The Broncos did a lot right this offseason, but tight end remains the glaring exception.
After years of shaky play at the position, Denver mostly chose continuity. The only new additions were two late-round draft picks, while the front office re-signed Adam Trautman, Lucas Krull, and Nate Adkins instead of making a bigger swing in free agency. At this point, the market has thinned out, so any meaningful upgrade would have to come through a trade.
Trautman’s return stands out most. He signed a three-year, $17 million deal with $9.5 million guaranteed, a contract that essentially locks him in for two seasons. That’s a notable investment for a player who has some of the NFL’s worst blocking metrics among tight ends over the last three years.
Denver could have gone another direction early in free agency. Charlie Kolar and Daniel Bellinger were both available, and both signed three-year deals: Kolar for $24.3 million and Bellinger for $24 million. By sticking with Trautman, the Broncos saved $7 million overall, but the argument here is that the extra money would have been worth it.
Kolar and Bellinger are viewed as better blockers, and either one would have given Denver more stability in the run game. The Broncos may look back at the Trautman decision and wonder if they passed on a cleaner fix. At least, as the source notes, Trautman is a Sean Payton guy.
There was also a roster-building reason for Denver’s restraint. The Broncos were trying to preserve their projected compensatory picks for the 2027 NFL draft.
Right now, they’re expected to receive a fourth-round pick and a seventh-round pick for the departures of John Franklin-Myers and P.J. Locke.
Kolar’s contract would have brought the Baltimore Ravens a sixth-round comp pick, while the New York Giants canceled out their projected sixth by signing someone. If Denver had spent the extra $7 million on Kolar or Bellinger, it would have wiped out Locke’s projected seventh-round compensatory pick.
That’s the tradeoff, but the piece of the argument here is simple: a seventh-round pick is a small price to pay for better tight end play. Kolar and Bellinger would likely have offered more value than the savings Denver chose to keep.
The Broncos did add Justin Joly and Dallen Bentley in the draft, taking them in the fifth and seventh rounds, respectively. Both are promising prospects, but tight end is a tough NFL transition, and while Joly’s receiving skills could help this season, both players still have plenty of work to do as blockers.
That matters because the run game already paid the price for poor tight end blocking in 2025. After seeing too many plays get blown up, Denver’s decision not to invest more at the position feels like a missed chance.
The bigger issue is that the league itself made the case for blocking tight ends this offseason. Teams paid for them, and the draft board reflected it too, with the best blockers going between the late second round and the middle of the third. If Denver was banking on the draft to solve the problem, that was always a risky plan.
The Broncos can still try to patch things together, but tight end looks like a problem that could be back on the list in 2027. For now, Denver has left one important hole unfilled.
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