Broncos make MULTIPLE moves... Major Injury Updates | Denver Broncos News

The Broncos just put RJ Harvey on injury reserve one day before they played the Chiefs for first place in the AFC West. And every fan has the same question now. Who carries the ball? Here's the problem with that question is that RJ Harvey has carried the ball 24 times all season. So what did the Broncos actually lose? And the answer is his catches. And the numbers show it was already Already slipping away before the injury. I'll show you the hole, who's left to fill it, and the move on defense the Broncos also made at the same time, which might matter more on Sunday. First of all, we have to go over what we know. Harvey is on injury reserve with a knee injury, and he has to miss at least the next four games, and the earliest he can return is week 13 against the Dolphins. The team added him to the injury report on Thursday and ruled him out Friday. There is no diagnosis, so the timeline is a minimum, not a prediction. Now the reaction, Dobbins, Coleman, who runs it? But look at who was actually running it so far. J.K. Dobbins has 87 carries for 293 yards and three touchdowns this regular season. Harvey has 24 carries for 87 yards and one touchdown. That is 3.6 times as many carries for Dobbins. Harvey was getting about 4 a game. It's not a new role either. As a rookie last year, he had 146 carries for 540 yards and 7 touchdowns. And this year, he is at 24 carries through 6 games. So the carries are already going somewhere else. And it gets even stranger because Bo Nix has 110 rushing yards as a quarterback and that is more than Harvey's 87 but also more than Jonah Coleman's 93. So this was never Harvey's backfield. The run game keeps going because it was already split between Dobbins and Coleman which means the loss is somewhere else and to find it you have to look at what he did when he was not running. Harvey has He has 25 catches for 217 yards. Only Jalen Waddle has more. 26 catches for 276 yards, and it is barely more. He has 9 more catches than Cortland Sutton, and 12 more than tight end Evan Ingram from the backfield. Add the carries that you get from 304 scrimmage yards and 2 touchdowns. That works out to be 6.2 yards every time he touched the ball. And among every running back in the NFL this season, he is 6th in receiving yards and 64th in rushing yards. And he does it in a hurry, because in the last game, in Arizona, he had 3 carries for 6 yards, and a 52 yard touchdown catch. That's a guy who just left, and a back who catches the ball and turns it into big plays. Even Webb says it last week, he's special with the ball in his hands. But here's the part nobody was talking about, the role was already drying up. Look at his catches game by game, 4 in week 1, 6 in week 3, then 10 catches on 10 targets in week 4 for 68 yards. Then it fell off a cliff. Zero catches in week 5, 3 in week 6, and 2 in week 7. That is just 20 catches in the first 3 games he played, and 5 in the last 3. So Denver was already losing its safety valve before the injury, and the question now is, who's going to fill it? And it wasn't an accident that RJ Harvey was putting up these numbers, because Sean Payton's offense has leaned on the back who catches a ball for years now. In New Orleans with the Saints, Darren Sproles had 86 catches in 2011 on only 88 carries. Alvin Kamara caught 81 passes in three of his four years and 83 in the other. In Denver, Peyton did it with Javante Williams, 47 catches in 2023, then 52 in 2024. Then Denver drafted Harvey in the second round, 60th overall in 2025. As a rookie, he had 47 catches for 356 yards and five touchdowns through the air. That is 8th among running backs in 2025. This year he was on pace for more. 4.2 catches a game up from 2.8 as a rookie. So R.J. Harvey was the Peyton back and now he's one of the cheapest ones too because a cap hit of 1.7 million dollars this season is a great deal. But Sean Peyton's offense no matter where it is will depend on that back and this is where Denver's problem gets real. Running backs have caught 44 passes for three 145 yards for Denver this season, that is 25% of Denver's targets going to the backs. The highest share of any NFL team. And R.J. Harvey got more than half of them. 28 of the 49 targets to Denver's backs. Dobbins had 9, Bednarik had 