RJ Harvey

RJ Harvey finished his rookie year as the number 20 running back in total PPR scoring and the number 24 running back in PPR per game. Useful but uneven — 17 games of work on a 14-and-3 team that won the AFC West as the top seed, but he never locked down the lead-back role in Denver's committee. He split the backfield with J.K. Dobbins, and the split tells a story: Dobbins out-carried him 153 to 146 and nearly outgained him by a full yard a pop. Harvey's value lived in two places — the end zone, where he scored 12 total touchdowns rushing and receiving, and the passing game out of the backfield. The yards-per-carry profile is what kept him from climbing higher.

Now let's dig into the numbers. Harvey logged 146 carries for 540 yards — 3.7 a carry, well below Denver's team mark of 4.4 and miles behind Dobbins at 5.1. Under the hood it gets worse: his rushing yards over expected came in at minus 90.8, or minus 0.64 a carry, ranking 47th among qualified backs. Dobbins on the same offense? Plus 1.1 a carry, fourth in the league. This wasn't a blocking problem — it was a Harvey problem. He made his money in the passing game and at the goal line: 47 catches on 58 targets for 356 yards, five receiving touchdowns, plus seven rushing scores. The weekly profile is pure boom-or-bust — Harvey cleared 18 PPR points six different times, but finished under 8 in seven games, including four under 5. The 12.2 per-game average is a mirage. You got a 20-burger or a dud, with almost no middle ground.

The play that captures the season came Week 8 against the Cowboys. First drive, second-and-10 from the Dallas 40, Denver down 3-nothing — Harvey took a handoff left end and went 40 yards untouched. That single snap added nearly four expected points and represented the ceiling outcome that kept fantasy managers chasing him all year: when Harvey hit a crease, he was gone. Trouble is, the floor games kept showing up just as often, and on a per-carry basis the rookie got muffed by the expected-yardage models more than almost any back in football.