ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Name the one team in the NFL that didn’t have more than two receivers go over 300 yards in 2016.
You guessed it, the Denver Broncos.
Yes, much is made of Denver’s two stars and their run of 1,000-yard seasons but last season the team got virtually nothing out of everyone else. In fact, the Broncos’ third-leading receiver on the season was the opening-day backup running back, Devontae Booker (265 yards). Denver’s secondary crop of receivers grossly underachieved and their tight ends were arguably worse.
The team’s top tight end was Virgil Green who had just 237 receiving yards on the season, 41 different tight ends in the league had more production than that.
That was last year, though, and under the last staff. Under the direction of Vance Joseph and his new group of coaches, a lot is expected to change for the Broncos on the offensive side of the ball. In charge of the tight end position is 25-year NFL coach and former offensive coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers, Geep Chryst.
Chryst spoke with BSN Denver last month about where his group stands.
“You can tell that Virgil is a hard worker, you know that he’s been around the league, played in big games and made contributions in big games,” the new tight ends coach said. “That’s always a nice luxury to have. It seems like his teammates and his coaches really respect how hard he works, and that’s a really great reputation to have.”
“Then you have a bunch of really young guys,” Chryst added with a smile. “With Heuerman coming off of his injury, your expectation is that one more year removed from that injury will be one more year that you’re productive. You almost have to treat it—not just last year but even a little bit of this year—like he’s a rookie and has a great opportunity within the scheme. There will be some new learning from what he’s been familiar with, maybe some of the veteran players that remembered how [offensive coordinator] Mike [McCoy] taught his offense will have some retention, but you almost have to treat him like a rookie. Then you have a couple of guys that were rookies in Derby, who has been a nice addition since he was picked up from the Patriots and then his one-time teammate, Iowa Hawkeye Henry Krieger-Coble. You treat those as young, developing players and when that’s the case you don’t see a lot of tape of them. It’s not like they’ve been playing in the league for five years and you have this nice library of all of their games stacked neatly together. So we’re right at the start of the process, and we’re getting to know them on tape a little bit.”
Of those young players, Derby may have been the most impressive, but both he and Heuerman showed their best form towards the end of the season. For Derby, all of his 160 yards came between Weeks 10 and 15. For Heuerman, 66 percent of his production came in the final three games of the season.
Many have already marked the former third-round pick our of Ohio State in the bust column, but Chryst says “not so fast.”
“I think, first off, kids are awful excited when they do get drafted and the higher you get drafted, the more excited you are,” he explained. “I think that that’s really hard to be excited about getting drafted and—in Heuerman’s case—to be injured even before you get to the first Greyhound bus station, before you even get on a bus and then you’ve got to take the long road back to recovery. I think that this is going to be his most comfortable year, not necessarily because of scheme, it’s just because he’s already got that one year under his belt where he was not re-injured. So my expectation is high because I think he can be the same type of athlete that we saw when he came out of Ohio State, and he deservedly was drafted higher than some of the other tight ends that went in that draft class.”
In the end, though, Chryst wants it to be clear that he’s not just looking for “the best fantasy football tight ends.”
“Football is still football, and it’s still blocking and tackling,” the veteran coach explained. “As much as we want to see all the tight ends contribute as receivers, if you have 100 catches that’s a really good year, and if you played 1000 snaps that means you caught the ball 10 percent of the time, so the other 90 percent you’re probably blocking.
“In terms of philosophy, you’re part lineman, so you have to know all the line schemes and block and have the pride to block,” he added. “Then you’re part receiver, so you want to be a contributor in the passing game, contributor in the red zone, contributor on third down, all that situational football. You might not have the 100 catches, but if you make that clutch catch that moves the chains on third down or the clutch catch that gives you a touchdown in the red zone, that’s as valuable to the team. There’s a place for the tight end in today’s game, and I think that’s exciting to coach a position where you know you can influence the outcome of a game.”
With a new staff in place, a lot is expected to change for the Broncos on the offensive side of the ball. As for the tight ends, though, one thing that has yet to change is the personnel. Even if the team adds help in the draft, Chryst will be counted on to get more out of a group of men that largely disappointed last season.
