Welcome back for another edition of our Rookie Draft Prospect Faceoff series, where I compare the resumes of two rookie prospects side-by-side to determine who we should prioritize in dynasty. On the docket today, we have two late risers in the RB ranks, Bhayshul Tuten and R.J. Harvey.
Bhayshul Tuten
Production
Bhayshul Tuten broke out as a true sophomore in the FCS at North Carolina A&T, rushing for 1,370 and 13 touchdowns in 2022. His raw production took a small step back in 2023 after transferring to Virginia Tech, but really excelled in Year 4, rushing for 1,150 yards and 15 touchdowns. Tuten was technically the workhorse back for Virginia Tech during his two years there but never hit 200 rush attempts in a season. He played alongside dual-threat QB Kyron Drones, who capped Tuten’s upside to an extent. Drones averaged just 173.5 pass yards per game in 2024, scrambled frequently, and suffered a foot injury late in the year, so Tuten was working with backups to end the season.
NFL Combine Results
Bhayshul Tuten really started receiving some buzz following his unbelievable performance at the NFL Combine, posting a 9.32 RAS. Tuten displayed his elite speed, burst, and athleticism in Indianapolis, finishing first in the running back group for the 40-yard dash (4.32), 10-yard split (1.48), and vertical jump (40.5”). His broad jump of nearly 11 feet was good for second in the class, behind only Quinshon Judkins. One interesting note is that Tuten finished last amongst all the RBs who ran the shuttle, with a 4.41 time. This suggests he is more of a one-cut, north and south runner versus someone with a ton of lateral quickness and agility.
Film
My film review was almost exclusively wide receivers and tight ends this offseason, as these were my positional groups to complete for the 2025 DFF Dynasty Rookie Draft Guide. Because of this, I’ll rely on @Evan_Kerr_ for film takeaways on these backs. In the draft guide, Evan says Tuten “shows great vision at the line of scrimmage and bursts through holes with immediate acceleration”. He graded Tuten’s contact balance as elite and says he is a natural pass catcher out of the backfield. The biggest areas of concern are Tuten’s lack of decisiveness in the backfield as well as his ball security. He had a whopping nine fumbles in his final two seasons for a concerning 2.5% fumble rate.
Analytics
Our very own @force_fantasy covered all the analytics in our draft guide. In his RB model, Tuten projects to score the fifth most career fantasy points in this RB class. Some of his biggest strengths were his career yards after contact per attempt (4.0), breakaway run rate (8.8%), and missed tackles forced per attempt (36.2%).
From a receiving perspective, I noticed Tuten’s yards per route run was shockingly low in 2024, finishing at just 0.43 YPRR. But as I alluded to earlier, we can put some of the blame on Drones for this mark, as he frequently looked to use his legs versus dumping the football off. His career YPRR of 1.29 is completely fine and supports Evan’s thoughts on Tuten being a more than adequate pass catcher.
R.J. Harvey
Production
R.J. Harvey is an older prospect, joining UCF back in 2020. He missed the entire 2021 season after tearing his ACL in the preseason. Harvey broke out as a redshirt sophomore in 2022, rushing for 790 yards and five touchdowns on 6.8 YPA. The numbers just improved from there, as Harvey combined for nearly 3,000 rush yards and 38 rushing touchdowns in his final two seasons. Even more impressive, Harvey did this in the Big 12, as UCF switched to the Power 4 following the 2022 season.
Harvey was a valuable asset in the receiving game as well, posting 62 receptions, 722 yards, and five receiving touchdowns over his final three seasons. In 2024, Harvey finished fifth in FBS in rush yards and third in rushing touchdowns.
NFL Combine Results
Harvey didn’t have quite the Combine Tuten did, but it was pretty close. He posted an 8.94 RAS which included a 4.41 40-yard dash, a 38” vertical, and a 10’7” broad jump.
As you can see, both Tuten and Harvey are elite athletes, even for NFL standards. While this is just a small piece of the pie when grading out running backs, there’s no doubt these two young men earned the attention of NFL Scouts across the league.
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Film
In the rookie draft guide, Evan says Harvey prefers to bounce it to the outside versus staying in between the tackles. He’s a patient runner, almost to a fault at times. Harvey is a reliable pass catcher and excels in open space, utilizing his speed and agility. His weakness lies in his pass protection, which could prevent him from seeing an every-down role at the next level.
Analytics
The RB Analytical Model projects Harvey to score the 6th most points in this class. His biggest strengths are all similar to Tuten, with a career missed tackle rate of 30.1%, yards after contact per attempt of 3.7, and breakaway run rate of 11.8%
Where he scored poorly was in Lance Zierlein’s Film Grade, scoring a 5.95 versus Tuten’s 6.26 grade.
Conclusion
This one is about as close as it gets for me. Both prospects are similar builds and display similar strengths including burst, acceleration, vision, and receiving upside. They both have concerns regarding their abilities as pass protectors. As a tiebreaker, I’ll go with the prospect who is two years younger in Bhayshul Tuten. Harvey just turned 24 years old, so concern about longevity can’t be ignored.
However, Tuten and Harvey are currently back-to-back in my pre-draft RB rankings, at RB7 and RB8. If Harvey gets the better draft capital and landing spot, that would be enough for me to flip them in my rankings. Currently on NFL Mock Draft Database, Tuten is an early Round 4 pick and Harvey is an early Round 5 pick. This feels pretty conservative to me; I think both guys have a chance at going on Day 2. We’ll see what the NFL Draft tells us about these guys, but if your rookie draft is prior to the NFL Draft, I would take Bhayshul Tuten over R.J. Harvey.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article, and I hope you got some valuable information you can use for your fantasy team! If you’d like additional insight into Dynasty Football news and analysis, please follow me on Twitter at @jim_DFF. Until next time, keep grinding out there, DFF family! #DFFArmy #AlwaysBeBuilding
