It’s time for another edition of our Denver Broncos position review series, and this time, we’re diving into the troublesome tight end position.
What is there to be excited about with the room? What are the biggest concerns with Denver’s tight ends? Let’s look.
Position Preview article series so far:
Grading The RBs and TEs Podcast Episode:
Starter: Greg Dulcich
Will He Make The Roster? If this question was about talent alone, the answer would be a no-brainer yes.
Unfortunately, availability is also going to be a factor, and Greg Dulcich has been available for merely 10 of the 34 possible games. He’s also missed much of the last two offseasons, and this current offseason, with lower-body injuries. If this persists, there’s a very healthy chance he’s left off the final 53.
That said, if his luck can turn around and he stays healthy, which seems possible considering the fact that none of his injuries have been severe, he will be best tight end on the roster.
What Will His Projected Role Be? Starter whenever healthy, which, based on the past, probably won’t be too often.
Adam Trautman and Lucas Krull will both challenge for this job, but Trautman’s performance last year was deeply uninspiring and Krull is a one-time UDFA with eight receptions to his name, so Dulcich gets the nod here.
That said, if you’re never on the field, it doesn’t really matter whether or not you’re the starter.
What Will Define A Successful Season? Being available for a majority of the season. It would be nice to feel comfortable setting the bar higher than that, but, unfortunately, it’s hard to have any confidence in Dulcich’s ability to consistently contribute after how his first two years have gone.
When healthy, the questions are minimal. Dulcich is averaging more receiving yards per game in orange and blue than Julius Thomas did, and NFL coaches are getting better and better about scheming up advantageous blocking situations to aid players like Dulcich. Again, if he can get a dose of good injury luck, 2024 could be the year he reasserts himself as a starter in the league.
What Question Does He Still Have To Answer? Not to beat a dead horse, but with Dulcich, there’s really just one issue on everyone’s mind — can he stay healthy?
If yes, the Denver Broncos have another young weapon to aid the team’s rebuild and the development of their first-round quarterback.
If not, the Broncos have to go back to the drawing board at tight end to find someone who might be a difference-maker. Without Dulcich, this room was extremely low-wattage. Defenses rarely respected it in coverage and Denver was unable to punish them for that lack of respect. The Broncos can’t run it back with this crop of tight ends another season if that persists
Bench: Adam Trautman
Will He Make The Roster? Adam Trautman is the safest tight end on the roster and is even more of a roster lock than Dulcich. Nonetheless, if both make the roster, and both are healthy, it should not take much for the homegrown third-rounder to emerge as the team’s best option, relegating Trautman to a secondary role.
What Will His Projected Role Be? Jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none at the tight end position. He’s a better blocker than Dulcich and a more dynamic receiver than Nate Adkins, but neither of those are high bars to clear.
Plus, as tight end blocking becomes easier and easier to scheme around — a development should be especially applicable for a team like the Broncos, which has intelligent offensive coaching and a talented group of offensive linemen — offering upside as a receiver is becoming prioritized more and more.
This is an area of Trautman’s game that is severely lacking. Vernon Davis, Matt LaCosse and Austin Traylor all averaged more receiving yards per game during their semi-recent stints with the Broncos than Trautman did last season. AJ Derby averaged more than twice as many.
Some of that is being dragged down by having a quarterback that struggles to operate quick game or target the middle of the field, where tight ends thrive. Nonetheless, outside of pure blocking tight ends, like Nate Adkins, Chris Manhertz, Eric Tomlinson, and Eric Saubert (who have combined for 93 receptions over their 23 total seasons of NFL experience), no tight end was less effective on a per-game basis during the Wilson era.
At the end of the day, he will likely take the most snaps at tight end for the 2024 Denver Broncos, but the more snaps Dulcich and Lucas Krull can steal away, the more optimistic the outlook of the room will be.
What Will Define A Successful Season? Prove this column wrong and show some dynamism as a receiver.
It wasn’t there last year, but it’s well within the realm of possibilty.
Coming out of Dayton, he was ranked by NFL Network draft analyst Bucky Brooks as the draft’s third-best tight end. He also scored a 8.76 RAS score, thanks to a ‘great’ agility score, paired with ‘good’ size, speed, and explosion scores.
It should also be noted that tight ends historically take a while to hit their stride in the NFL, and Trautman was progressing as a receiver in New Orleans, before his production took a big hit in the Russell Wilson offense.
Trautman averaged 1.49 yards per route run during his final year with the Saints, which was the best mark of his NFL career and ranked him between the likes of David Njoku and Evan Engram. Last year, he plummeted to 0.59 yards per route run — the worst mark among the 45 tight ends who had at least 20 targets, by a wide margin.
