NFL general managers spend so much time evaluating players during the months leading up to the NFL Draft that they have to get creative in finding ways to hide their interests. The Denver Broncos had an interesting tactic in the 2025 NFL Draft as they hid their interest in RJ Harvey by bringing in just about every other prominent Day 2 running back prospect for a top-30 visit instead of Harvey.
General manager George Paton did a great job at his media availability during the NFL Draft of describing the players he was picking and what the Broncos liked about each guy, but his description of second-round running back RJ Harvey, in particular, was hilarious.
Broncos GM George Paton calls RJ Harvey the team's "pet cat"
"Harvey—[he] was kind of our pet cat throughout the process. His running style, he’s dynamic, really good vision, really good instincts, really good contact balance, highly explosive. We thought maybe he had the best vision in the draft. You see the plus-10s, I think he leads everyone with plus-10 runs. Home run ability… We feel like he can improve in the pass game. He wasn’t featured there, but we really liked this [running] back.”
- Broncos GM George Paton (via team PR)
We may need some further clarification from Paton on what he means by that, but I think I get the gist of what he's saying here.
When Paton says that Harvey was kind of their "pet cat" throughout the process, the implication there is that you don't often see a pet cat around the house. If you're a guest coming to someone's home, you might never know the person has a pet cat. You might catch a glimpse of it and then it disappears for hours at a time.
Pet cats can be invisible, if they want, but they might also be hiding in plain sight, sitting on top of your fridge and then all of a sudden coming out of nowhere to attack the shadow of a swaying tree branch.
What I believe Paton is saying here is that the Broncos' interest in RJ Harvey throughout the pre-draft process was something they didn't want to be out there at all. If you've got a dog, that dog's going to come sprinting to the door and barking when the Amazon driver pulls up with a package. If you have a cat, they'll be watching the Amazon driver from a secretive spot they've got with access to a window you didn't even know existed in your house.
In other words, the Broncos didn't want anyone to know they had interest in RJ Harvey at all, and they accomplished that. Nobody had RJ Harvey in their Broncos mock drafts in the second round, if at all. The way this team was able to hide its true intentions at running back was a masterclass in playing chess while everyone else was playing checkers.