Denver Broncos: We should all root for Jake Butt

Jake Butt’s story with the Denver Broncos is inspirational and motivational as they come.

When Jake Butt was with the University of Michigan he built up a tremendous amount of recognition as one of the nation’s best tight ends. He became a quarterback’s best friend in the passing game garnering possible comparisons to potential NFL Hall of Famer Jason Witten.

Butt rose with recognition, but everything seemed to hit the stop button as soon as he tore his ACL against Florida State in the Orange Bowl. From that particular moment, things changed. Due to the injury in the bowl game, it affected his draft stock to fall to the fifth round and taken by the Denver Broncos.

Butt’s journey with Denver began very rocky in 2017. The injury continued to plague Butt’s Broncos’ early career, but in 2018 the team did see small glimpses of potential that can become larger in more reps moving forward now in 2020. However, we must first talk about 2019.

In 2019, Butt dealt with another knee procedure that again sidelined him. There is always adversity in a person’s journey, but when we come out as victors pushing through that ceiling there’s possibly nothing more gratifying. This leads us to Butt now in 2020.

Butt could have rolled over and quit due to his recent injury, but his support group has helped him get through this process. We could learn a thing or two about supporting one another in these tumultuous times or at any point in our lives.

Accountability is one of the biggest factors that keep people going. Checking up on someone’s behavior can help a person hit the reset button or restart option. This alone has given Butt a new lease on his football life.

As we mentioned earlier, Butt did see action in 2018 and despite how small the sample size was it gave us that idea who Butt can be. Butt played well in the initial going of the season when Case Keenum led the way at quarterback. In fact, you could make an argument Butt helped Keenum be a better quarterback. As crazy as it sounds, Butt was a reliable target on thirds downs and clutch situations. One such pass was on third down to help win against the Oakland Raiders.

Furthermore, Butt’s re-emergence in Training Camp should not surprise anyone who watched the early three games he played in during the 2018 season. More importantly, Butt’s perseverance to put one foot in front of another is a reminder that all things are possible if you believe in yourself to never give on your dreams.

In my personal life, dreams are what help strive me to achieve goals of mine. This is not a bad thing. Butt’s story is inspirational and everyone should be rooting for him than telling him to give up.

In the words of Jake Butt…

"“There were a lot of days that I was really down on myself, questioning myself, questioning why I’m even doing this kind of thing. For me, it’s my support group, my teammates, my friends and maybe just a little bit of craziness that I’ve had implanted in me from my parents and my family growing up. You can’t quit and just show up tomorrow. It might not be the best day and the path might not be linear. You’re going to have some down days, but eventually, you’re going to go back up. I’m really happy I stuck with it because I do feel really, really good out there. I feel like I can still play in this league and contribute. I can even get much better than what I’m playing right now. That’s a lesson I definitely learned through this and everybody can learn. Bad days are going to come and tough days are going to come, but you can’t quit. You just have to keep showing up.”– Jake Butt via Denver Broncos PR"

We should all root for Jake Butt.