Broncos Mailbag: Is hoops player-turned-TE Caleb Lohner Denver’s most interesting rookie? ...Middle East

Denver Post Broncos writer Parker Gabriel posts his Broncos Mailbag weekly during the season and periodically during the offseason. Click here to submit a question.

Caleb Lohner is such a fascinating pick to me. He’s like Julius Thomas with the basketball background but without as much football experience. Do you think he’ll get much playing time this year or will he be a project much like Thomas was his first few seasons in Denver?

— Mike, Denver

Hey Mike, thanks for writing in and getting us going this week. Lohner is definitely one of the most interesting incoming players for the Broncos this offseason. Take nothing away from first-round pick Jahdae Barron, but to me, running back RJ Harvey and Lohner are Denver’s most intriguing rookies as the group prepares to arrive in town to get their professional careers started.

I know Lohner didn’t start his last couple of years at Utah, but the guy is a legit Division I basketball player. You don’t play in 153 games and start 46, even with modest scoring production, if you can’t hoop.

It’s entirely too early to know if he’ll play much or at all for the Broncos this fall. He’s one of the guys I’m most interested to get eyes on this weekend at rookie minicamp, but even that’s only one small step toward Week 1 in September.

Denver has all of its tight ends back from last year and brought fullback Michael Burton back, too, so it’ll be interesting to see how the battle for roster spots shapes up. Sometimes developmental players like Lohner end up in an interesting spot as it pertains to the roster. The Broncos drafted him in the seventh round to ensure they didn’t have competition while trying to sign him as an undrafted free agent. And what teams perceive as a player’s market in the post-draft process sometimes influences decisions at the roster cutdown. For instance, undrafted running back Blake Watson made the roster last year and head coach Sean Payton indicated part of the reason was because Denver knew there were half a dozen teams or more that tried to sign him after the draft. That might impact the likelihood that a player clears waivers. Same thing could end up applying to Lohner this summer if he’s on the roster bubble.

It would obviously be a surprise if Lohner has the kind of polish and nuance to his game that allows him to play a big role right out of the gate. We’re talking about a guy who has played 52 snaps since middle school. At the same time, Utah thought enough of him to use him as a red zone threat last year, and his four catches each went for touchdowns. So, unlikely? Yeah. Impossible? Of course not.

Ideally, if you’re the Broncos, you’re able to let him learn and develop and then deploy him as he’s ready to roll. That may or may not take a little roster finagling this fall.

Do you think Denver will host the draft any time soon? I’d love it to come to our city. Maybe they’ll try and pair it with the opening of the new stadium?

— Ryan, Denver

Hey Ryan, yeah, good question. Never say never, but the impression I’ve got is that hosting a draft is not currently high on the Broncos’ priority list.

Contrary to some reporting that’s floated out there over the past year or so, the Broncos and city of Denver did not submit a bid to host the 2027 NFL draft, which was just awarded to Washington, D.C. Side note, that’s going to be awesome. Plus, 2027 could be when Arch Manning and Jeremiah Smith are available. Start your tanking preparations now.

Here’s what Broncos president Damani Leech told The Post just about a year ago as it pertained to 2027: “There’s been no official submission on our behalf for hosting the draft. Now, it’s a major NFL tentpole event and it’s really, really exciting, but it’s not something that we’re currently working on.”

My sense is that sentiment hasn’t changed regarding future years at this point, either. That doesn’t rule out the Broncos and Denver hosting one down the road, but they do have a lot of other irons in the fire currently with their current headquarters construction project, the decision-making process regarding their stadium and all the rest.

Any news about the Ring of Fame? I want to see Demaryius Thomas get his day.

— Tim M., Arvada

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Hey Tim, thanks for writing. No news yet. Last year, the Broncos announced their class in late May, lining it up with one of the team’s OTA weeks. So it’s getting to be the part of the calendar where the selection committee usually does its work.

Thomas is obviously going to be elected at some point and it wouldn’t be a surprise for it to happen this year. There are other deserving candidates eligible for the first time, too, like cornerback Aqib Talib, along with a few others. So maybe the question is just about whether Thomas, the Super Bowl champion and five-time Pro Bowler who died in 2021, gets his own year or if he goes in as part of a small class.

