Explosive runs and the Denver Broncos run game in 2025

According to Sumersports.com, Denver Broncos running backs had 23 explosive runs in 2025 on 329 carries. This was 7.0% of their carries which was about league average in 2025 (6.8%). Of course we first need to explain what an explosive run in is for them. Some sites defined it as a run that gains 10 yards or more, while others say 12 yards or more. Sumer actually goes with runs that were in the top 10th percentile of yards gained. This of course can vary from year to year.

In 2025 there were 14166 non-kneel runs that gained 64094 yards. There were 1104 runs that gained 12 yards or more in 2025. So 7.8% overall (6.8% from RBs). The 10th percentile of all runs gained 12 or more yards. So for 2025 Sumersports defined an explosive run as a run that gained 12 yards. Those 1104 runs gained a total of 21945 yards or 19.9 YPC. That was 34% of all the actual rushing yards in the NFL in 2025.

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For the Broncos, the RBs had 23, Bo Nix had 13, Marvin Mims, and Adam Prentice each had one. (QBs have a much easier time getting explosive runs because long scrambles happen much more frequently than long runs from non-QBs.) So let’s see how our RBs compared to other teams in terms of explosive runs. The two best teams were the Ravens and the Dolphins with more than 10% of their RB runs being explosive runs. The Chiefs had the lowest rate of explosive RB runs in 2025 with a paltry 3.2%, which is why they spent big money on Kenneth Walker (who had a lower explosive run rate than JK Dobbins.

In terms of play type, Bronco RBs got 11 explosive runs on 148 zone runs (7.4%), 7 on 88 gap runs (8.0%) and 5 on 93 duo runs (5.4%).

The general consensus is that negative, short, and intermediate runs are all attributed to the OL while the long/explosive runs are almost completely on the runner. Since these runs generally occur when the runner makes a defender miss or breaks a tackle (unless you have terrible ILBs who take poor angles), they get attributed to the RB. As we will see later, some times the play is blocked so well that long runs ARE a function of the OL.

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In terms of our RBs, J.K. Dobbins had 17 explosive runs, RJ Harvey had four, and Jaleel McLaughlin had three. Tyler Badie had zero (admittedly on eight carries).

Harvey’s lack of explosive runs was disappointing since he had a host of them in his final college season. He carried the ball 146 times for the Broncos in 2025 and had four explosive runs – 2.7% – those are shown below. That explosive % was one of the worst in the league – only Brashard Smith, Michael Carter and Chuba Hubbard were worse among RBs. The RB the Broncos let go, Audric Estime, had two explosive runs on 46 carries – 4.3%, but it’s hard to know if and explosive run was a great effort by the RB, or terrible play by the defense without rewatching both.

With a minimum of 20 actual runs, the explosive runs leaders were all QBs. The best RB in the league for explosive runs was Tank Bigsby – 10 of his 63 carries were explosive runs.

Looking at Harvey’s four plays (for which highlights are freely available) is informative.

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1. RJ Harvey right guard for 50 yards (tackle by Cedric Gray) – Harvey broke two tackles on this run against the Titans.

2. RJ Harvey left end for 40 yards, touchdown – the was perfectly blocked. No defender touched him. Quinn Meinerz obliterated a cowboy defender on this run. Harvey does make a nice cut at full speed on this run, but honestly just about every NFL RB would score on this play.

3. RJ Harvey up the middle for 38 yards, touchdown – Harvey broke two or three tackles on this run against the Jags.

4. RJ Harvey up the middle for 15 yards (tackle by Lonnie Johnson) – broke two tackles on this run

All of Harvey’s 2025 NFL highlights can be viewed here – all four runs are in there.

Now, before we cast too much shade on Harvey, the majority of his explosive plays on offense for the Broncos in 2025 came in the passing game. He had 9 plays in the passing game that gained more than 12 yards including two TDs – against CIN and HOU. I haven’t bothered to look at what is defined as explosive in the passing game (it’s probably passes that gained in the top 10th percentile of yards).

Also in Harvey’s defense he had four runs of 11 yards. Had he gained one more yard on each he would have made his explosive run% much more palatable.

So this goes to whether or not you think the Broncos need to draft (and when) a RB next week. If we do take one, It would be nice to get one who can generate explosive runs in the NFL (and not just in college). Of course, maybe Harvey will improve on this in his second season. We can hope for that.

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Another aspect of Harvey’s game is supposed to elusivity. SISdatahub.com tracks how often an offensive player makes a tackler miss (breaking the tackle or juking so that the defender doesn’t even get hands on him). For RBs with 20 or more carries the league leader was Trey Benson who forced 12 missed tackles on 29 carries (41%). For high volume runners, Bijan Robinson was the best, forcing 83 misses on 287 carries (29%). RJ Harvey forced 25 misses on 146 carries (17%). This was worse than Jaleel McLaughlin (22%) and JK Dobbins (20%). So Harvey’s big run ability AND his elusivity in the run game did not translate from college to the the NFL (yet?). NFL defenders are much better than the defenders he played against in college. 65 RBs had at least 50 carries in 2025. The average RB in this group forced 17% misses. Malik Davis was the worst at 8%.