Caleb Lohner goes from basketball court to the NFL

ENGLEWOOD, Col. (ABC4 Sports) – When Caleb Lohner came to BYU to play basketball from Wasatch Academy, he had dreams of making it to the NBA.

But after two years in Provo and two more at Baylor, Lohner was approached by coaches at Utah about trying to play football. The experiment worked. In his first experience playing football since eighth grade, Lohner had just four catches for the Utes in 2024, but all of them were for touchdowns. Lohner’s physical attributes led the Denver Broncos to take a flyer on him in the seventh round of the NFL Draft.

“I’ve just been blessed with great people in my life, people that believed in my abilities,” Lohner said after the Broncos rookie minicamp this past weekend. “Now I’m here, I’m a Bronco, and my goal is just to help this team in any way that I can.”

Utah tight end Caleb Lohner drafted in 7th round by Denver

Lohner, who played tight end for the Utes, is willing to do whatever it takes to make the team as he continues to learn the game.

“It’s an amazing experience, an amazing opportunity,” Lohner said. “All I want to do here is improve every day, learn the game of football, and I think this is the best place to do that.”

Basketball obviously as physical as football is, but at 6-foot-8, Lohner’s ability to out-jump almost anybody on the field is a huge advantage.

“I just think the athletic gifts that I have,” Lohner said. “I’ve been blessed with height, obviously, and some of the other things that have allowed me to play sports my whole life.”

Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton has been impressed by Lohner, despite his lack of football experience.

“This is a basketball player for most of his career,” said Payton. “He plays a year of football, count the snaps, count the catches. I get it. Yet, you see traits, you see movements.”

When Payton was in New Orleans, he drafted Jimmy Graham, who, like Lohner, was a basketball player that had just one year of college football experience. All Graham did was go on to play 13 years in the NFL, becoming one of the best tight ends ever.

“People bring up Jimmy, and now Jimmy was the third round pick,” Payton said. “I get it. But there were some similarities in that he only played a year. We’ve got to coach and develop him. In other words, there’s traits there that excite me.”

Jaxson Dart adjusting to life in the NFL

Lohner is very familiar with Graham, and has studied his game to see how he can succeed in the NFL.

“I’ve watched some Jimmy highlights,” Lohner said. “I think our size is the same, but I got a long way to go. I’ve got to keep learning and keep growing every day in this game.”

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Caleb Lohner goes from basketball court to the NFL

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