Sean Payton has seen the basketball-to-football leap pay off before. Now, as head coach of the Denver Broncos, he's hoping for a familiar return on that gamble.
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Sean Payton hopes to strike gold with a basketball player-turned-tight end, again. https://t.co/8Jyhv4Q8ZT
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) July 2, 2025
In 2010, Payton and the New Orleans Saints took a chance on Jimmy Graham, a former University of Miami basketball player who had played just one season of college football. Graham went on to become one of the most productive tight ends in NFL history.
Fifteen years later, Payton is eyeing a similar outcome with Caleb Lohner, a 6-foot-7, 250-pound forward-turned-tight end who played just 57 snaps of college football but flashed enough athletic upside to catch the Broncos' attention in the 2025 draft.
"If it turns out like the last one did, then we'd be real excited," Payton said, via DenverBroncos.com.
Lohner, who played college basketball at Utah, brings the kind of physical profile coaches dream about. While comparisons to Graham would be premature, it's clear Payton sees potential in the rookie.
"We're late in this draft and you're rooting for some guys, and you see upside," Payton said after selecting Lohner. "You can see the basketball skill set — that's easy — at a high level. You're looking at a small amount of playing time, and yet enough to where you're watching him. I think the other thing that helped was watching him at the Big 12 Pro Day. There's just a few plays that you see movement skills, and man, there's a lot to work with."
Lohner enters training camp as a long shot, but so did Graham. And if there's any coach equipped to develop a raw basketball athlete into a legitimate NFL tight end, Payton might be the one to do it again.
The Broncos open the season September 7 at home against the Tennessee Titans. They visit the San Francisco 49ers on August 9 in the preseason opener.
