The Broncos’ three-month gallop through the NFL schedule hit adversity Sunday in a 34-20 loss to Indianapolis.
The league’s longest winning streak? Finished at 11 games.
The league’s longest home winning streak? Gone, too, of course.
Denver’s grip on control in the AFC? In tact, but not with quite as much force.
Here are 7 thoughts after a Week 16 that saw Sean Payton’s team falter and the screws tighten considerably.
1. Twice during the week leading up to Sunday, Broncos head coach Sean Payton made reference to what apparently became bulletin board material in north Florida.
Payton on Wednesday was in the midst of a lengthy answer in which he was praising Jacksonville, the team’s then five-game winning streak, rookie head coach Liam Coen and more.
Right at the end, Payton said, “As you look at them and you watch the tape, it’s a smaller market but you see a real good team.”
Payton fielded a question Friday about whether he knew much about Denver’s home-field advantage before he took the job. In a somewhat less direct way, he again seemed to make reference to Jacksonville – or at least NFL markets like Jacksonville as he outlined what he prioritized when looking for a job before the 2023 season.
“I’ll be honest, looking at what were the important factors, it was important that it was a football town,” Payton said. “In other words, that it was in one of those spots in the league that (matters). That’s important. Then most important was front office and ownership.”
Payton may or may not have meant either comment as a real dig at the Jaguars.
Either way, Coen clearly heard him.
“Great team effort,” he said in his to open his news conference after Jacksonville improved to 11-4 and drew within a game of the Broncos atop the AFC. “Just thankful that a small market team like us can come into a place like Mile High and get it done.”
To be clear, Denver didn’t lose by 14 to Jacksonville and have its 11-game winning streak halted because Payton called Jacksonville a small market.
The Jags are really good, they’re playing great overall and quarterback Trevor Lawerence is in the midst of the best stretch of football of his pro career.
The Broncos did a bunch of stuff you can’t do if you’re expecting to beat good teams — untimely penalties, missed tackles, another Payton trick play that went awry and more.
In supplying the Jaguars with bulletin board material, though, Payton showed what happens when a team becomes the hunted rather than the hunters.
Small market, big Ws
#DUUUVAL pic.twitter.com/2V379mc8hV
— Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) December 22, 2025
The veteran head coach has always been an agitator. He did it to his own franchise when he first arrived, flaming former coach Nathaniel Hackett and drawing the ire of, among others, then-New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers. After the season ended, he basically said that if Denver had beat Buffalo in the Wild Card round that they would have kicked 15-2 Kansas City’s butt. Long before that, Payton arrived in the NFC South to a New Orleans club that didn’t have much going and immediately started rattling the cages of division rivals, particularly Atlanta.
It’s part of his DNA.
Sometimes, that comes with an opponent using him as a rallying cry.
This time, the Jags got the last laugh.
The Broncos have clearly made leaps and bounds worth of progress under Payton, but he’s the first to acknowledge they haven’t actually accomplished anything yet. They made the playoffs a year ago and ended a near-decade drought.
This year, they head into Week 17 in strong position and locked into the playoff field, but without any certainty about seeding and without the AFC West wrapped up.
Still, they became a target in the conference by reeling off 11 straight and catapulting to the top of the standings.
“If you’re not hunting, then somebody’s after you,” Denver quarterback Bo Nix said after the game. “And if you’re after somebody else, then they’re the ones in a tough spot.
Right now, we’ve put ourselves in a great spot, in a great position. We’re going to get everybody’s best shot. We’re also continuing to try to go out there and find wins ourselves.
“I think you just can’t become complacent in this situation and I don’t think we have by any means. I think we just came out a little bit — didn’t fire on every single cylinder and we got caught. Sometimes that happens. It’s football, especially when you play this many games in the league, against really good competition and teams. We have to respond well, and it’s going to show a lot about our team.”
Payton’s always also been a master at feeding slights, real or perceived, to his own team. The Broncos even at 11 straight wins sometimes referred to a lack of respect or expectation nationally, nearly all of which had long since dissipated as wins stacked up.
The veteran coach might now have new material to work with. This loss spices up the race in the AFC and is primed to spark another round of “are the Broncos for real” conversation.
Whatever it takes to breathe a little life into the team meeting this deep into the season.
