The Denver Broncos made Dallen Bentley their seventh-round pick, and the tight end could be a sneaky add as a receiver.
The Denver Broncos didn’t get a lot of attention for the tight ends they drafted, especially not for the one they took in the seventh round. That would be Dallen Bentley from Utah, but according to Luca Evans of the Denver Post, Bentley has a sneaky good chance to sneak into the Broncos’ receiving equation.
At first glance, this possibility seems ridiculous. Bentley was a 24-year old JUCO transfer who had three catches to his name in college, but his tight ends coach, Freddie Whittingham, isn’t shy about talking up Bentley, especially given the strong ties between the Broncos and the Utah program.
That brought some questions about Bentley’s hands, but Whittingham had a ready-made answer--Bentley played with a spiral fracture of one of his fingers. Shockingly, the tight end decided to forego surgery, which speaks for itself about his toughness.
“He was essentially playing one-handed this year,” Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham told The Denver Post.
Bentley also played in obscurity as far as most Broncos fans were concerned. They expected the team to select a tight end like Eli Stowers of Vanderbilt, but instead Denver chose Justin Joly from North Carolina State as their potential move tight end.
Bentley will be competing with Joly for playing time, but he’s really a different type of player. He’s a better blocker than Joly, and the Broncos have plenty of tight ends whose primary purpose is to block.
“I think I’m a really great hybrid tight end who’s able to go out there and make some big plays in the passing game, and stick my hand in the dirt and make some big plays there,” Bentley said after he was drafted. “I have great hands, so I don’t drop balls. So you can trust me, in some situations.”
Those situations will include the running game given his hybrid role, and the Broncos value the kind of toughness that allows players like Bentley to stay on the field.
“A lot of guys would’ve just pulled the plug,” Kyle Whittingham said, “and gotten that surgery. But he wanted to prove himself because of the frustrations he had, in years previous.”
Bentley will have an uphill battle to make the roster, and he could be asked to play a role on special teams as well. The Broncos have a stacked roster at tight end, but Utah guys have made the roster before, and Bentley could be next up.
“He’s just sneaky athletic … he can line up in-line at the line of scrimmage and block, you can also involve him in the pass game,” Freddie Whittingham said. “So I think it’ll be interesting to see what they do.”