Broncos Predicted to Part Ways With Struggling 2025 Draft Pick

The Denver Broncos don’t have much time to teach right now. Such is the situation for a team coming off its first playoff bid in a decade and returning the NFL’s best defense and one of the NFL’s elite young quarterbacks in Bo Nix.

In 2025, you can either pick things up quickly or get out of the way.

Rookie tight end Caleb Lohner is not picking things up quickly. According to The Denver Post’s Luca Evans that has put Lohner directly on the roster bubble with teams headed toward the August 26 deadline to cut rosters down to 53 players.

Lohner was a seventh round pick by the Broncos in the 2025 NFL draft after playing just one season of college football at Utah, where the 6-foot-7, 255-pounder had just 4 receptions and all of them were for touchdowns. Before that, he was a standout college basketball player at BYU, Baylor and for the Utes.

Denver head coach Sean Payton was critical of Lohner after he picked up 3 penalties in a 27-7 win over the Arizona Cardinals on August 16.

“Payton might eventually make the 6-foot-7 Lohner into the next Jimmy Graham,” Evans wrote. “Right now, though, the Broncos rookie looks like what he is: a seventh-round pick who’s played very little football in his life. He racked up three penalties Saturday against the Cardinals — two more penalties than catches he’s had all preseason … He’s looked more than capable as a receiver over the middle and as a blocker for stretches of camp. But Payton’s remarks weren’t exactly glowing, and the Broncos’ tight end room is stuffed. ”

Broncos Have Several Options With Lohner

The most likely path for Lohner is he will be released as the Broncos cut down to their 53-man roster. Because there’s little to no chance another team picks him up off waivers, he’ll land on the practice squad where he’ll essentially get a redshirt year to develop. Remember that in his one season of college football at Utah, he was only on the field for 57 total snaps.

With so much riding on every roster spot this year, there’s not a clear path to Lohner getting one of those spots just so the Broncos can hang onto him.

“I just wanted an opportunity, and I genuinely believe that wherever I am … I’m going to do everything I can to help win,” Lohner told ESPN’s Jeff Legwold in May. “I know I don’t have a ton of football under my belt, but that’s exactly why I’m playing the game, because I’ve developed a passion and love.”

Some Predictions Brought Broncos TE In First Round

It wasn’t really a surprise the Broncos drafted a tight end in 2025. The surprise came with when they drafted a tight end — many mock drafts had the Broncos adding a tight end in the first round.

Still, The Athletic’s Nick Kosmider singled out Lohner as his favorite pick by the Broncos in their 2025 draft class.

“The seventh-round selection for the Broncos may not be in line for a big role in 2025,” Kosmider wrote. “He’ll be in for a tough fight to make the initial 53-man roster in September. But it’s hard not to be intrigued by a 6-foot-7, 256-pound target who played one season of college football after five years as a major-conference basketball player.”