Payton served it up for Coen on a silver platter this time.
2. The Broncos are good defensively but have real issues. The kind that might necessitate creative thinking.
Vance Joseph provided a bit of foreshadowing earlier this month.
The Broncos in 2024 faltered defensively down the stretch. They gave up 30-plus points four times in the regular season but three of them came in December. Then Buffalo cruised to a 31-7 win in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.
So as teams have started to make more hay in recent weeks against a vaunted Denver defense, Joseph was asked before the Broncos took on Green Bay about what, if anything, changes as a 17-game regular season grinds into its final weeks.
“For all of us playing defense in the last month of the season, it’s tough because it’s 14 or 15 games of tape,” Joseph said then. “So everyone’s giving you the best stuff against what you don’t do as well. So you have to, weekly in my opinion, improve on things you’re not doing well and make the proper adjustments. If you don’t, you’re vulnerable to it. It’s just our back end, I think it’s the entire league. It’s a tough league and it’s 15 weeks of football on tape.
“You’ve got to adjust accordingly.”
Don’t look now, but the Broncos defense looks to be suffering from just that sort of vulnerability.
Denver over the first 10 games of the season allowed opposing quarterbacks to average just 179.5 passing yards per game and surrendered eight passing touchdowns.
Dating back to Nov. 22 against Kansas City, opposing quarterbacks have done this;
Week 11: Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City: 29 of 45, 276 yards, TD, INT
Week 13: Marcus Mariota,Washington: 28 of 50, 294 yards, 2 TD, INT
Week 14: Geno Smith and Kenny Pickett: 21 of 21, 213 yards, 2 TD
Week 15: Jordan Love, Green Bay: 24 of 40, 276, TD, 2 INT
Week 16: Trevor Lawrence, Jacksonville: 23 of 36, 279 yards, 3 TDs
In total, that’s an average of 267.6 yards per game and nine touchdowns against four interceptions.
Perhaps more problematic: Denver’s relative defensive weaknesses are starting to look like last year due to a combination of performance dip and also injuries.
A year ago, teams as the year went on took advantage of the Broncos in the middle of the field. They targeted Denver’s linebackers and safeties in coverage as much as possible and found more success there than in working on the perimeter against the likes of corners Pat Surtain II and Riley Moss.
In response, Denver prioritized the middle of its defense in free agency and signed safety Talanoa Hufanga and inside linebacker Dre Greenlaw to three-year contracts.
Then in Week 15, however, the Broncos lost Brandon Jones until at least the divisional round of the playoffs with a pectoral injury and also lost inside linebacker Justin Strnad to a foot injury. He missed Sunday’s loss to Jacksonville but may be able to return before the regular season is out.
Late in the fourth quarter against the Jaguars, inside linebacker Dre Greenlaw hurt his hamstring and didn’t finish the game.
All of a sudden, the middle of the field is down to linebacker Alex Singleton, safety Talanoa Hufanga and a fleet of reserves.
For one snap Sunday, the Broncos had P.J. Locke and Devon Key at safety. Late in the game, undrafted rookie Jordan Turner played for Greenlaw.
This time of year, there are essentially no outside solutions. The Broncos will press on with overall a still very talented defense and a front-seven group that is capable of taking over any game.
As the weeks and injuries take their toll, though, weaknesses get stressed and stretched.
So, here’s a thought: Thursday is likely too quick of a turnaround, but it might be time to see what the picture looks like with rookie Jahdae Barron at safety.
The Broncos rave about his versatility and we’ve seen one-off snaps with him playing in the back end.
Barron played quite a bit of nickel Sunday night and Ja’Quan McMillian struggled, so perhaps the Broncos want to keep the first-round pick in his current role. Denver has found ways to get Barron on the field more by playing double the amount of dime as it did last year, but that’s not going to fly against balanced teams that can run the ball. Joseph didn’t mess with that much against Jacksonville, the Chargers are improved on the ground with rookie Omarion Hampton back and the playoff field should be full of teams that can do both.
An AFC title game Week 18 would be a sporty time to break out a big change like that, but the film review from this game is going to be unsightly.
Swinging big should at least be in consideration.
3. Ben Powers’ return featured only limited work but a big milestone for the veteran and Denver’s offense
Ben Powers watched from the sideline for the first two series of Sunday’s game. Then, finally, he got to put two months of rehab work in the rearview mirror and take the field for himself.
