4 players Broncos must get more from following bye week for playoffs to even be possible

Kareem Jackson

Kareem Jackson has had a rough season for the Broncos, mainly because he can't stop delivering illegal hits. He's done it enough this season that he was actually hit with a four-game suspension, which was later reduced to two games on appeal.

The Broncos will get Jackson back after the Bills game and he makes this list because I just don't buy the idea of P.J. Locke being the starting safety when he returns, at all. You could make the argument that Jackson should be benched for his bad hits this season, but he's a better safety than Locke, who is more of a special teams guy.

The Broncos have one of the best safeties in the league in Justin Simmons. But they need his counterpart to be more than a liability, which is what Jackson has been this season. He has been flagged for three unnecessary roughness hits against defenseless receivers this season which have resulted in penalties, fines and a suspension.

He needs to use his veteran experience to help this much-improved defense be even better.