ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Go to the Internet for research and there are estimates ranging from 29 million to 60 million fans who play some form of Fantasy football each year.
That’s quite a discrepancy but there is a common denominator among all 29 million, or all 60 million: They don’t know an NFL tight end from an end in tight coverage. Something like that.
A typical conversation with a Fantasy League fan might go like this:
Who is going to be the Broncos tight end this year?
No, no. Not Trautman. Is it going to be Greg Dulcich or Lucas Krull?
Sorry, Fantasy Leaguers, but it’s going to be Trautman. He will draw a fully guaranteed $4.5 million this year. Dulcich will make $1.43 million and Krull will $915,000 – with not one dollar guaranteed until the season opening game Sept. 8 at Seattle.
Follow the money to see who the Broncos’ top tight end is. Fantasy Leaguers, though, only follow tight ends who have catches, yards and touchdown statistics. Which is only part of the tight end job description.
“I don’t care,’’ Trautman said when asked his thoughts about how Fantasy Leaguers judge tight ends by receiving stats alone. “I couldn’t care less about fantasy. That’s a whole another topic.”
>>Video below: Adam Trautman doesn't care about your fantasy football team
The 6-foot-5, 253-pound Trautman is what the industry – not the ever growing Fantasy League industry but NFL personnel and coaching industry – calls a two-way tight end.
He’s a pretty good receiver, as evidenced by his 22 catches, three for touchdowns last year. But he’s best at being pretty good at all aspects of the position. And he’s real good at blocking.
“Tight end, I would say—people would probably argue with me about this in the locker room—but mentally, it goes quarterback, center and then I would say tight ends are next,’’ Trautman said. “You have to know run-game, pass game, protection, and you need to be good at all of it to last in this league. I would say people don’t realize that.’’
They also don’t realize that while Dulcich is easily the most gifted pass catcher among Broncos’ tight ends, he may only play about half of Trautman’s snaps each game.
But since Fantasy Leaguers do rule the NFL fan kingdom, you should know Dulcich has been impressive halfway through training camp as he tries to rebound from two seasons of injuries.
“He looks explosive, he looks fast,’’ Trautman said graciously of his position mate. “It’s a very hard position to be in when you’re injured. Not even when you’re just injured -- when you’re away from the team or you’re on IR, you’re not around anybody. You’re doing your own thing.
“Greg last season, credit to him. When he’s fighting with all his injuries, he’s in here until 8 p.m. He’s the last one here doing all this treatment and everything. I’m really proud of him. I’m good friends with him. It’s great to see him come out here and ‘That’s what you looked like last year before you got injured.’ He’s continuing to get better.’’
Blocking an issue on kickoff return
The early returns on the new kickoff return play – both in the Hall of Fame preseason game Thursday between the Bears and Texans and Broncos’ training camp practices – have been underwhelming.
One problem teams are going to have is figuring out how to block the weird play. Nine blockers line up at the plus-40 yard line across from 10 defenders. Those 19 players are not allowed to move until the kicked ball is either touched by the returner or touches down inside the 20-yard box that starts at the goal line.
The concept is to increase the number of kickoff returns, but so far the returners aren’t getting up much speed before running into two or three tacklers.
“I think settling in on, is it a zone scheme or are we going to pin and pull (the gap scheme)?” said head coach Sean Payton. “In a nutshell, if you look at their alignment on that play, they’re aligning just like they would an offensive play.’’
Payton later said that because of the new kickoff alignment, bigger bodied players like offensive and defensive linemen may have a greater chance of filling final roster spots.
Bronco Bits
Broncos owners Greg Penner and Carrie Walton Penner, team president Damani Leech and Broncos’ public relations boss Patrick Smyth flew early Saturday morning to Canton, Ohio for Randy Gradishar’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony. …
Veteran cornerback Levi Wallace broke up a pass along the sideline during the first team drill Saturday, then left practice with a hamstring injury. …
Defensive end Zach Allen, special teams linebacker Justin Strnad and outside linebacker Nik Bonitto again missed practice Saturday. Outside linebacker Ronnie Perkins was also held out. …
Bronco players are off Sunday. Camp resumes Monday. Payton and his coaching staff will meet Sunday to evaluate the players.
