Adam Trautman "initiated" the draft-day trade that saw the Denver Broncos acquire him from the New Orleans Saints. Excited for the opportunity to be reunited with the head coach who drafted him, Trautman lands in an unsettled tight end room in Denver.
That unsettled depth chart opens the door to increased opportunity, which is what Trautman craved after feeling like the Saints turned him into a one-trick blocking pony in the 2022 season without Sean Payton calling the offense. In order to reunite with Payton, the fourth-year tight end also had to be willing to make a few concessions.
One of them? A reworked contract.
Per ESPN's Field Yates, the Broncos restructured Trautman's contract, lowering his base salary but giving him room to earn it back via incentives.
"After being traded to Denver, new Broncos TE Adam Trautman agreed to a revised contract, per source. He was previously due a non-guaranteed $2.743M salary. Now he'll make a $1.5M guaranteed salary, with the chance to earn money back via incentives," Yates reported earlier this week.
Trautman may have to sing for his supper, but if he's the player Payton believes him to be, he'll have a more than fair chance at earning back every nickel.
"When we drafted Adam, we felt like was one of those guys that was solid in both areas," Payton said following the Broncos' trade with the Saints. "We utilized him depending on who was up and who was down and who was healthy—both inline and at the ‘F’ position."
Trautman enters a contract year in possibly the best situation he's ever been in. In Payton's last year as head coach in New Orleans, Trautman hauled in a career-high 27 receptions for 263 yards and a pair of scores.
The Broncos have some talent at tight end, but not as versatile and complete as Trautman. In an offense that promises to feature many two-tight-end sets, he can be used as a 'Y' tight end (inline), or as an 'F' — where he can be moved around the formation.
Trautman will compete with veterans Greg Dulcich (2022 third-rounder), Albert Okwuegbunam (2020 fourth), and free-agent arrival Chris Manhertz. The two incumbents carry some draft pedigree, but neither Dulcich nor Okwuegbunam have been managed to break out quite yet, or produce at a level that would grant them a 'grandfathered' role in Payton's offense.
After being "put in a box" by the Saints, Trautman is out to prove he can do more than just block and he's been given the additional incentive of a reworked contract in the final year of his deal. These factors often lead to a contract-year explosion in production, though it's no guarantee.
“I feel like I was placed somewhat in a box,” Trautman recently told 9NEWS' Mike Klis. “They put a limit on what I could contribute and I felt like I could contribute a lot more. I was primarily used as a blocker. I thought I could do more and I didn’t want to get to the end of my career and think I could have done it, caught the ball a little more. . . . Whatever the case was, the team I was playing for just didn’t let me do it. I want a chance to prove I can do it because I believe I can and I have in the past.”
It'll be fun to see how it plays out for the former third-round pick out of the small-school Dayton. Trautman will wear the same jersey number he sported in New Orlean: No. 82.
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