Powers tore his left bicep Week 5 at Philadelphia and has been out since. He returned to action Sunday, albeit in a limited capacity. Alex Palczewski started at left guard and played the majority of snaps, but Powers got two series in and figures to build on his workload from here.
“It’s been a lot of hard work coming, so it was very emotional today to be able to go out and play football,” Powers told The Post. “I’m very fortunate. … A lot of mental preparation, visualizing, focus and determination. You set a goal, you have a goal in mind and you stick to it.”
The seventh-year pro injured his bicep on the first play of Denver’s final drive against Philadelphia on Oct. 5. He told The Post he knew right away something serious had happened.
“I felt it pop and knew something wasn’t right,” he said.
He finished the game — the Broncos grinded out their final drive, won 17-14 and hadn’t lost since then until Sunday — but quickly was determined to have fully torn his bicep.
The Broncos’ full travel party was not returning to Denver but instead spending a couple of hours at the team hotel and then flying overnight to London. Back-up quarterback Jarrett Stidham, however, was flying back to Denver via private charter arranged by the team because he and his wife, Kennedy, were expecting their third child.
Powers and Broncos team doctor Karim Meijer flew back with Stidham.
“We were on the way to the airport after the game, it was me and Dr. Karim,” Powers said. “He flew with me back to Denver — the day after the surgery he flew to London and I stayed — and he told me, ‘We’re getting you back. 10-12 weeks and we’re getting you back.”
Meijer performed the operation Monday, Oct. 6 and Powers set his mind to getting back on the field as soon as possible. It’s often difficult for players to watch their teammates through rehabilitation, but Powers found power in the winning streak the Broncos reeled off.
“It’s been an incredible journey and that’s another reason mentally that made it easier and it helped me is coming back to a team that’s really good,” he said. “That matters. The guys, my brothers I played next to, I was just excited to get back with them.”
4. Two things that feel like opposites but happen to be true at the same time for the Broncos
First, RJ Harvey continues to find ways to impact games. Second, Denver’s running game hasn’t been the same since J.K. Dobbins’ foot injury against the Raiders and it’s shaping up to be a potential problem for Denver.
First, the good for Harvey. On Sunday against Jacksonville he ran through multiple tackle attempts and blasted to a 38-yard touchdown early in the third quarter. Though he only finished with 12 yards on his six other carries, the second-round rookie also also caught four passes for 71 yards.
Sean Payton has talked repeatedly about RJ Harvey’s “contact balance” since #Broncos settled on him as their RB in the second round in April’s draft.
This is the best example of it yet in Harvey’s young career.
— Luca Evans (@bylucaevans) December 21, 2025
The 121 total offensive yards are the most of Harvey’s career so far and his second 100-yard outing in the past three games.
Harvey with two games to go in the regular season has 787 offensive yards and 11 total touchdowns (seven rushing, four receiving).
Less rosy for Denver: The team has run the ball consistently one time in five-plus games without Dobbins.
Including the Raiders game in which Dobbins went down, the Broncos have averaged 95.3 yards per game and 3.81 per rushing attempt over their past six. They’ve rushed for triple digits twice — 152 in a bruising, Round 2 win against Las Vegas earlier this month and 101 on 17 attempts Sunday against the Jaguars.
Overall, though, their numbers are down precipitously from their pre-Dobbins injury averages of 133.6 per game and 4.9 per carry.
Before Dobbins’ injury, Denver passed the ball 57.6% of the time. Since, that number has ticked up to 61.2%.
5. With each passing week, the price tag for defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers keeps going up.
The Denver defensive lineman and impending free agent logged two of the team’s five sacks Sunday against Trevor Lawrence. He’s now got a career-best 7.5 on the season, narrowly topping last year’s total of seven.
The Broncos, of course, spent the offseason extending core players including WR Courtland Sutton, DL Zach Allen and OLB Nik Bonitto. Around the bye week in November, they got more done with a trio role players in kicker Wil Lutz, center Luke Wattenberg and defensive tackle Malcolm Roach.
Nothing’s materialized with Franklin-Myers and he’s said that while he would love to be back in Denver, he expects to hit the free agent market in the spring.