What Question Does He Still Have To Answer? Can he be a starting NFL tight end, or is he just a fine rotational piece that is ‘just good enough’ to stay on the field for both passing and running downs?
Sure, there have been some minor glimpses of receiving upside, but they’ve been very minimal and last year was pretty abysmal. There’s also good reason why, despite coming off a career-best year in terms of receiving efficiency, the Broncos managed to add Trautman (along with a seventh-round pick) for just a measly sixth-round pick.
Bench: Lucas Krull
Will He Make The Roster? It seems like it. When Krull was first activated to the Denver Broncos roster, it would’ve seemed crazy to be penciling him into a 2024 roster spot, and potentially even a starting spot, but here we are.
Krull flashed some enticing promise down the stretch of 2023, and he’s the Broncos’ best bet to find from receiving upside from the position, so long as Dulcich’s injuries remain a problem. His Saints background also can’t hurt.
What Will His Projected Role Be? The room is so wide open, with Dulcich’s health and Trautman’s milquetoast nature, that the physically gifted and otherwise unknown Lucas Krull could easily win the job.
If he’s a respectable blocker, demonstrates a solid understanding of Payton’s offense, and outperforms Trautman as a receiver in camp — none of which seem far-fetched — his only obstacle to the starting job would be Greg Dulcich’s availability, and even then, Dulcich is far from guaranteed any sort of role on this team.
That said, he’s also an undrafted free agent that was activated for just seven games last season, so Krull being cut is also very easy to imagine. An extremely wide range of outcomes are possible for Krull.
What Will Define A Successful Season? Lucas Krull hasn’t spent a full season as an active member of an NFL roster before. Doing that would mark the season a success.
If he achieves beyond that and carves out a legitimate role as a pass-catcher or, better yet, becomes a starter, the season would be a roaring success for Krull.
What Question Does He Still Have To Answer? Is he a real-deal NFL player?
Last season, in some very brief glimpses, he showed some tantalizing skills as a receiver, but the sample was so small it’s hard to know how much to put into it. Maybe he could finally resolve the Broncos’ tight end woes, but it seems more likely he’ll just be another face on the carousel that’s defined the position for much of the past decade.
Utility: Nate Adkins
Will He Make The Roster? It doesn’t seem like it. This whole room is so tricky to project in this regard, but with such a crowded backfield, receiving room, and three other rosterable tight ends, this seems like an easy place to trim.
Much of what Adkins offers can be replicated by Michael Burton, whose roster spot is more secure, so the Broncos might decide they just don’t need him.
That said, each of the past two years, the Broncos had a clearly defined blocking tight end. As Sean Payton looks to continue building this ground-and-pound offensive attack, it’d be a little odd to lean away from that at TE by letting Adkins and Manhertz both walk.
What Will His Projected Role Be? Blocking tight end, special teamer, and maybe even some fullback in a pinch, assuming he makes the roster.
If he’s a cut, some team could easily poach him, but the Broncos would likely be able to get away with stashing him on their practice squad and developing him until the day comes when they need a Burton replacement
What Will Define A Successful Season? Making the roster and continuing to build his NFL career. He was an undrafted rookie a year ago, and while making the roster once is an accomplishment worth celebrating, it doesn’t guarantee long-term security. Keeping the dream in live in any form would be a success.
What Question Does He Still Have To Answer? Can he offer anything as a receiver?
As a rookie, Adkins was almost exclusively a blocking tight end and was targeted only four times. Whether or not there’s more to his game there is a big question for the second-year player.
Cut: Thomas Yassmin
Will He Make The Roster? This position group is wildly starved for any sort of upside, so Thomas Yassmin (and any other young, unknown commodity they add) has a real chance of making the roster. That said, as is the case with any undrafted free agent, his odds are long.
Fortunately for Yassmin, this room is wide open.
What Will His Projected Role Be? Odds are he sticks around the practice squad. If he manages to make the roster, it will likely be as a development piece deep on the depth chart who rarely sees the field.
What Will Define A Successful Season? Making the roster is the dream, but if he can stick around the practice squad for an entire year, and keep his NFL dream alive, that would h also be a win. That’s especially true considering the fact the Broncos’ tight end job will likely be up for grabs once again next offseason.
What Question Does He Still Have To Answer? What can he offer the Denver Broncos?
Yassmin is a relative unknown. He started just 10 games and caught just 22 passes over his six years at Utah as a receiving tight end. He was buried on talented depth charts, but you would also think he would’ve produced some more if he was an NFL caliber player. That said, we’ve seen so little of him it’s hard to rule it out either.
