The Denver Broncos don’t have the type of championship window — assuming they are currently in 1 — that will allow them to draft and develop their own superstar tight end. There’s not enough time.
They tried to jump the line in 2025 by signing past-his-prime Pro Bowler Evan Engram to a 2-year, $23 million free-agent contract, only to watch it blow up in their face when Engram proved less than up to the task.
The Broncos have shown little backbone when it comes to drafting tight ends, either. They used a 7th-round pick on Caleb Lohner in 2025 and stashed him on the practice squad, then used a 5th-round pick on North Carolina State’s Justin Joly and a 7th-round pick on Utah’s Dallen Bentley in 2026.
If the Broncos want a plug-and-play tight end who can make a difference in their offense, their best bet likely lies in the 2027 free-agent class, where the perfect fit might be current Green Bay Packers tight end Tucker Kraft.
ESPN’s Matt Bowen ranked Kraft No. 2 on his list of available free-agent tight ends in 2027, and the Broncos should be willing to do whatever it takes to pay to get him.
“Kraft was amid a breakout season in 2025 before an ACL injury in Week 9,” Bowen wrote. “At that point, he had 32 receptions for 489 yards and six touchdowns. At 6-foot-5, 259 pounds, Kraft is a physical target in the route tree who can rumble after the catch.”
Kraft, a 2023 3rd-round pick (No. 78 overall), is headed into the final season of his 4-year, $5.5 million rookie contract. Spotrac projects his value on the open market as a 4-year, $62 million contract.
NFL free agency’s next cycle opens on March 9, 2027.
Broncos Desperate to Have Tight End Help Offense
The Broncos have managed to add elite to high-level talent at every position on offense except for tight end. That includes somehow finding ways to bring both their running backs and wide receiver rooms back from the dead over the last few years.
Tight end has proven much more difficult to fix, where the Broncos haven’t had a player selected to the Pro Bowl in over a decade, since Julius Thomas in 2013 and 2014, and haven’t had an NFL All-Pro at tight end since Shannon Sharpe in 1998.
The best tight end the Broncos have had in recent years, Noah Fant, was traded to the Seattle Seahawks in 2022 as part of the doomed Russell Wilson trade, and the most promising tight end the Broncos have had in the Sean Payton era, Greg Dulcich, could represent the biggest personnel mistake made under Payton.
Broncos Didn’t Put Faith in TE Greg Dulcich
Dulcich, 6-foot-4 and 245 pounds, was selected by the Broncos in the 3rd round (No. 80 overall) in the 2020 NFL draft. He had career highs of 33 receptions for 411 yards and 2 touchdowns in 10 games as a rookie.
He found himself on the outside looking in when a new coaching staff led by Sean Payton was brought in before the 2023 season. Dulcich missed all but 2 games in 2023 with a hamstring injury, then played 4 games for the Broncos and was a healthy scratch for 8 games in 2024 before he was waived on November 25.
He landed with the New York Giants, briefly, before a breakout season in 2025 with the Miami Dolphins — 26 receptions for 335 yards and 1 touchdown in 10 games – into a 1-year, $3.25 million contract for 2026.
He’s turned that opportunity into a standout offseason that landed him on ESPN’s list of the NFL’s “Biggest Surprises” before training camp.
“Dolphins fans might remember Dulcich’s late-season contributions, but he has emerged this spring as one of the primary targets in Miami’s passing game,” ESPN’s Marcel Louis-Jacques wrote on June 22. “Quarterback Malik Willis has an entirely new group of skill players to build chemistry with, but during team drills, there was clear trust in Dulcich, who was one of the best tight ends in the league last season at making plays after the catch. He returned from injured reserve in Week 8 and finished the season averaging the second-most yards after catch per reception (7.6) in that span.”
Broncos Urged to Set Sights on Projected $62 Million TE