Adam Trautman

From Dayton (FCS) to year 6 in the NFL — Trautman outlasted 2 higher-drafted 3rd-round TEs from his own class.

Dayton is a Pioneer Football League (FCS) program with essentially zero NFL TE pipeline. Trautman was taken in the 3rd round (pick 105) in 2020, behind Asiasi (91) and Keene (101).

Both Asiasi and Keene were out of the league within 3 years — Asiasi with 4 career catches, Keene with 3. Trautman, from the smaller program, reached 6 seasons and 115 regular-season catches while keeping a roster spot through a trade from New Orleans to Denver and four different offensive coordinators.

Why it matters. Longevity from an FCS TE means teams value his blocking and role-player reliability regardless of system — he's outlasted higher-profile picks by being a consistent professional.

6 straight seasons in a 92-yard window (171–263 yds) — 1 of only 2 TEs in a 56-player group to never spike or crash.

Among 56 TEs with 5+ active regular-season seasons from 2020–2025, only 2 had every season land between 150 and 350 receiving yards: Trautman and Tommy Tremble.

Trautman's window is the tighter of the two — just 92 yards spread across 6 years, through a roster trade and four offensive coordinators. Most TEs either break out (spiking above 350) or cycle off rosters (crashing below 150). Trautman has done neither, across both conferences.

Why it matters. A TE in the 171-263 band is neither worth starting nor worth cutting — the rarity isn't the production, it's the mechanical consistency that makes him a permanent depth piece.

Career game: 4 catches, 85 yards, 1 TD vs Carolina (Week 8, 2024).

Trautman's career-best game came in 2024 Week 8 vs Carolina — 4 catches, 85 yards, 1 TD on just 4 targets. Perfect catch rate, all chunk plays.

His next-closest game is 58 yards (2021 W11 vs PHI). Only 2 of his 75 career regular-season games have cleared 50 receiving yards. The gap between his peak game (85 yds) and his second-best (58 yds) is larger than his second-best game itself relative to most of his typical outputs.

Why it matters. The 85-yard game is a genuine outlier in Trautman's career distribution — his median game is well under 20 yards, making that CAR game a 4x+ outlier that shows his ceiling when targets align.

In 5 of 6 seasons: 0 TDs through week 4, then 1–3 TDs after — Trautman's slow starts are a career pattern.

From 2020–2024, Trautman scored 0 TDs in the first four weeks of every season — then accumulated all his touchdowns after month one. His yards-per-game is also 55% higher in weeks 5+ (17.8 vs 11.5).

2025 reversed the pattern: 1 early TD, 0 late TDs. But across 5 prior seasons, the trend was iron-clad: he was a non-factor in September and a viable red-zone option from October on.

Why it matters. Five years of the same early-cold, late-hot pattern suggests scheme integration time — he needs reps to get comfortable in a new play-caller's system before touchdowns come.

Brought in as Greg Dulcich's backup — Trautman has 3× Dulcich's Broncos TDs in 3× as many Denver games.

When Trautman arrived in Denver in 2023, Greg Dulcich was the Broncos' TE1 — a 3rd-round 2022 pick who'd put up 411 yards as a rookie. Trautman was the depth piece.

In Denver: Dulcich has appeared in 15 regular-season games across 3 seasons, totaling 2 TDs. Trautman has appeared in 42, scoring 6 TDs. Both figures are Denver-only; Dulcich's availability has been the defining difference.

Dulcich re-emerged in 2025 (335 yards, 1 TD in Denver) but Trautman has maintained his red-zone TE2 role through every Broncos regime change.

Why it matters. Availability is the best ability — Trautman's 42 Denver appearances to Dulcich's 15 shows who the Broncos have actually been able to rely on as TE2.