Why Broncos Could Face Another Disappointing Year at Tight End

Over the last two seasons, the Denver Broncos have fielded one of the worst tight end rooms in the NFL, and they're poised for much of the same in 2026. While the Broncos made a pair of additions to the room, it wasn't enough to move the needle this season.

A year ago, the Broncos took a big shot on Evan Engram to improve their tight end room. It was a position that clearly didn’t have enough receiving chops to work, and Engram is well known as a pass-catching tight end, but the question was how much he had left in the tank.

Blocking was a problem with Engram, which was also a Broncos issue in 2024, and they didn’t do enough last year to improve it. Thus, the Broncos' tight end struggles in blocking last season were not a surprise, but Engram's inability to bring enough receiving impact to the offense was.

These issues left Denver with a bottom-three tight end room for the second year in a row.

With the Broncos coming off an AFC championship game appearance and still clearly having Super Bowl aspirations, instead of taking shots to improve their tight end room, the Broncos brought back everyone who contributed to that bottom-ranked unit over the last two years: Adam Trautman, Lucas Krull, and Nate Adkins.

The Two Additions

The Broncos' two additions to the room were a pair of tight ends drafted in the last 100 or so picks: Justin Joly and Dallen Bentley. Now, tight ends typically take two or three years before they make a serious impact, with some exceptions, and they're typically the elite athletes, and neither Joly nor Bentley is one.

So, if the Broncos are betting on Joly or Bentley to be a serious difference-maker, it would be a mistake. This is one position where the team should be looking to add a veteran, either as a free agent or via trade.

If it were to be a free agent, there would be no impact on the compensatory picks the Broncos have been protecting after losing John Franklin-Myers and P.J. Locke in free agency, as that window is now closed. The Broncos are in the clear.

For a team with championship aspirations, betting on two rookies, or someone who has barely played football, like Caleb Lohner, is a risk not worth taking, especially after seeing the negative impact the tight end position had in the Broncos' loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game.

The word was that Lohner looked great in the rookie minicamp, but that was... well, rookie minicamp. It would be more noteworthy if he looked worse than he did, since he was mostly going against undrafted rookies while he had a year in the system.

There have been many players to look great at the rookie minicamp only to fall flat when it really mattered, training camp.

The Takeaway

Tight end is a position the Broncos need to add to. However, a trade could end up costing too much, but it would be the best way to actually get a capable talent as the free-agent market dried up. Few free agent tight ends stand out, and those that do don’t make a lot of sense for the Broncos with the way their room is made up.

The Broncos left the tight end market in free agency, and that is why no one should be surprised if the position is a let-down again. Maybe Lohner or one of the rookies steps up, but expectations should be low, as the odds of any of the three stepping up in the way the Broncos need are slim.

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