Sean Payton Sounds Absolutely Smitten by Broncos Rookie TE

The Denver Broncos are hosting their final day of rookie minicamp on Sunday. The rookie cleats hit the grass on Friday, and Saturday gave Broncos Country its first real look at the 2025 draft class in Orange and Blue.

One of the most intriguing picks in Denver's 2025 draft haul is seventh-round tight end Caleb Lohner, who's one of five Broncos rookie selections to have signed a contract already. The Utah product didn't have much football tape for the Broncos to analyze, exiting the college ranks with four catches and four touchdowns, which forced Sean Payton and company to rely on what they saw at the Big 12 pro day.

It was enough to happily throw a seventh-round flyer on the 6-foot-7 former hoops star. On Saturday, Payton explained the process of discovery on Lohner and why the Jimmy Graham vibes persist.

“You see traits, you see movements. I’m not a big fan of the Big 12 Pro Day because a player like him gets six routes instead of 20 that he would get at his own Pro Day," Payton said of Lohner on Saturday. "So hopefully that’s going away, but there are two or three clips where I’m like, ‘Play it again. Play it again.’ Then when you watch him, and you watch him move, and even in our first two days here. People bring up Jimmy [Graham]. Now, Jimmy was a third-round pick. I get it, but there were some similarities in that."

Again, one of the big Lohner challenges was that he only played one year of Division I football at Utah. That's all it took for Garett Bolles to make himself a first-round pick in 2017, but Lohner didn't receive nearly the same amount of playing time in the Utes offense. Bolles was a season-long starter at left tackle in 2016. Lohner played 57 snaps on offense.

"He only played a year, 80-something snaps. I think he had 18 catches," Payton said of Lohner. "So yes, we have to coach and develop. In other words, if it was already present when you watch him, and you guys see him, and shake his hand and stand next to him, like, ‘Holy cow.’ There are traits there that excite me. Then just visiting with him, and his intentionality and his excitement about it. I’m excited to watch it.”

In case you can't tell, Payton is quite geeked up about Lohner. As for the rookie, he understands the similarities he shares with Graham, but he's nowhere close to being ready to make any comparisons.

“I think our size is the same, but I have a long way to go," Lohner said on Saturday. "I have to keep learning and growing every day in this game.”

Beyond the shared basketball history, Lohner and Graham are the same height, although the former New Orleans Saints Pro Bowler was about 15 pounds heftier than the rookie. In Lohner's case, he spent half a decade playing college basketball at BYU, Baylor, and Utah.

“I’ve been blessed with great people in my life, people that have believed in my abilities," Lohner said. "Now I’m here. I’m a Bronco, and my goal, again, is just to help this team in any way that I can.”

He gave football a try in 2025 and although the sample size was small, Lohner's size and traits were identified by the Broncos and Payton seems smitten. There's a long row left to how for the big rookie tight end, but an old cliche applies: 'Take it by the inch, it's a cinch. By the yard, it gets hard.'

The Broncos have their mismatch tight end in free-agent acquisition Evan Engram. He's on the wrong side of 30, but his two-year deal with the Broncos buys Payton and company time to get Lohner up to speed.

That's not to say that Lohner couldn't be ready sooner, or that he won't contribute in 2025, but he's got a lot of work to do to become a bonafide NFL tight end. Every journey starts with a single step, and that began on Friday for the former Ute.

"All I want to do here is improve every day [and] learn the game of football," Lohner said. "I think this is the best place for it. I’m excited to take [on] each and every day the next steps.”