Mile High Report
Broncos’ rookie running back RJ Harvey has had a productive rookie season thus far, but the presence of veteran JK Dobbins has held him back a little bit. Dobbins is among the league leaders in rushing and has been the lone consistent presence in the Denver Broncos’ offense this season; however, a foot injury suffered during last Thursday Night’s game vs. the Raiders is expected to sideline him for at least this Sunday’s game vs. the Chiefs. This is a major loss for the struggling Broncos offense, but Harvey is the next man up, and Head Coach Sean Payton and the rest of his teammates have confidence in their explosive rookie running back.
Head Coach Sean Payton told reporters on Wednesday that they drafted Harvey due to his running skill set and added that he’s built (his frame) and that he is built to last, and that is important.
“When we drafted him, it was his running skillset, and he had a lot of touches. I was just kidding with him earlier. Then you have experience with a guy like Jaleel, who is explosive and has been champing at the bit. I think sometimes players are not held back, but when you are watching [WR] Pat Bryant grow right in front of our eyes and you’re starting to see that with RJ, and obviously he’ll have more opportunities here in this game. He’s built, when you see his frame, he’s built to last, and that’s important.”
Harvey has been making a lot of plays as a pass catcher for the Broncos, but his main skill set is as a runner. In college, he had 579 career carries while only having 61 career receptions. He is used to running the ball and being a bellcow back for an offense. In his final year at UCF, Harvey had 232 carries and was coming off a year where he had 262 carries.
With that said, Harvey has not been very productive as a runner for the Broncos. Through 10 games, he has just 50 carries for 214 yards and 2 rushing touchdowns and is averaging 4.3 yards per carry. His best games came in week 1 vs. the Titans, where he broke off a long run, against the bad Bengals defense, where he saw a season-high 14 carries, and again vs. the dreadful Cowboys defense, where he had a long touchdown run. Outside of those three games, there hasn’t been much productivity from Harvey on the ground.
Even in his good games, most of his yardage came from one single run, while the rest of his carries have gone...