7, and Coleman just 5. The role also matters because of what this offense does on 3rd down. Denver's converted 28 of 90 for 31.1%. Which is 31st out of 32 teams. And it's getting worse. In the last three games, Denver is 7 for 37 on third down. That is just 18.9% and it is sinking. The man that was getting the first down on short pass was Harvey and now he is gone. So who's left? On the ground, the answer is already on the roster. Jonah Coleman. Came back from injury reserve in Arizona. Led the team with 9 carries for 54 yards. On a 6 yard a carry average, Dobbins that day had 6 carries for 23 yards and a 1 yard touchdown. Quick question before we go on, I want to know, on Sunday, who gets more carries, Dobbins or Coleman? Drop D or C in the comments below. And think about what the backs cost. Dobbins has 6 million cap hit this season and 10 million next season. Coleman, a rookie, is at $891,000. And Denver has about 21 million of room under the cap. But money doesn't catch passes on Sunday. So the Broncos moved a name up. Cody Schrader elevated from the practice squad for this game. He's played two NFL games, both of the Rams, in this preseason with Denver. He had 24 carries for 74 yards and nine catches for 101 yards and a touchdown. Keep in mind, though, that was preseason, not the regular season. But nine catches in the summer is exactly the job Harvey was doing. The Broncos also elevated undrafted rookie lineman Gavin Ortega, who has not played a regular season game just yet. So here is the offense, two backs to run it, one preseason name to catch it, and Waddle questionable with a chest injury. But there was another name in those moves, and on Sunday, he made matter more. And for context, here is the matchup. The Chiefs allow 73.7 rushing yards a game to running backs, the fifth fewest in the league. So running the ball into Kansas City is the hard way, but against running backs in the passing game, they are only about average. 4.5 catches a game, which is 18th in the NFL. So the plan on Sunday is to throw to the back, but the one who catches the ball is on the injury reserve. In week one, Harvey had three carries for 18 yards and four catches on four targets in Kansas City, and Denver still lost 31-10. Three numbers for Sunday and a look at third down. Denver converts 31.1%. Kansas City's defense lets teams convert 41.9%, which is 21st best. That matchup is not a wall, it's a big chance, and the Broncos just lost a player who's going to help them take that. Now, Harvey is out, Funga is out, Waddle's questionable with a chest injury, and then there's the Chiefs side. Kansas City's offense converts 39.4% on third down, Denver stalls and gives Mahomes the ball back. That is a 5-2 team, gets blown to twice by the same opponent. Which brings us to this next move on defense. Taylor Rapp, A safety, a 2019 second-round pick, promoted from the practice squad to the active roster. It's not a random depth move. Talanoa Hufanga is out again in the third straight week. And the Chiefs are not asking about safeties. They're 5-1, and Patrick Mahomes is on the report with a knee, but practically full practice all week, and with no game designation. Talanoa Hufanga is the highest-paid safety on the team, a $13.5 million cap hit this season, Denver's paying him more than Dobbins and Harvey and Coleman combined to watch. So the practice squad veteran has the answer. And in the last two games, Rapp played about 70% of the defensive snaps and made eight tackles. Now he is official. And it's a small move, but it tells you how deep the Broncos are going to be on defense and how deep they are continuing to go. And the same day they lost their starter on offense, they make this move. So the Broncos are not replacing one player. They're rebuilding the margins on both sides the day before the biggest game of the season thus far. And that is mistakes. The Broncos are 5-2, the Chiefs are 5-1, and a win puts Denver first in the AFC West for the first time this season. Kansas City already beat them 31-10 in Week 1 and Sunday, 2.25 p.m. Mountain Time on CBS. So Denver does not need R.J. Harvey to run. It needs someone to catch, and a defense that can survive without its starting safety So here's my question, does Denver beat Kansas City without Harvey? Drop Broncos or Chiefs in the comments below.