Game Overview ::
By hilow >>
- The lone ‘DNP’ for the Jaguars to start the practice week was QB Trevor Lawrence (shoulder), who had been battling some sort of shoulder injury on his throwing arm over the previous three weeks and was then forced from the team’s Week 16 loss without being hit, favoring said shoulder.
- The Panthers had a laundry list of players on the first injury report of the week, most notably five defensive starters, including two members of the secondary (CB Troy Hill and CB Jaycee Horn) and two linebackers (Marquis Haynes and Frankie Luvu).
- Jaguars WR Zay Jones (hamstring, knee) returned to a limited session Wednesday, and head coach Doug Pederson expressed optimizing that the veteran wide receiver would be able to return in Week 17.
How carolina Will Try To Win ::
There is an inherent edge in DFS by staying ahead of the field through changing dynamics. There is no better example (I mean, maybe the Bills?) than this Carolina team, a team that started the season with a run-balanced approach but has been the most run-heavy team in the league since Frank Reich was fired, by PROE. Offensive coordinator Thomas Brown has said since day one that the team needs to #establishit, and they’ve attempted to do just that. Beyond that, Chuba Hubbard has emerged as the true workhorse back in this offense with Brown at the helm – more on this below.
As was mentioned above, Chuba Hubbard has operated as a true workhorse back since Thomas Brown took over play calling, playing 64 percent or more of the team’s offensive snaps in five consecutive weeks while seeing opportunity counts of 19, 25, 25, 24, and 17 during that time. He has hit double-digit DK points in each of those games but has gone for 20 or more just twice while averaging just two targets per game. Miles Sanders has been relegated to true change of pace status, seeing ten or fewer opportunities in each of the previous four games. The matchup on the ground is far from ideal against a Jaguars team ceding 4.0 yards per carry while holding opponents to a 53.06 percent red zone touchdown rate (13th). That said, the Jaguars have allowed a robust 1.45 yards before contact, while the strength of their defense rests with their speed.
Rookie quarterback Bryce Young threw for multiple touchdowns for just the second time this season in Week 16 against the ultra-prevent Packers. His 36 pass attempts in that game tied the high mark since Brown took over the offense, and it was the first game all season where Young passed for more than 300 yards. In other words, this pass offense is not a well-oiled machine. That said, it does present the path of least resistance against the Jaguars, but that path of least resistance is primarily on the perimeter – Bryce Young has struggled to throw to the perimeter all season. One of the most interesting aspects of Brown taking over the offense is how he kept the offense heavily rooted in 11-personnel, even with the inflated rush rate over expectation (RROE) numbers. Adam Thielen, Jonathan Mingo, D.J. Chark, and Tommy Tremble all operate as near every-down pass-catchers in this offense, while Thielen and Chark have combined to catch nine of the 11 touchdown passes thrown from Young this season. If Young is tossing a touchdown, chances are good it’s going to one of Thielen or Chark. The biggest problem is that aerial touchdowns have been extremely hard to come by for this team this year.
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