Twelve things about the Broncos entering Sunday’s game at Kansas City:

1. One of coach Vic Fangio’s go-to sayings is how young players only gain confidence by making good plays. I asked offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello before practice on Thursday if that also applies to coaches.

2. The sledding has been difficult for Scangarello in his first NFL play-calling season — the Broncos didn’t eclipse 25 points until last week’s 38-24 win over Houston. Can he get a boost by the productive game that temporarily eased the criticism on him? “It’s funny,” Scangarello said. “None of the noise really bothers me. We know we have a good plan and we’re headed in the right direction. And I don’t think there’s a younger offense in the league.”

3. Scangarello is right to point out the youth of the offense projected to play against the Chiefs. Rookies (four): Quarterback Drew Lock, fullback Andrew Beck, left guard Dalton Risner and tight end Noah Fant. First-year player (non-rookie playing for first time): Right guard Austin Schlottmann. Second-year players (six): Tight end Troy Fumagalli, running backs Royce Freeman and Phillip Lindsay, and receivers Courtland Sutton, Tim Patrick and DaeSean Hamilton.

4. Breaking down Lock’s pass attempts by “air” yards: At or behind the line of scrimmage — 12 of 14; 1-5 yards — 16 of 21 (three touchdowns); 6-10 yards — 5 of 7; 11-15 yards — 3 of 4 (one interception, one touchdown); and 16 or more yards — 4 of 9 (one interception, one touchdown).

5. An anecdote from reporting a story on Broncos quarterback coach T.C. McCartney. Scangarello said it was “not easy” to get him to the Broncos. “Initially, (49ers coach) Kyle (Shanahan) was going to make him receivers coach in San Francisco,” Scangarello explained. “They went to the Senior Bowl and I came (to Denver) to interview. While T.C. was there, Wes Welker became part of the equation for the receivers’ job. I had made it very clear to Kyle that I wanted to hire T.C. as my quarterback coach, but Kyle didn’t want to lose him.”

6. But after interviewing Welker, Shanahan offered Scangarello a proposal. “We talked and said, ‘This could be best for both of us.’” Scangarello said. “Kyle said, ‘I think I want to go (Welker’s) direction, but I won’t do it if you’re not going to take T.C.’ Vic and John (Elway) knew this and they were on board and we let it play out for about 10 days to two weeks and fortunately for T.C. and myself, it worked out the way it did.”

7. When Scangarello was the 49ers’ quarterback coach (2017-18), McCartney was an offensive assistant usually working with the receivers. “But I would bring him in to the quarterback room when I could because I wanted to teach him QB play,” Scangarello said.

8. Fangio offered on Wednesday that the NFL should eliminate divisions and each team should play the other 15 teams in their conference and one cross-over game. Ideally, that would prevent under.-500 teams from qualifying for the playoffs. Dallas and Philadelphia are both 6-7, but a sub-.500 team winning the division is rare, which means it shouldn’t prompt changes. In 2010, Seattle went 7-9 to top the NFC West and then beat New Orleans in the first round of the playoffs. And in 2014, Carolina went 7-8-1 to win the NFC South and then defeated Arizona in the first round. The Dallas-Philadelphia survivor will likely face San Francisco/Seattle/New Orleans in the opening weekend.

9. It took 13 games, but the Broncos finally have a positive turnover ratio — plus-1 (15 takeaways/14 giveaways). The low mark was minus-5 after the Jacksonville Week 4 game, but the Broncos are plus-4 in the last four games. “We’ve just stayed after it,” Fangio said. “We didn’t give it up when we weren’t getting them. We kept pounding away at it and good for us, it’s finally made a turn for us.”

10. The Broncos and Chicago are tied for 14th in turnover ratio. The Broncos are tied or 23rd in takeaways, but are tied for seventh in fewest giveaways.

11. In the first Broncos-Chiefs game, Kansas City’s final touchdown was a 57-yard catch by receiver Tyreek Hill, who ran a type of crossing-turned-wheel-route that cornerback Chris Harris said afterward was a rarity. “They’ve run it not that same exact way, but other ways every week,” he said on Thursday.

12. Sitting at one of the lunch tables in the Broncos’ locker room, Harris agreed Lock’s debut/early success has added some juice for the final games. “Oh yeah,” Harris said. “Shoot, you’ve got a young boy who’s ballin’.”