The key word for Greg Dulcich’s first full offseason as an NFL player: Flexibility.
Sure, it’d be great if the tight end adds it to his game on the field in Year 2 for the Broncos by becoming a better blocker and continuing to develop his promising pass-catching skill set, but positional flexibility is secondary in importance at the moment.
Dulcich quite literally spent the offseason trying to become more flexible in an effort to stave off the recurring hamstring issues that limited him during his rookie season.
“That’s definitely been a huge part of my offseason since January, just making sure I can be more flexible to try to limit injuries and try to get into a better routine to make sure my body is all good,” he told reporters Thursday.
Dulcich made an impression right away last year after arriving in Denver as a third-round draft pick out of UCLA, but he suffered a hamstring injury in OTAs. Not only did he miss minicamp, but he also missed training camp. Then he was placed on injured reserve.
Finally, he returned in Week 6 and played in 10 games before another hamstring injury cost him Weeks 17-18.
In all, the first injury cost him five games and took him five months to fully get over. He’s not interested in having to deal with that again if he can help it.
“I’m just trying to stay on top of those things, make sure my body’s warm before I do anything and then afterwards, recovery modalities post-practice,” he said, adding that he thinks playing in Colorado adds a level of complexity to the equation. “Especially here with the altitude, you get dehydrated real quick, so they have a lot of electrolyte packets for us and hydration stuff.”
When Dulcich was available as a rookie, he made an impact. He caught a 41-yard touchdown in his debut Week 6 against the Los Angeles Chargers. He had six catches twice and 85-plus receiving yards twice for an offense that struggled most of the year overall and in the passing game particularly. He finished with 33 catches for 411 yards, good for second among NFL rookie tight ends to Tennessee’s Chigoziem Okonkwo’s 450 in 17 games.
Dulcich has a new-look group around him, too. Albert Okwuegbunam is back, but Chris Manhertz, Adam Trautman and fullback Michael Burton essentially replaced Eric Tomlinson, Eric Saubert and Andrew Beck from the 2022 team.
Manhertz and Trautman have each played for coach Sean Payton in the past, Manhertz only briefly but Trautman for the first two years of his career.
“They’ve brought that expertise and having been in this system before, they know kind of the ins and outs and they’ve been very helpful,” Dulcich said. “It makes it easy to rely on vets like that. You know, whole new offense, whole new coaching staff and scheme, and it’s been pretty seamless because of those guys.”
Payton expressed confidence and excitement in Dulcich recently, saying he can be the Broncos’ “Joker” — a sort of positionless designation for a player who can hurt defenses in several ways.
“Man, he can run and has good ball skills,” Payton added. “I think his menu is going to be lengthy in the passing game, and there’s enough stuff we can do in the run game.”
Dulcich insisted Thursday he’s not the only tight end who can fill that role for the Broncos this fall.
“I think what’s cool about our whole tight end unit is anybody can do that, it’s kind of plug-and-play, plus we all have a lot of abilities that can help this team,” he said.
A flexible tight end group would indeed serve the Broncos well in 2023. A flexible Dulcich would be even better.
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