The Denver Broncos are now 12-3 on the season after a loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars at home. It was Denver's first loss since September and first home loss in over a year. All in all, Denver got bullied for 60 minutes and just did not have many answers on either side of the ball.
At times, the offense showed signs of life, but the defense could not get off the field and really didn't ever give the offense a good situation to come back onto the field. All in all, Denver needs to learn from this, turn the page, and take care of business in three days against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Denver is in Kansas City and playing the Chiefs on Christmas, and KC is set to start a third-string quarterback, so the hope here is that Week 17 could be a 'get right' game for Denver. Well, this key rookie obviously does not need one of those games, as he was on fire in Week 16 and was a clear positive despite the loss.
RJ Harvey is beginning to find his footing at the right time for the Denver Broncos
RJ Harvey had his best career game in Week 16 in terms of yards. He had 121 scrimmage yards and did some damage out of the backfield and as a receiver. You can clearly see his development in real-time. Here are his stats over the past three games:
43 attempts
190 yards
3 touchdowns
10 receptions
96 yards
95.3 yards per game
Harvey's rushing output over the past three games is actually a total of 1,077 yards over a 17-game season, and his receiving yardage output over that same time is a 544-yard output over a 17-game season. He has 11 touchdowns on the season and five over the last four games as well.
RJ Harvey was a second-round pick by the Denver Broncos in the 2025 NFL Draft and was sharing the backfield with JK Dobbins for much of the season. Now that Dobbins has been out for a while now, we are beginning to see Harvey stack these good performances together.
He's a tough runner, is clearly getting better running in between the tackles, and has incredible contact balance, as we all saw in Week 16. The Broncos may have lost a pretty disgusting game, to be honest, but RJ Harvey's emergence is a welcome thing for this offense, as the run game needs to get going these final two weeks before the playoffs begin.