Who Should I Start? Austin Ekeler or RJ Harvey

Monday, June 15, 6:22 PM

Denver Broncos second-year running back RJ Harvey (shoulder) quietly suffered a torn labrum in his shoulder during the team's season-ending loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game in January and had surgery to fix it in the offseason, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation told The Denver Post's Luca Evans. Harvey didn't do much work during organized team activities, but has been practicing. The 25-year-old second-round pick last year out of the University of Central Florida stepped into a big role in the second half of the 2025 season after J.K. Dobbins suffered a season-ending Lisfranc injury, and the rookie finished with 540 rushing yards and seven touchdowns on 146 carries, adding 47 receptions for 356 yards and five more TDs in 17 regular-season games (seven starts) to finish as the RB1 in half-PPR scoring. It sounds like he has enough time to get back to 100% health for the start of the 2026 regular season, but the offseason addition of rookie Jonah Coleman and the re-signing of Dobbins definitely have hurt Harvey's upside as he enters his sophomore campaign. It's hard to imagine Harvey being more than an inconsistent RB3/flex for fantasy managers this year unless one of Dobbins or Coleman misses time with an injury in 2026. RotoBaller has Harvey ranked as the No. 35 fantasy back for the upcoming season.