Denver Broncos TE Greg Dulcich is expected to miss multiple weeks after injuring his hamstring, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. It’s the same injury that caused Dulcich to miss time last season. Dulcich was expected to be the No. 2 TE behind Adam Trautman for the Broncos under new head coach Sean Payton. That was exactly the case in Week 1’s 17-16 loss to the Raiders. Let’s take a look at how Denver’s TE depth chart will break down with some fantasy football analysis.
Trautman led Broncos’ tight ends with five catches for 34 yards in the loss on Sunday. Dulcich finished with two catches for 22 yards. The snap count and route breakdown is even more telling. Trautman is the clear No. 1. Even with Dulcich healthy, Payton was leaning on Chris Manhertz, who had 25 snaps to Dulcich’s 21. Manhertz ran fewer routes and wasn’t targeted in the passing game, however.
With Dulcich out of the picture, Trautman is an interesting waiver wire claim for Week 2. He had 46 snaps and 23 routes run in Week 1, which is a pretty high usage. No Dulcich should mean more targets and even slightly more snaps. Manhertz should also see more work but isn’t really a threat in the passing game like Trautman.
