The Denver Broncos are inching closer to a division title, but they have a tough game in Week 16 as the Jacksonville Jaguars come to town.
The Broncos took control of the AFC with a win and a Patriots loss last week. However, taking down the Jaguars would be pivotal in their quest for the No. 1 seed in the AFC. The run game is going to be important, but early on, RJ Harvey hasn’t gotten going yet.
RJ Harvey’s Slow Start
Harvey is the lead back with JK Dobbins still on injured reserve. Unfortunately, he has had a quiet start against the Jaguars, and Jaleel McLaughlin has looked the more dangerous running back.
At the time of writing, Harvey had three carries for six yards, and McLaughlin had only two carries for 25 yards.
Harvey is still expected to receive a heavy workload, but he hasn’t produced results yet in the first quarter. The Broncos need to get him going against a tough Jaguars team. Denver’s offense isn’t the most explosive through the air, so they’ll need to get a healthy mix of run and pass to win this one.
Harvey is the 49th-ranked running back in PFSN’s RB Impact metric with an impact score of 66.4. The Broncos miss having Dobbins in the backfield, who ranks 21st in the metric. But Harvey has shown flashes of being great and needs to find that consistency.
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Harvey has been in the end zone in each of the last three weeks. He has four scores in that time with a two-touchdown game against the Commanders in late November. He needs to replicate that scoring today for Denver.
Denver needs to win because the Patriots are right behind them for the No. 1 seed in the AFC. A loss would also open up the possibility of losing the division. The Chargers won today and would be one game behind if the Broncos lost to Jacksonville. This would mean that the Chargers, Jaguars, and Patriots would all be within one game of each other for the top seed.
They have a tough schedule remaining, and they’re all against AFC opponents. These are huge for a potential tiebreaker for seeding. The Broncos have many good wins and are no strangers to winning challenging games.
They’ve got 12 wins already on the season, and they haven’t all been easy. The Broncos know what needs to be done, which is to win out. Getting Harvey going could be key to securing the first of the three wins they need to clinch the No. 1 seed.
Editor’s Note: This is a breaking news story and will be updated throughout the day as more information becomes available.
