Yeah I think I fundamentally disagree with almost everything you wrote.
First of all, you have injured players right now so you also need to deal with them right now. Lets look at e.g. Amendola who had a knee issue that prevented him from coming back into the game. In what universe does it make sense to rest him later on if he has the issue right now ? You either determine that he is more probable to worsen his injury if he plays or you find that this is not the case and he plays. There is no scenario where it makes sense to play him against Denver just because they are an AFC co-contender and then let him rest a week later. That makes no sense. It is either an injury that needs healing time and he should sit out the Denver game (and maybe more) or he doesn't need to sit out any game at all (until HFA is clinched).
Secondly, and this might be a discussion centered around semantics but to me personally games against inferior opponents are must wins and games against co-contenders are not. There is so much less margin of error against equal teams that I don't see how you could consider them "must wins" - even with us at full strength. The former are games that we will win if we don't screw up the turnover battle (or encounter too many crippling injuries) whereas the latter are games that can go either way even if we play a turnover free game.
By that logic winning the games against the Eagles, Texans, Titans, Dolphins and Jets is more important than a win against Denver. Because if we win out against all inferior opponents on our schedule it doesn't matter what happens in Denver. Now guess what makes games against inferior opponents unnecessarily difficult ? Exactly, unavailable players.
Also.. please don't bother to explain to me all those AFC seeding scenarios because I am fully aware of them. I know the implications of losing in Denver.
Finally, I never said we should start resting players for the postseason. I simply don't want to risk the health of dinged up players for the rest of the season over a single regular season game. Even if it is against the frakking Broncos.