The last pick in the Denver Broncos' 2025 draft class has become the first to land his rookie deal.
Per the Denver Gazette's Chris Tomasson, the Broncos agreed to terms Tuesday with seventh-round tight end Caleb Lohner on a four-year contract worth roughly $4.309 million. The pact -- which will be made official later this week -- includes a $109,488 signing bonus.
A (literal) former basketball standout, the 6-foot-7, 250-pound Lohner began his football career in 2024, compiling 54 receiving yards across four receptions, all of which went for touchdowns. He also scored a two-point conversion.
"With only 57 career snaps, there will obviously be an emphasis on fundamentals and technique early in his career," reads Lohner's scouting profile via NFL.com. "His ball skills are natural, though, and his athleticism is a huge plus. He’s a likely practice squad stash early in his career, but we’ve seen a number of hoopers make the transition over the years. Lohner could be the next in line if he proves he has the toughness for the NFL game."
The Broncos selected Lohner with the 241st overall pick in last month's draft. That he had a draftable grade can be traced to head coach/offensive play-caller Sean Payton, who immediately likened the 24-year-old to five-time Pro Bowl TE Jimmy Graham.
“It’s hard, going back with Jimmy Graham, I think he had 14, 15 catches. Both of them had a season. Both of them were very good basketball players," Payton told reporters in his post-draft press conference. "Now in Jimmy’s case, there was a lot more. He was a Combine invite. We’re late in this draft and you’re rooting for some guys and you see upsides in 6’7”, 245 pounds. You can see the basketball skill set, that’s easy, at a high level. Then you’re looking at a small amount of playing time and yet enough to where you’re watching them. I think the other thing that helped was watching him at the Big 12 Pro Day. There were just a few plays that you see movement skills and it’s a lot to work with. If it turns out like the last one did, then we’d be really excited. You go all the way back in our league, historically, [Antonio] Gates was signed, I believe, undrafted and so it’s kind of one of those things where the body types for the tight end, it’s not like they’re making less of them, they may be playing volleyball and they may be playing basketball but it’s projecting. When you get a chance to see him play football, he goes through a season of putting pads on but his movement skills and his height, weight and his eye, hand coordination there’s a lot of developmental upsides and we’re excited about that.”
Lohner will open his Broncos tenure behind starting TE Evan Engram on the depth chart but could push backups Adam Trautman and Lucas Krull for playing time.
Left unsigned among Denver's 2025 class are first-round defensive back Jahdae Barron, second-round running back RJ Harvey, third-round wide receiver Pat Bryant and defensive lineman Sai'vion Jones, fourth-round linebacker Que Robinson, and sixth-round punter Jeremy Crawshaw.
