Multiple media members who attended last week’s practice noted that Lohner was among the players not participating, and some were speculating whether he suffered an injury or not. Well, now we know he underwent a lower-body procedure and will be sidelined until the start of training camp.

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This is a small setback for Lohner, who drew praise from head coach Sean Payton earlier this spring when he, out of the blue, went out of his way to praise Lohner and his development. This put the former 7th-round developmental tight end on the radar of players who could have breakout performances this spring/summer, but this is certainly a step in the wrong direction.

Lohner needs all the snaps and reps he can get, so missing out on two weeks of practice and development isn’t great. With that said, he still has all of training camp and the preseason to continue making his case for a roster spot and obviously already has the attention of the head coach. So, all is not lost for Lohner and his quest for a spot on the Broncos’ 53-man roster.

With Lohner sidelined, all eyes will be on the two Broncos rookie tight ends, Justin Joly and Dallen Bentley. Both are competing for roles and potentially a roster spot(Joly is probably a lock) and are competing with Caleb Lohner for a role and roster spot with the Broncos. These two weeks will give them a chance to possibly separate themselves from Lohner before he eventually returns for the start of training camp.

The competition behind veteran tight ends Evan Engram and Adam Trautman is going to be one of the more intriguing aspects of Broncos training camp. You have a developmental project in Lohner, two rookies in Joly and Bentley, a blocking specialist in Nate Adkins, and Lucas Krull. We’ll see how it all shakes out moving forward, but in the short-term, Caleb Lohner will be sidelined these next few weeks but will be ready for the start of training camp later next month.