{"id":278122,"date":"2025-08-10T23:40:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T23:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/278122\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T23:40:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T23:40:09","slug":"broncos-rookie-rj-harvey-gets-heavy-early-workload-in-preseason-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/278122\/","title":{"rendered":"Broncos rookie RJ Harvey gets heavy early workload in preseason opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

SANTA CLARA, Calif. \u2014 RJ Harvey didn\u2019t have to wait long to get his first taste of the NFL.<\/p>\n

The Broncos\u2019 rookie running back played early and often in his first preseason game and showed the kind of burst Denver\u2019s running game lacked over Sean Payton\u2019s first two seasons in Denver.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s only so much to take from a game played on Aug. 9, of course, but Payton\u2019s deployment of his top two backs early in Denver\u2019s eventual 30-9 preseason win over San Francisco sets up an interesting couple of weeks going forward.<\/p>\n

Harvey started for the Broncos on Saturday night against San Francisco and handled most of the early and mixed-down work over the starting group\u2019s three drives.<\/p>\n

Veteran J.K. Dobbins primarily served as Denver\u2019s third-down back \u2014 he\u2019s easily the group\u2019s most reliable pass-protector \u2014 in addition to a couple of early down snaps.<\/p>\n

Payton, though, clearly wanted to get Harvey the ball a lot in his first professional game action.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll continue to get work with the No. 1s, just like Dobbins,\u201d Payton said, noting that Harvey got more work on Saturday. \u2026 \u201cAnd then next week we\u2019ll flip it up, too, relative to seeing some of the other backs earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second-round pick out of Central Florida carried the ball seven times for 25 yards and had a catch, too. Dobbins, meanwhile, didn\u2019t get a handoff but caught one pass for 4 yards.<\/p>\n

Overall, Harvey showed signs of the explosiveness and vision that Payton and general manager George Paton fell in love with during the draft process.<\/p>\n

He also showed perhaps too much reliance on bouncing the ball outside and was strung out a couple of times by the 49ers reserve defenders.<\/p>\n

A 7-yard gain on an outside zone\u2019s not going to make many highlight reels, but it was the kind of play the Broncos haven\u2019t often had and the type of run that, if it can be counted on consistently, could be a staple of this offense.<\/p>\n

The Broncos aren\u2019t likely to be confused with Kyle Shanahan\u2019s outside zone-heavy unit any time soon \u2014\u00a0Payton\u2019s always used a mix of run concepts \u2014 but players have talked through camp about it being something the offense is trying to do more of during training camp<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve tweaked some things,\u201d tight end Adam Trautman said earlier in training camp. \u201cI think we\u2019ve always wanted to be kind of an outside zone team, and we\u2019re just kind of committing to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harvey and Dobbins handled all of the work with the top offense through the first quarter before Jaleel McLaughlin became the third man into the game when QB Jarrett Stidham and the No. 2 offensive line took over in the second quarter. He and Tyler Badie got most of the work through the end of the first half.<\/p>\n

Denver\u2019s other two running backs, Audric Estime and Blake Watson, didn\u2019t get into the game until the third quarter.<\/p>\n

Estime got the first crack after halftime but it was Watson, the 2024 undrafted free agent, who provided some juice with a series of splash plays.<\/p>\n

Estime\u2019s workload will be interesting to track going forward. The 2024 fifth-round pick appeared to be in line for a major uptick in work midway through his rookie year, but he never fully took over as a lead back and by the Wild Card round he was a healthy scratch in favor of Badie.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s plenty of time left in camp but if Estime\u2019s positioning Saturday was a true look at where he stands on the depth chart, the former Notre Dame back has a lot of work to do over the coming 10 days to play his way off the roster bubble.<\/p>\n

The long, early look at Harvey came as the top offensive group had a sluggish outing overall.<\/p>\n

Bo Nix\u2019s three drives finished with a punt, a safety \u2014 Nix was called for intentional grounding in the end zone under duress \u2014 and a field goal, and generated just 56 yards in 18 total snaps.<\/p>\n

The second-year quarterback completed 6 of 11 passes for 31 yards. Notably, two of the completions went to rising second-year receiver Troy Franklin, including a 9-yard crossing route to convert a fourth-and-5.<\/p>\n

Overall, though, it was not a pretty start for Payton\u2019s offense playing against mostly 49ers backups.<\/p>\n

Denver\u2019s vaunted defense, meanwhile, let Mac Jones engineer an opening touchdown drive \u2014 a 50-yard slot fade completion on third down over Ja\u2019Quan McMillian\u2019s head highlighted the march \u2014 before settling in.<\/p>\n

The starting group only played one more possession, and it ended quickly, compliments of star OLB Nik Bonitto. He sacked Jones on the first two snaps of the drive and then chased him 25 yards into the backfield before Jones heaved the ball out of bounds for a three-and-out.<\/p>\n

McMillian made up for giving up the big play on San Francisco\u2019s third drive, intercepting Jones by jumping an out-breaking route along Denver\u2019s sideline. The Broncos forced three more turnovers on the night \u2014 interceptions from undrafted rookie linebacker Karene Reid and undrafted corner Joshua Pickett and a fumble forced by safety JL Skinner and recovered by rookie DL Sai\u2019Vion Jones \u2014 and had a Kris Abrams-Draine pick wiped off the board by penalty.<\/p>\n

Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally Published: August 9, 2025 at 7:35 PM MDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTA CLARA, Calif. \u2014 RJ Harvey didn\u2019t have to wait long to get his first taste of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[3878,925,232,231,258,2426,7,1272,1273,3872,2812,929,5215,926,6,1625,1813,9,1275],"class_list":{"0":"post-278122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-broncos","8":"tag-adam-trautman","9":"tag-bo-nix","10":"tag-broncos","11":"tag-denver","12":"tag-denver-broncos","13":"tag-denverbroncos","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-george-paton","16":"tag-jaleel-mclaughlin","17":"tag-jarrett-stidham","18":"tag-kyle-shanahan","19":"tag-latest-headlines","20":"tag-mac-jones","21":"tag-more-broncos-news","22":"tag-nfl","23":"tag-nik-bonitto","24":"tag-sean-payton","25":"tag-sports","26":"tag-troy-franklin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115007116513112501","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}