ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — About a week before the 2025 NFL Draft, an article caught Head Coach Sean Payton’s and General Manager George Paton’s attention.
University of Central Florida running back RJ Harvey was on a list of rising players, and the Broncos weren’t thrilled.
“It was like, ‘Ugh,'” Payton said Friday after Denver selected Harvey in the second round. “You don’t want to read that.”
The Broncos had previously identified Harvey as a target, and they didn’t want other teams to stand between them and the explosive back they aimed to add to their offense. Payton acknowledged Harvey was “the last one we would’ve wanted to have a private workout with,” as it would have alerted teams to their interest.
After a pair of carefully weighed trades down the board, the Broncos ultimately snagged Harvey at No. 60 to fill a need and provide a home-run threat to their run game.
“This was kind of our pet cat throughout the process,” Paton said. “His running style — we feel he’s dynamic. He has really good vision, really good instincts, really good contact balance. Highly explosive. We thought maybe he had the best vision in the draft.”
Paton pointed to Harvey’s high number of chunk-yardage carries, as the UCF rusher had an FBS-high 23.3 percent of his carries go for at least 10 yards.
And while Harvey caught just 20 passes a year ago, the Broncos observed traits that suggest he can be similarly productive in the passing game.
“[We] watched every carry, every catch,” Payton said. “Some offenses in college don’t necessarily feature the halfback a lot in the passing game. It’s oftentimes when they get to the NFL they’re used maybe a little differently. And it might just be style of play. When you look at the running skill set, it was, ‘Wow.’ Explosive runs, all of those things. So then you begin to study the passing game stuff. He’s got soft hands. He does a lot of those things well. You get to see…
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