Denver Broncos third-year tight end Greg Dulcich staying healthy and available would help solve the team’s ongoing riddle at the position. Two consecutive seasons have brought injury frustrations for the talented pass-catching tight end, with three trips to injured reserve.
On Sunday, the Broncos placed three players on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list, with training camp kicking off later this week. Thankfully, Dulcich was absent from the frustrating roll call. Perhaps we’ve finally reached a point in the 24-year-old’s laborious recovery, but don’t hold your breath because every time Sean Payton and company look like they’ve got the former UCLA man back in the frame, somehow disaster befalls them.
This offseason, at least Dulcich didn’t have to go under the knife, but his pair of fragile hamstrings seems to keep Broncos HQ on high alert.
“He’s close. He’s had all the work done,” Payton said during OTAs. “We’re encouraged. I think you’ll see him sooner than later, and I want to be smart.”
It’s particularly debilitating because the Broncos used a 2022 third-round pick on Dulcich — mostly due to his wide-receiver speed wrapped up in a tight-end body. To date, Dulcich has only managed to appear in 12 of a possible 34 regular season games since he became the 80th overall selection of the 2022 NFL draft.
At times, Payton has sounded willing to push the boundaries of cutting-edge sports science and holistic medical approaches to get his guy healthy. Heck, Payton may have even leaned on a football shaman.
“There’s a process,” Payton said of nursing Dulcich back to health way back in November 2023. “I know he’s one of the guys that’s working his tail off… He’s seeing specialists. You look closely at—you also look closely at other things like gait. How much weight should he be at? He’s a little heavier than he was at college, like most players. All that stuff we’re working on, but he’s making progress.”
In all seriousness, the Broncos have invested enough resources in Dulcich to feel confident that he’s up and running finally. On the flip side, perhaps the Broncos believe Lucas Krull can provide a genuine pass-catching tight-end option moving forward, with some similarities to Dulcich.
“The same things we see in Dulcich relative to we see a certain stature we like,” Payton sazid during OTAs. “So that means we have a bigger target. He has good vertical speed. He’s young, so we think there is room to grow. That was one of the reasons we signed him.”
Adam Trautman is not going to make any defensive coordinator adjust his scheme because he is in the lineup, so you can see why Payton is trying to get multiple bodies to fill the role more dynamically. It was slightly puzzling that neither free agency nor the draft conjured up an additional tight end.
Dulcich will presumably be ready to participate when training camp kicks off, thanks to his notable omission from the PUP list. Still, to what level he continues to be closely managed and monitored by the team remains to be seen.
However, one certainty remains; the plaster will have to be ripped off Dulcich sooner rather than later.
Follow Mile High Huddle on X and Facebook and subscribe on YouTube for daily Broncos live-stream podcasts!
