Jeff Heuerman’s rookie year ended before it could even begin. After being drafted in the third round of the 2015 NFL draft, it didn’t look like anything would be able to stop the 6-foot-5, 255-pound rookie from competing for the starting tight end position. That was until his first Broncos practice ever, when he tore his ACL during a rookie minicamp in May that caused him to miss his entire rookie season.
Although his knee was not fine, Heuerman used last year’s training camp to improve the rest of his body, all while rehabbing his knee.
“(Last year during training camp) I was in that weight room,” Heuerman said. “I was working out while they were out here practicing, watching from the windows. So it’s a lot different (now).”
Over a year later, not only is Heuerman’s knee 100 percent healed, but it appears that he’s in the lead to become the next Denver Broncos starting tight end. However, before Heuerman starts thinking about the depth chart, his first priority is getting back into football shape — mentally.
“When you’ve been injured for so long one of the biggest hurdles coming back is mentally, becuase you just aren’t used to the grind of football,” Heuerman said. “Luckily I got over it. I’m good to go now.”
The last football game that Heuerman played in was the 2015 College Football National Championship game when Ohio State upset Oregon in January 2015. Last week at the start of camp Heuerman finally got to put pads on for the first time since becoming a collegiate national champion.
“It’s been over a year and a half since I put pads on,” Heuerman said. “The biggest thing is getting back into the grind and getting back into that mentality of day in and day out football.”
Now that Heuerman doesn’t have to worry about the health of his knee, his focus has shifted to becoming the best tight end he can be. And that starts with advice from head coach Gary Kubiak.
“Coach talked at the beginning of camp (that) the biggest thing is being consistent,” Heuerman said. “It’s not about being consistent for a few days; you (have) a long season ahead — six months — so just being consistent day in and day out and doing my job, whatever I’m told to do.”
As of now, Heuerman isn’t concerned with where he is on the depth chart. He knows that there is plenty of time left in training camp to earn or lose a starting role.
“No matter if you are running with the (first team), running with the (second team), even if you are running with the (third team) you just got to do your job and run the play that’s called and do the best you can, and it’ll figure itself out,” Heuerman said.
Fortunately for Heuerman things seemed to have figured themselves out fairly nicely for him so far through the first week of camp. Although not official, Heuerman and Virgil Green seem to have a healthy competition going on for the starting job, with Heuerman slightly in the lead.
However, once the season rolls around, Heuerman, Green and Garrett Graham will all see the field, because Kubiak’s offense will utilize multiple tight ends often.
“Cycling through tight ends is part of the game,” Heuerman said. “Tight ends rotate in and out; you got all different types of personnel groupings, so you are used to that.”
While a rotation at tight end is very normal in the NFL, rotation at quarterback is not. And that’s exactly what the Broncos have right now with Trevor Siemian, Mark Sanchez and Paxton Lynch all competing for the starting job. Heuerman isn’t fazed by it, though, mainly because he doesn’t have time to worry about it.
“This is my sixth NFL practice. I don’t have a whole lot of time to worry about how (the quarterbacks) are doing,” Heuerman said. “I literally just focus on myself and the tight end group and the way that we can be the best tight ends we can.”
Last week Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders said that finding the starting quarterback sooner rather than later was crucial for the wide receivers; however, Heuerman doesn’t think it’s that imperative, at least for the tight ends.
“I’ve played on teams where you rotate quarterbacks in and out, so it’s nothing too serious,” Heuerman said. “But I’m sure here in the next couple weeks we’ll start having it more set in stone and go from there.”
As for Heuerman, he is thankful that he is past last year’s injury and back with the rest of the team practicing, even if it is 95 degrees outside.
“Some days you may be dragging and you think back to what you were doing last year and you think I’ll do anything over being in (the weight room) like last year,” Heuerman said.
After the draft last year the Broncos were very excited about Heuerman’s fit in this offense. Although they had to wait a year to see him, the coaching staff seems very impressed with what they have in the 23 year old. If Heuerman stays healthy, he has a great chance of taking over the Broncos starting tight end position, even in his first year of play.
