It’s not exactly breaking news that the Broncos have struggled to generate receiving production from the tight end position this year.
There’s a logical explanation, too. The team hoped second-year man Greg Dulcich would build on his promising but injury-plagued rookie season and take the next step into being a dynamic down-the-field threat.
Instead, the injuries got worse. Dulcich has played only parts of two games so far this year and remains on injured reserve, where he’s been since Week 6.
Two striking developments:
• Dulcich is still No. 2 among Broncos tight ends in receiving yards at 25, behind Adam Trautman’s 131 but ahead of Nate Adkins (22) and Chris Manhertz (16).
• The Broncos have decided that their best hope of juicing the production through the air is practice squad-er Lucas Krull, a second-year player who has zero NFL catches to his name.
Perhaps Krull will end up just serving as a bridge while the Broncos try to get Dulcich back into game action. Dulcich has been doing conditioning work on the side for the past two weeks, though they’ve not started his 21-day return-to-play window as of Friday.
In the meantime, though, Krull hasn’t just been an extra body the two games he’s been elevated from the practice squad.
He played 20 offensive snaps against Buffalo in Week 10 and 22 last week at Houston. Against the Texans, of course, he was the unintentional intended target on Denver’s final play of the game, a desperation throw into the end zone by Russell Wilson on a doomed third-and-goal play that was intercepted by Jimmie Ward.
All the same, Payton made it clear this week why he’s been part of the game plan against a pair of teams the Broncos felt they could throw the ball against.
Asked about the team’s dearth of receiving ability among its tight ends, Payton said, “Lucas is one of those guys that we feel is a candidate to be that type of player.”
Said Krull, “I can’t speak for the coaches, but I think what I do every day in practice and the way I bust my tail and make plays and do everything I’m asked to do, I feel like that can give them confidence. I know for myself, I have all the confidence in the world in myself and since I’ve been here I’ve tried to show that week in and week out.”
It’s what the Broncos envisioned for him when they signed him to the practice squad right after the post-training camp roster cutdowns. Essentially, Payton and general manager George Paton swapped out Albert Okwuegbunam (no catches in four games for Philadelphia this year) and swapped in Krull.
It hasn’t turned into production yet, but as long as Dulcich is out — and even when he returns –— the Broncos have to find some way, somehow to have even a sense of a threat from the tight end group in the passing game.
Quick hitters
• Broncos wide receivers coach Keary Colbert is among those excited to get to Los Angeles this weekend. An Oxnard, Calif., native, Colbert played at USC and later spent time there as a graduate assistant and as a position coach (2016-21).
“I used to live right there next to (where SoFi is now),” he said, pointing to a building about a Matt Leinert deep ball away. “Probably from here to that training building. There were homes that were right behind it and that’s where I lived for five years when I was coaching at USC.”
• Jerry Jeudy on his alma mater, Alabama, making the College Football Playoff over 13-0 Florida State: “I don’t feel bad for Florida State and I’m not surprised we got in.”
Going to beat Michigan? “Oh, for sure. They know what happened last time we played them.”
• There’s also familiarity this weekend beyond the fact that offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi spent the past two seasons in the same position with the Chargers. That’s because Essang Bassey, the former Broncos nickel, has played about 60% of Los Angeles’ defensive snaps the past two weeks. Bassey’s been with the Chargers since Denver waived him earlier in the season.
“Practicing against him, I already know his tendencies and what he likes to do and doesn’t like to do,” Jeudy said. “What he’s good at and what he’s not good at. So it’s a pretty big advantage.”
Hindsight is 20/20
Payton expounded more on his timeout usage in the final two minutes, saying he took one at the two-minute warning to ensure the Broncos got into a good play on fourth down.
After Wilson’s fourth-down scramble to the 8-yard line, the quarterback popped up and took a timeout immediately at 23 seconds rather than gathering the team quickly at the line and spiking it. Payton said he was also calling timeout on the sideline.
“I made that decision,” he said. “Definitely. Once we’re at the eight, you don’t have six plays. You have four. I don’t want to clock it and now I have three. I just felt like once you’re at the eight, here it is.
“Obviously, we want all four of those plays.”
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