The Denver Broncos’ season ended at the hands of the New England Patriots in a 10-7 loss in the AFC Championship Game. With Bo Nix sidelined and Jarrett Stidham starting, the Broncos needed someone to step up on offense. Unfortunately, that wasn’t rookie RB RJ Harvey, who was lackluster against the Patriots despite a solid first year when it came to fantasy football production during the regular season.
Matt Harmon and Justin Boone recently discussed Harvey’s 2026 fantasy outlook on the Yahoo Fantasy forecast and whether or not managers can trust the talented young back in Year 2.
Harvey finished the postseason with just 57 yards on 19 carries plus nine catches on 12 targets for 68 yards and no touchdowns. Harmon points out that while Harvey finished as a top-20 back in fantasy, there are obvious holes to his game. He was losing snaps to Tyler Badie in the AFC Championship because of his weakness as a pass protector. Harmon doesn’t view Harvey as an every-down back and while Harvey is a solid pass-catcher, he isn’t a great pass blocker.
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Boone looks at the other side and plays devil’s advocate a bit in that Harvey did lead the backfield in touches with 17 total (13 rushes) and wasn’t productive against a tough New England run defense. Add in that the weather conditions were far from ideal and it isn’t that surprising that Harvey struggled.
The interesting part for Boone is whether or not JK Dobbins ends up back in Denver in 2026. He missed most of the second half of the season due to a foot injury but was having a spectacular season prior to that, rushing for 772 yards through 10 games. If it isn’t Dobbins, the Broncos might bring in another back.
Either way, Harvey appears to be a part of the future and could be the lead back in 2026 and beyond, but not in the way we think about some of the top fantasy backs, such as Bijan Robinson, Jahmyr Gibbs and Saquon Barkley. Boone still thinks there will be some type of committee in the Denver backfield that might hold back Harvey from being a true RB1.
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Harvey, 24, finished the 2025 season with 540 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns, plus 47 catches on 58 targets for 356 yards and five additional scores.
Boone has Harvey as the RB17 in his early fantasy football draft rankings for next season. Harvey is the RB13 in Boone’s dynasty rankings and trade value charts.