ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Courtland Sutton has found himself becoming envious of a certain skill repeatedly demonstrated by the rookie running back on the Broncos’ roster.
“I was messing with him this morning (and) said, ‘Man, I need to get on the RJ Harvey program about not getting hit,’” Sutton said. “Something about him getting hit on the sideline. These dudes (on opposing defenses) are trying to go over there and hit him hard on the sideline and he just boom, bumps off them boys. I think it’s hilarious.”
An even more beneficial skill for Harvey during his first season in Denver has been his ability to avoid the defenders responsible for mirroring him. He avoided all contact on his 40-yard touchdown run that jump-started an offensive explosion against the Cowboys two weeks ago. Harvey is increasingly showcasing an ability to create space in the open field with his route running. Entering Thursday’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders and their own rookie running back, Ashton Jeanty, Harvey has caught 23 passes for 166 yards and four touchdowns. The latter mark is already a franchise record for rookie running backs.
Harvey had a career-best five catches for 51 yards in Sunday’s game, including a 27-yard touchdown reception in the fourth quarter of Denver’s win against the Texans, in which he executed the kind of wheel route that was long a staple for running backs in Sean Payton’s offense in New Orleans. The Broncos lost in Houston two seasons ago, largely because Denver wasn’t equipped to attack the quarter coverages Houston routinely deploys.
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“I remember two years ago here after that loss, and they sat in that same coverage and I thought, ‘We used to gut this coverage,’ but you have to have the right people,” Payton said. “We felt like it would be a game where RJ would have opportunities, and Evan (Engram). Now, they played a little bit more single-safety zone to support in the run game than we expected. It’s fantastic when you can have one of those interior players be really, really good in the passing game.”
Payton painted a priority for the offseason in January, after Denver’s loss to Buffalo in the first round of the playoffs. The Broncos needed mismatch-creating weapons who could exploit the middle of the field. They signed Engram in free agency and then used their second-round pick on Harvey. The former Central Florida standout didn’t profile statistically as a major weapon in the passing game. He never caught more than 22 passes during a season in college, but that was largely because he averaged 6.5 yards per carry as UCF’s workhorse in the run game.
“What we saw, it was kind of the opposite of (Saints running Alvin) Kamara,” Payton said. “What we saw with Kamara (in college) was the receiving. … With Harvey, we saw this dynamic rusher, but we also knew, his senior year, we got to see rails (routes) and you saw soft hands. You knew he played quarterback (in high school). It’s hard to predict sometimes that a certain play is going to develop, but his body stature and his agility before contact, all of those things we really liked.”
The touchdown play against the Texans illustrated why Payton has coveted an interior threat in the passing game. Harvey began the play in the backfield, set to the right of quarterback Bo Nix. Sutton was lined up to the right of the formation and was covered by All-Pro cornerback Derek Stingley with a safety shading him over the top.
Sutton broke to the middle and pulled the safety in that direction. That left Harvey in one-on-one coverage against linebacker Henry To’oTo’o, who has been one of the league’s better coverage inside linebackers this season. To’oTo’o moved through the wash created by Sutton and Stingley to meet Harvey as he emerged from the backfield, but the running back used a nifty head-fake to break free and cruise to the open space at the front of the end zone, where Nix found him for a 27-yard touchdown.
The Broncos, in a meeting before Sunday’s game, created a reel of plays from practice that Payton believed could be scores against the Texans. The coach created a similar presentation before the game against the Cowboys and accompanied the clips with the school fight song of the player who was the primary target or rusher on the play. This time, the plays included a message from the player’s family.
“Hey, this is your play,” the family member would say. “Go make it.”
“So he gets the video award,” Payton said of Harvey. “It’s a pirate route. We got the right coverage. We set it up after halfback choice and all of a sudden — takeoff. We’re just starting to see, right in front of our eyes, the guy that we felt strongly about — and he can go. He and (J.K.) Dobbins, that one-two combination is nice to have as a coach.”
Dobbins enters Week 10 ranked fifth in the NFL in rushing (695 yards) and is on pace to produce the highest single-season rushing total for a Broncos running back since 2003. He has rushed for at least 61 yards in all but one of his nine games this season. Harvey has a distant No. 2 role in Denver’s run game. Ninety of his 205 yards came on two carries — the 40-yard touchdown against the Cowboys and a 50-yard run in Week 1 against the Titans. He has averaged only 2.6 yards on his other 44 carries.
Still, Harvey’s role in Denver’s offense is growing, both in frequency and importance. His five touchdowns since Week 7 (three receiving, two rushing) are tied for the second most in the league in that span behind NFL rushing leader Jonathan Taylor. With each week, the Broncos are handing him more and creating more solutions against defenses in the process.
“He just takes it head-on, whatever he’s asked to do,” Engram said. “He’s doing it to the best of his ability, and I just think he’s a natural playmaker. Obviously, there’s a little learning curve coming into the league and being asked to do a lot, but once things slow down, the real player comes out. I think he’s just getting started.”