The Broncos can’t afford to pay everybody and this calendar year alone they’ve paid Roach, Allen and D.J. Jones up front, so it’s understandable from a roster management standpoint.
Franklin-Myers, though, has played terrific football and continues to do so for the Broncos.
In 32 games for Denver, Franklin-Myers now has 14.5 sacks and 33 quarterback hits. He’s headed for a sixth straight season of 40-plus pressures.
He’s got a kinship with Allen that practice squader Jordan Miller told The Post last week is “low-key telepathic.”
He’s a key member of a group that, even though Nik Bonitto said he “played ass” against Jacksonville, managed to sack Lawrence five times.
That gives Denver 63 on the season, ties last year’s franchise record and keeps them within striking distance of Chicago’s 1985 single-season record of 72.
6. Denver controls its own path in the AFC West, but for the first time in quite a while, its not the only one.
The Broncos needed some help, but they could have clinched not just the division but also the No. 1 seed Sunday with a win and losses from New England, Buffalo and the Los Angeles Chargers.
Instead, the exact inverse happened. Denver lost and those three teams won.
Now the top of the AFC looks like this:
1. Denver (12-3)
2. New England (12-3) – Broncos hold the tiebreaker thanks to common opponent record
3. Jacksonville (11-4)
4. Pittsburgh (9-6)
5. L.A. Chargers (11-4)
6. Buffalo (11-4)
7. Houston (10-5)
Two remarkable things at present:
1. Five of the top six (all except Pittsburgh) are still alive for the No 1 seed.
2. Only the Broncos and Patriots technically have clinched playoff spots so far.
The field is actually starting to crystalize some — it’d be a surprise if those seven didn’t constitute the field in some way, shape or form considering the next two are reeling Indianapolis (8-6 before a Monday night game against 10-4 San Francisco) and Baltimore, which fell to 7-8 on Sunday and finds itself on the brink.
The Broncos shouldn’t have much issue with a Kansas City team down to its third quarterback on Christmas night, but for now they could still end up in any of the following seeds: First, second, third, fifth or sixth.
They clinch the AFC West and the No. 1 seed with a pair of wins, but now the Chargers can say the same thing about the division. Jim Harbaugh’s team plays a tough one at home Sunday against Houston, but if it prevails, then Week 18 becomes a division title game at Empower Field — and potentially ticketed for Sunday Night Football.
7. No rocket science here, but the teams that have given Denver the biggest issues in the passing game are groups that have multiple weapons at receiver — Indianapolis, Green Bay and now the Jaguars among them.
The Broncos kept Jacksonville top receiver Brian Thomas Jr. quiet on the afternoon. Same story for Jakobi Meyers, the former division foe who just got a $60 million extension for the Jaguars. Old friend Tim Patrick? He didn’t do much, either.
Jacksonville still managed to have the biggest single biggest game for a receiver against the Broncos this season.
That was Parker Washington, who caught six passes for 145 yards and a touchdown in the Jaguars’ 34-20 win.
Washington turned a couple of moderate gains into big plays by making cornerback Riley Moss miss, including a 63-yard catch-and-run on third-and-short in the third quarter to set up a touchdown.
Washington became just the third receiver to top 100 yards against Denver this season. The other two: Philadelphia’s DeVonta Smith (eight catches for 114 in Week 5) and Washington tight end Zach Ertz (10 catches for 106 in Week 13).
7b. A couple of statistical quick-hitters to wrap this thing up.
* Nix threw for a career-high 352 yards and now has thrown for 300-plus in back-to-back games. The outings felt quite different — dominant against Green Bay, too often chasing against Jacksonville — and Nix clearly will want a late-game throw back in which he left a ball high and back to the middle for rookie Pat Bryant, who took a vicious hit and was hopsitalized with what was eventually diagosed as a concussion.
* Hufanga is up to 101 tackles on the year, making him just the second player in Denver history with 100-plus tackles, multiple sacks and 10-plus pass breakups in a single season. The other: Danny Trevathen in 2013.
* Courtland Sutton caught six passes for 86 yards and a TD on Sunday, giving him 972 yards and seven scores on the season. Sutton’s come on strong down the stretch. He’s averaging 76.4 yards over Denver’s past five games (a 1,300-yard season pace) and has three touchdowns in the past four.
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