly column where AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi shares his picks for upcoming games. For all previous Pro Picks, head here.

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Kansas City Chiefs tight ends Travis Kelce (87) and Noah Gray (83) warm up prior to a preseason NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy speaks to the media following a practice Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, in Melbourne, Australia, in preparation for an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, left, and Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) watch players warm up prior to a preseason NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a defeat for the Trump administration, a federal court on Friday ruled that the Energy Department exceeded its authority when it forced a Michigan coal-fired power plant to stay open past its scheduled retirement date last year.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright had said the 64-year-old J.H. Campbell Generating Plant was needed to ensure reliable electricity in the region, and he used emergency powers to keep it operating. Environmental groups and three states — Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota — went to court to try to overturn orders keeping the plant online.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the states and the groups, saying there was no real emergency under the law.

The section of the Federal Power Act that allows emergency orders “is essentially a narrow, last-resort backstop," Appeals Court Judge Cornelia Pillard wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel. Use of emergency authority “is triggered only when there is a need for immediate, essentially last-resort action and the circumstances require action by DOE in particular, as opposed to action by the state or states responsible for resource adequacy," she added.

Reversing the Campbell plant's “long and carefully planned retirement" is "disruptive," Pillard wrote.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said she was relieved the appeals court “threw out DOE’s order that had zero basis in reality.”

Nessel, a Democrat, said her office “has been fighting this unlawful political stunt at every turn, and this ruling proves what we have been saying all along: this administration does not get to invent fake emergencies to bypass the rule of law against the best interests of Michigan residents.”

The Michigan case is one of several legal disputes that have emerged across the country as the Trump administration uses emergency powers to force a half-dozen coal-fired plants to remain open.

Administration officials were undeterred by Friday's court ruling and just hours later Wright announced another emergency order to keep online a coal plant in Centralia, Washington. That plant, operated by TransAlta, had been scheduled to shut down at the end of 2025.

The orders, which also apply to plants in Indiana, Colorado, Florida and Washington state, are raising ratepayer bills and adding air and water pollution that could have been avoided, critics say. An oil and gas plant in Pennsylvania was also ordered to keep its turbines running as a hedge against electricity shortages in the mid-Atlantic grid.

President Donald Trump declared a national energy emergency in a January 2025 executive order, citing demand increases from artificial intelligence and data center growth.

An Energy Department spokesperson said the emergency orders — including at Campbell — “prevented blackouts and likely saved hundreds of lives during peak capacity events this past year,” especially severe winter storms in late January and early February.

At the peak of the storms, coal generation in affected regions increased by 25% compared to the previous year, spokeswoman Emily Matthews said. The Campbell plant provided over 650 megawatts — enough power for hundreds of thousands of homes — every day from Jan. 21 to Feb. 1, she said.

The Energy Department "will continue to protect and defend energy security for all Americans,” she said.

Keeping the Michigan plant open beyond its May 2025 retirement has cost about $259 million so far, according to new financial filings. Those losses will likely be paid by families and businesses in the Midwest, opponents of the order say.

Consumers Energy, which operates the Campbell plant, said it was reviewing the court ruling. In the meantime, the utility will keep the plant operating under terms of a recent DOE order that extends its directive through mid-November, spokesman Brian Wheeler said in a statement.

Ted Kelly, U.S. clean energy director at the Environmental Defense Fund, said the court ruling rejected the Trump administration’s nationwide effort to force “unreliable, aging coal plants that are bleeding money and polluting communities to stay online.”

The Energy Department's “unlawful actions attempted to make families and businesses in the Midwest wastefully pay hundreds of millions of dollars for a coal plant that should have been shut down over a year ago,” Kelly said Friday. The Campbell plant and other aging sites are “incredibly expensive, dangerous to our health and break down frequently,” he said.

Sanjay Narayan, a lawyer for the Sierra Club, called the ruling a victory for families across the Midwest who are “paying to keep this old, expensive and dirty power plant online.”

The Trump administration “has been pulling out all the stops to try to bolster dirty and expensive fossil fuels at public expense. This reckless agenda will not succeed,” Narayan said. "We will continue to fight back against the other illegal extensions across the country.”

Associated Press writer Ed White in Detroit contributed to this story.

FILE - An aerial image of Consumer Energy's J.H. Campbell Generating Complex is seen in Ottawa County, Mich., Sept. 21, 2024. (Joel Bissell/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP, File)

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright speaks after the signing of an oil agreement between the US and Venezuela at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Pedro Mattey)