There's no good time to suffer an injury setback, but there are absolutely worse times than others. The Denver Broncos are in the midst of their offseason program with the first week of OTAs in the books, and a second week coming up before mandatory minicamp in the middle of June.
One player who is fighting for a roster spot is 2025 7th-round pick Caleb Lohner, a tight end who was on the practice squad for the Broncos most of last season. Lohner was a basketball player at the college level and didn't even play 60 snaps on the football field, but the Broncos (and others) were impressed with his ability to the point that they actually spent a draft pick on him.
With so much additional competition at the tight end position coming in the form of 5th-round pick Justin Joly and 7th-round pick Dallen Bentley, the timing of some recent injury news for Lohner really couldn't be worse.
After a strong showing at rookie minicamp that drew rave reviews from Sean Payton himself, Lohner is now set to miss the remainder of the offseason program before training camp in July with what 9News Broncos insider Mike Klis is calling a "routine lower body cleanup procedure".
Denver Broncos TE Caleb Lohner is missing out on crucial reps in 2nd NFL offseason
Per source, #Broncos TE Caleb Lohner will miss the next two weeks of OTAs/minicamp as he had routine lower-body cleanup procedure this offseason. Lohner expected to be full-go by training camp.
— MikeKlis9NEWS (@mikeklis9news) June 7, 2026
There are a few reasons why the timing of this news is terrible for Lohner.
First of all, he's fighting for a roster spot with a number of guys who have way more experience than he does. Evan Engram and Adam Trautman appear to be roster locks. Nate Adkins and Lucas Krull both have a couple of additional years of experience over Lohner.
Second, the Broncos selected two tight ends in the 2026 NFL Draft. They traded up for Justin Joly in the 5th round and took Lohner's old teammate at Utah -- Dallen Bentley -- in the 7th round.
News of Lohner missing the next couple of weeks also comes shortly after Sean Payton went out of his way to single him out for his performance:
Sean Payton out of nowhere today after rookie minicamp: “I’ll tell you who stood out — Caleb (Lohner).”
— Luca Evans (@bylucaevans) May 9, 2026
Usually doesn’t single guys out unprompted, but here’s two mins of Payton raving on #Broncos second-year TE Lohner.
“He’s in great shape. You see his athleticism.” pic.twitter.com/EswOk20o9X
Lohner missing the entire offseason program before training camp prevenets him from being able to show what he can do on the same practice field as all of the other veterans. It puts him at somewhat of a disadvantage going into training camp, because everyone else is going to have had more time on the field.
It certainly isn't the end of the road for Lohner, but it already felt like he was entering this offseason at somewhat of a disadvantage because of the other players at that position. The Broncos are going to need to see him hit the ground running when he does come back to practice, and whatever leap Sean Payton feels like he made from the end of last year to rookie minicamp is going to need to stand out immediately in the month of July.
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