It didn’t take long for Greg Dulcich to make an impression at the pro level.
The former UCLA football tight end reeled in his first career touchdown on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” against the Los Angeles Chargers. The Denver Broncos rookie was previously on injured reserve and missed the first five games of the season with a hamstring issue, but immediately became one of quarterback Russell Wilson’s favorite targets in his first bit of official game action.
Dulcich’s debut took place at SoFi Stadium – less than 13 miles away from Westwood and 20 miles away from his hometown of Glendale, California – and former UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman just happened to be the color commentator for ESPN’s broadcast. It was still a road game for the tight end, though, dividing the crowd when he torched Denver’s secondary for a big scoring play early on.
With the Broncos marching past midfield, already up 3-0 in the first quarter, Dulcich lined up on the right and ran a seam up the sideline. The Chargers let him slip behind the second level, and Wilson stepped up in the pocket and lobbed one to a wide open Dulcich to make them pay for it.
Dulcich caught the ball at the 15 and beat Pro Bowl cornerback JC Jackson in a footrace to the front right corner of the end zone for six.
That wasn’t even Dulcich’s first catch of the drive, either, as he made a 5-yard grab to help Denver convert on 3rd-and-4 on the opening set of downs. That catch eventually led to a 37-yard reception by Jerry Jeudy, which was immediately followed up by Dulcich’s 39-yard touchdown.
The Broncos had struggled to put up points through five weeks, when Dulcich was recovering from his injury. Denver was averaging 15 points per game entering Monday night, with only one game over 16 points and none over 23.
Albert Okwuegbunam came into the season as the de facto No. 1 tight end, but he played just 16 snaps across the Broncos’ last two games. Eric Saubert has the slight edge over Okwuegbunam in terms of season numbers with one touchdown to his name, but the two combined to average a mere 26.6 yards on 2.8 catches per game.
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Dulcich came in and more than matched those numbers immediately, taking two catches for 44 yards and a touchdown in the first half alone Monday night. The rookie also had a goal in the end zone right before halftime, but it got broken up in traffic.
With the game tight late, Dulcich was playing almost every snap and running routes out of the slot. Even though the Broncos still failed to fully break through with a big night on offense, Dulcich was at least playing a major part in making the operation run slightly more smoothly.
Denver ultimately lost to Los Angeles 19-16 thanks to a game-winning field goal deep into overtime, sending the Broncos to 2-4 on the season so far.
Across four seasons at UCLA, Dulcich went from walk-on receiver to all-conference tight end and Mackey Award contender. The 6-foot-3, 245-pound tight end first contributed as a backup in 2019, then really took over in 2020 once Caleb Wilson and Devin Asiasi had both turned pro.
Dulcich racked up 517 yards and five touchdowns on 26 catches in seven games in 2020, making the All-Pac-12 Second Team as a result. Returning for his redshirt junior year in 2021, Dulcich really broke out with 725 yards and five touchdowns on 42 catches.
The tight end ranked second on the team in targets, receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns, and he wound up making the All-Pac-12 First Team by season’s end. Dulcich made appearances at the Reese’s Senior Bowl and the NFL Scouting Combine over the winter, boosting his draft stock in the process.
The Broncos selected Dulcich with the No. 80 overall pick in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft, making him the highest-drafted UCLA tight end since Marcedes Lewis in 2006.
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