ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- When tight end Greg Dulcich limped down the sideline after his 21st snap against the Las Vegas Raiders in the Denver Broncos season opener, he took a big chunk of the playbook plan with him.
Neither he nor those promising plans for the tight end group have returned.
"It shelved some stuff we probably would have gotten into had he been healthy,'' Broncos coach Sean Payton said this week.
Dulcich reinjured his hamstring in that game and later went on the injured reserve list after having already spent two stints on it in 2022.
Fifteen weeks later, the Broncos enter Sunday against the New England Patriots with 31 receptions combined from their tight ends, the second fewest at the position in the league.
"You've got packages and they just kind of go back on the bookshelf [after Dulcich's injury],'' Payton said.
The Broncos have certainly tried to incorporate tight ends Adam Trautman, Chris Manhertz, rookie Nate Adkins and most recently Lucas Krull into what they're doing on offense. But whether it has been the flow of the game, Payton's decisions to often go with three wide receivers in the formation, or quarterback Russell Wilson going elsewhere with the ball, the Broncos offense has felt the sting of Dulcich's absence, especially in the red zone.
Dulcich has played 32 snaps over two games this season -- the 21 snaps in the opener against the Raiders and 11 snaps Week 6 against the Chiefs -- because of hamstring injuries that have him crisscrossing the country visiting specialists. It has cratered the plan for Dulcich, who was a third-round pick by the Broncos in the 2022 draft, to be the foundation of the group.
Trautman, who was acquired from the New Orleans Saints in a draft-weekend trade, currently leads the team's tight ends with 20 receptions. Manhertz has two, Adkins four and Krull two.
"They're all good blockers and functional receivers,'' offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi said earlier this season. "Obviously, Greg brings an aspect of speed and stretching the field that maybe those guys don't have. That obviously is a part of it ... I don't think all of a sudden they are going to start running the routes that Greg ran because he has a specific skill set that goes with that.''
It's of note because of the way most of the league plays defense with the nickel package -- five defensive backs -- being the "base'' formation for most teams, .Broncos included. And against that look, a tight end with the size and physicality to overpower a defensive back as well as the speed to quickly out-flank a linebacker is a matchup offensive coaches are quick to exploit.
Consider that 23 teams entered this weekend's games with a tight end who has more catches this season than the Broncos tight ends combined. Eight teams, including four the Broncos have already played, have a tight end who leads the team in receptions, yards receiving or touchdowns this season.
New England, with Hunter Henry being the Patriots' receptions leader, will be the fifth the Broncos have faced. Henry is listed as questionable with a knee injury.
Payton said this week that he felt like Dulcich's injury happened early enough in the season for the Broncos to make adjustments, but Payton couldn't quantify how much it had impacted the look of the offense. In recent weeks, he has spoken highly of Krull, who was on the Broncos practice squad and had been elevated for three previous games before he was promoted to the active roster last week.
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[Dulcich's injury] happened early enough -- we were still growing and trying to figure out where we were going -- [but] it's hard to say because if you don't have it you start going somewhere [else], you just don't have it,'' Payton said. "Now, there's some things we've seen from Lucas that we really like and man, I'm glad we have him. He's got an expanded role.''
It has all made it difficult for the Broncos to consistently stress defenses through the middle of the field, even when secondaries give a little more attention to wide receiver Courtland Sutton. Several defensive coaches around the league contacted over the past week said they believed part of the reason Wilson has roughly the same QBR against man coverage (47.7) and zone coverage (45.7) this season (that's 22nd and 20th, respectively) is that the Broncos haven't had a consistent option at tight end in the passing game.
There is also the matter of the red zone, where the Broncos are 22nd in the league -- 50% scoring touchdowns -- and are last in goal-to-go touchdown efficiency at 53.8%.
In Payton's 16 years with the Saints, it did take some time for the position to push through in the passing game. With running back Reggie Bush in what Payton calls "the joker'' position, a tight end didn't top 20 catches until Payton's second year (2007) and didn't hit the 50-catch mark until Payton's third year (2008) when Jeremy Shockey finished with 50.
In the end, Trautman said this week the key for the offense, overall, to find improvement was simply "having answers for certain things'' defenses are doing.