The Denver Broncos came away with a running back in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft, but they had a higher grade than you think on the player. Part of me wants to believe that this is a bit of a stretch and perhaps the Broncos telling the media and fans something they'd like to hear, but who knows.
Denver used the 60th pick in the 2025 NFL Draft on RJ Harvey, an explosive running back from UCF who figures to get the bulk of the carries for the Broncos this year and beyond. Well, there are some people in the media world who are still quite connected to the Broncos even with as tight-lipped as this front office has been...
Jeff Legwold of ESPN dropped a bomb recently about the Denver Broncos grade that they had on RJ Harvey:
"After conducting a deep dive for information, watching hours of game film and crunching the numbers, the Denver Broncos concluded that UCF's RJ Harvey was the best running back not named Ashton Jeanty in the 2025 NFL draft. So when they were ready to make their second-round pick (No. 60 overall) on Day 2 of the draft, the decision was easy."Jeff Legwold
The Broncos had a very high grade on RJ Harvey...
Legwold is reporting that the Broncos had Harvey as their no. 2 back in the 2025 NFL Draft, but that doesn't really make a ton of sense to me. It seemed like TreVeyon Henderson was 'their guy' at running back, as they were considering him the first round. That right there might tell you that they had Ashton Jeanty and Henderson over RJ Harvey.
But perhaps Denver really did have Harvey ranked that high and knew that the consensus opinion on the RB was a lot lower than theirs, so they also knew that they could get him a bit later. Truthfully, we may never know who the Broncos had ranked where on their own boards.
But they did get a running back and someone who does have an appealing skillset for immediate NFL success. Harvey has stellar footwork, vision, and has home-run ability, so he should be able to eat up a ton of yards and make life a lot easier for this offense.