The Jacksonville Jaguars (1-0) are back at Mile High to face the Denver Broncos (0-1) after beating them in Week 15 of the 2025 season.<\/p>\n
The Jags are 2.5-point underdogs, per FanDuel Sportsbook<\/a>, but I suspect they\u2019ll finally get some respect by the end of the weekend.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s get to some predictions.<\/p>\n In Week 1 this season, the Broncos allowed 31 points, and the Jaguars scored 34.<\/p>\n In Week 15 last season, the Jaguars scored 34 points against the Broncos in Denver.<\/p>\n Since the Jags began their nine-game regular season win streak in Week 11 last season, they lead the NFL in wins (9), points per game (33.7), points scored (303), and total touchdowns (36).<\/p>\n I don\u2019t care that the Week 1 figures are from a small sample. I don\u2019t care that Jacksonville hasn\u2019t faced an overly difficult schedule during their current win streak. Have you watched the games?! The Jaguars are GOOD!<\/p>\n It\u2019s safe to assume that the Jaguars will put up points on Sunday. The question is: how so? Trevor Lawrence and the passing game have been absolutely humming, but there\u2019s suddenly some potential for a breakout game for Bhayshul Tuten and the rushing attack against the Broncos.<\/p>\n Kenneth Walker III embarrassed Denver\u2019s defense on national television a few nights ago. In his Kansas City Chiefs debut, he posted 173 rushing yards, the most by a Chief since Jamaal Charles in 2012 (per Ben Solak<\/a>).<\/p>\n Critically, much of the damage came from under center runs. Walker scooted for 148 yards on such runs because a) he is a difference-making ball-carrier, b) the talents of interior linemen like Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith are maximized on vertical runs, and c) the team got blocking buy-in from skill players like Travis Kelce and Rashee Rice. Having Andy Reid as the play caller helps, too.<\/p>\n Offenses across the league are trying to go under center more often. \u201cIn the shotgun, running backs line up to the side of the quarterback, which both limits the types of run concepts offenses can run and makes the side to which they\u2019ll ultimately run more predictable,\u201d Bill Barnwell wrote<\/a>. The quarterback benefits as well. \u201cPass dropbacks from under center since 2021 have generated 0.11 EPA per play, while pass snaps from shotgun or pistol have generated 0.04 EPA per play. That\u2019s roughly the difference between average plays run by the Bills and Giants in 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n So, after Denver was decimated by under center runs in the season opener, Sunday looks like a prime opportunity for Jacksonville\u2019s offense.<\/p>\n Tight ends Nate Boerkircher and Quintin Morris were absolute dogs in the run game last week. Rookie guard Emmanuel Pregnon is the early frontrunner for breakout player of 2026. Blindside protector Anton Harrison is playing inspiring football. And Tuten looks really good!<\/p>\n Lawrence and Jacksonville\u2019s deep pass-catching unit will keep picking on weak links in opposing secondaries, as they did last week against Cleveland and last season in Denver, but Week 2 feels like Tuten\u2019s time to shine. Walker was the only player with more broken tackles than him in Week 1, per PFF. Now he gets to face off against the same defense.<\/p>\n Tuten has done well to avoid negative plays, though it sure would be nice to see more explosive plays. Maybe we\u2019ll finally see them come in bunches on Sunday. I expect Tuten to have a good game.<\/p>\n But my PREDICTION is that Chris Rodriguez Jr. will have a GREAT game.<\/p>\n This is the type of game he was brought in for. A road matchup against a playoff contender where every inch matters. Lawrence should post strong numbers, and Tuten ought to have a few chunk gains on the perimeter, but the Jaguars will look to Rodriguez to convert in high-leverage situations and keep the offense on the field.<\/p>\n Last week, Tuten saw more snaps (28 to 23) and carries (15 to 6) than Rodriguez. However, the latter was the only Jaguar with multiple carries in short-yardage situations, and he was the only Jaguar with a carry in the red zone.<\/p>\n Jacksonville is expected to run all over Denver this week, but I think it will be more of a 1-2 punch than a full-blown breakout from Tuten.<\/p>\n The prediction: Chris Rodriguez scores 2 touchdowns<\/p>\n Rodriguez has +350 odds to score a touchdown and +3500 odds to score two touchdowns on FanDuel.<\/p>\n I also like Lawrence to score on the ground (+350). As he said after the Week 1 win, \u201cscrambles lead the league in touchdowns every year,\u201d and a designated QB run near the goal line<\/a> shouldn\u2019t surprise anyone either. Since he entered the league in 2021, the only quarterbacks with more rushing touchdowns than Lawrence are Jalen Hurts and Josh Allen. He will use his legs in the red zone on Sunday.<\/p>\n Even if you didn\u2019t catch Kenneth Walker III on Monday Night Football, you must\u2019ve heard about Denver\u2019s disaster-class on the other side of the ball.<\/p>\n This is some of the craziest slander I\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n After egomaniac Sean Payton handed playcalling duties to Davis Webb to prevent him from departing to become a head coach, the Broncos wilted against Steve Spagnuolo\u2019s Chiefs.<\/p>\n Bo Nix finished with 131 passing yards and a career-high 4 sacks (avoiding sacks is supposed to be what he\u2019s good at). The vaunted Broncos offensive line was embarrassing. The operation under Webb was slow. The running backs were awful in pass protection. Jaylen Waddle dropped what should\u2019ve been a massive catch-and-run play.<\/p>\n Jaguars defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile only blitzed Nix on 14.3% of dropbacks in their last meeting, the second-lowest rate for Jacksonville in all of 2025, but he may want to turn up the dial after watching Week 1. The Broncos offense is exposed; the Jaguars defense has a window to deliver a knockout punch.<\/p>\n The prediction: Sean Payton takes over playcalling at halftime<\/p>\n The offseason addition of Waddle looked great on paper, even if it cost Denver a first-round pick. I was a big fan of the move. In theory, his field-stretching presence would be the final piece for an offense with big-bodied wideouts, a complementary backfield, and five solid starters up front. And with Payton still overseeing game plans and pass protection, the Broncos were poised to lean more on their offense in 2026. Super Bowl expectations remained in place.<\/p>\n But we live in a different world<\/a> than we did a week ago. I don\u2019t think Payton can last more than six quarters watching his offense struggle to score points. He\u2019ll give Webb an ultimatum right before kickoff: \u201cIf you don\u2019t score a point for every minute that goes off the clock, I\u2019m taking back the call sheet!\u201d Once Webb inevitably fails to meet expectations, Payton will snatch the sheet from his hands and call a flea-flicker the first chance he gets, just to show off.<\/p>\n Let us know your predictions for JAX@DEN in the comments below!<\/p>\n Last week\u2019s predictions (and results):<\/p>\n Deshaun Watson commits multiple turnovers (1 interception, 1 turnover on downs)Trevor Lawrence leads all Week 1 passers in yards\/attempt (3rd behind Lamar and Allen)Jaguars lead by 10+ by halftime (led by 24)Fewer adsCreate community posts<\/a>Comment on articles, community postsRec comments, community postsNew, improved notifications system!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Jacksonville Jaguars (1-0) are back at Mile High to face the Denver Broncos (0-1) after beating them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,22904,117],"class_list":["post-404797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-jaguars-odds","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}