John Elway draft picks redeeming themselves on TNF

Jeff Heuerman, Tight End

The tight end position is historically considered one of the toughest positions to transition to from college to the pros.

Combine that fact with the fact that Jeff Heuerman missed his entire rookie season with a knee injury, and struggled again with injuries in 2016, and it’s no wonder it’s taken him a long time to develop.

Heuerman only had one target in the passing game on Thursday night, but he made the most of it:

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First of all, this is a great throw by Osweiler.

Second, Heuerman shows off some really good speed down the middle of the field here, and we get a flash of what made him such an intriguing third round pick out of Ohio State.

Heuerman will always have the incredible honor of having won the first ever College Football playoff tournament as a player and immediately winning the Super Bowl as a rookie in the NFL, but he needs to do more on the field to prove he belongs.

For what it’s worth, Pro Football Focus has graded him as the third best run blocker on the team behind Ron Leary and Garett Bolles.

This post is not meant to say that one game erases every other game these players have either played poorly or shown incapable of the large roles they were originally drafted for, but it was fun to see many players originally drafted or signed by Denver play the biggest role in the team’s victory over the Colts.