Broncos' Week 17 opponent has very interesting Week 16 injury report

The Denver Broncos play the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 17, but their injury report for Week 16 is worth monitoring. The Bengals square off against the Cleveland Browns in Week 16. The Browns have turned to Dorian Thompson-Robinson as their starting QB, sending Jameis Winston to the bench.

The Broncos intercepted Winston three times a few weeks ago. Anyway, the Bengals' final injury report for their Week 16 matchup against the Browns does have some interesting designations to watch out for:

Broncos may play a banged-up Bengals team in Week 17

Two of the Bengals' starting offensive linemen in Orlando Brown Jr and Alex Cappa are both questionable for Week 16. The team is also again without DT Sheldon Rankins, who has not played since November 7th. Starting defensive end Sam Hubbard is also out with a knee injury as well. Overall. this injury report is kind of shaky for the Bengals, who will be on a short week before playing the Denver Broncos in Week 17.

The Broncos will have a few more days of rest before their December 28th game against Cincy, and with the Bengals playing an AFC North foe, it could be a physical game. Denver can also make the postseason by the time Week 16 over if the Bengals, Miami Dolphins, and Indianapolis Colts all lose. So there is a chance that Denver is a playoff team when Week 17 rolls around.

However, the Broncos can't just lay down and hope that they have some help. They have to take care of business, and when an NFL team gets this late into a season, injuries pile up and everyone is probably nursing some sort of injury. It's not that we are hoping for the Bengals to be hurt, but their Week 16 injury report is worth monitoring, as it could look very similar heading into Week 17.

Denver has stayed relatively healthy for most of the season. They have only lost one starting defensive player to a season-ending injury, and that was Alex Singleton weeks and weeks ago. The Broncos have done a nice job at being able to avoid and recover from injuries, but I am not sure the Bengals can stay that.

Cincy, Miami, and Indianapolis are all 6-8 on the season, and each team can't afford to lose another game. The Broncos are hopefully going to use this extra time of rest to figure some things out on defense and get healthy, as Week 17 could again be the most important game in the post-Super Bowl 50 era.