Last year’s class of safety Steve Foley and tight end Riley Odoms marked the first players inducted into the Ring of Fame in the Walton Penner Family Ownership Group era. It also represented the first time multiple players had been part of the same class since 2016.

The Broncos’ Ring of Fame committee includes CEO and owner Greg Penner/the team’s ownership group, Hall of Fame safety Steve Atwater, former vice president of communications Jim Saccomano, play-by-play announcer Dave Logan and former head coach Mike Shanahan.

When is Mike Shanahan going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame? It seems like he keeps getting snubbed despite his impressive resume. Bill Belichick seems to be the odds-on favorite for 2026, so maybe 2027 for Shanny?

— Lewis K., Lakewood

Hey Lewis, think you’re on the right track with Belichick in 2026 and then somebody else — Shanahan potentially — in 2027. He’s clearly more than deserving.

Mike’s son and 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan put it pretty well this spring when asked about it at the NFL spring owners meetings in Florida.

“There’s a number of good coaches in line,” Kyle Shanahan said. “I think all of them will get in eventually. You could sit here and be upset about the order it goes or whatever, but I know he deserves it. I know other people do, too, and hopefully, he’ll be in sooner than later.”

The process itself for coaches and contributors has changed and is a tough one to really understand. The list of candidates gets whittled pretty far down and then a blue ribbon committee votes on a finalist to move to the full Pro Football Hall of Fame induction committee. Then the finalist has to get 80% of the vote. That’s a high bar, and in recent years, coaching candidates have not cleared it. Mike Holmgren was picked as the finalist over Shanahan and several others last year, but didn’t get to 80% of the full committee. The year before, the same thing happened to Buddy Parker.

It used to be that a coaching finalist put forth just had to get a ‘yes’ vote from the full committee. Now the coaches are grouped together with seniors and contributors and have to get 80%.

So, first you have to make it to finalist status and then you need the full group to vote you in. And likely everybody at the moment is waiting in line behind Belichick.

Hi Parker, what are your thoughts on Drew Sanders this year? It’s make or break for him, isn’t it? The draft gurus made it sound like he was a steal in the 2023 draft, but he hasn’t done a whole lot in Denver. And not a Broncos question, but who do you think will be the Browns’ starting quarterback in Week 1?

— Mark, Arvada

Hey Mark, thanks for the questions, as always.

I don’t know if I’d call it make-or-break, but it’s certainly an important summer and upcoming season for Sanders. He obviously didn’t have any control over rupturing his Achilles last spring, an injury that cost him a big chunk of his second year.

When he returned to practice, he did so originally as an outside linebacker. But the edge group blossomed into such a strength that the Broncos not only traded Baron Browning, they also moved Sanders back to the inside for the stretch run.

So Sanders started out as an ILB, moved during the season to OLB, thought he was going to settle there, got hurt, returned as an OLB, and then slid back to ILB.

Now the Broncos say he’s going to be an ILB going forward.

If there’s a silver lining to new free agent signee Dre Greenlaw missing a chunk of the offseason program going forward due to a quad strain, maybe it’s that Sanders will get a ton of reps. The inside linebacker group also features a rehabbing Alex Singleton, so Sanders will get all the work he can handle while the veterans try to get fully healthy.

We’ve seen the glimpses of Sanders’ traits and ability. He made plays sideline to sideline during training camp his rookie season. He recorded a sack as a sub-package blitzer on his first defensive snap of the 2024 season after missing the first 13 games.

But there’s a difference, obviously, between showing flashes and becoming the kind of player who can be left in the middle of the field on all three downs. Sanders, it’s fair to say, hasn’t had a long or consistent runway to try to make that leap. Now he’s got it. Let’s see what he does with it.

On the Browns, the amazing thing is they’ve added four quarterbacks since March. They traded for Kenny Pickett in March, signed Joe Flacco in mid-April and then drafted Dillon Gabriel in the third round of the draft and Shedeur Sanders in the fifth. The only guy who definitely won’t start Week 1 is the one with the massive guaranteed contract in Deshaun Watson, who is rehabbing a torn Achilles. Let’s throw a dart against the wall and say Pickett Week 1 but at least two others over the course of the season — including Shedeur Sanders.

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