Greg
Dulcich.
Greg
Dulcich.
UCLA· 6'4"· 243 lb· 4.69s 40
Dulcich was UCLA's detached seam runner, a former walk-on who grew into a flex 'Y' who split wide as often as he put a hand down. The organizing trait was straight-line speed off the ball: he released cleanly, ate cushion in three strides, and forced safeties to open their hips before he declared a break.
The secondary trait was ball skills in space — he tracked over either shoulder, caught away from his frame, and finished runs instead of sliding down, averaging 17.3 yards per catch in 2021. As a blocker he was willing and could wall off in a zone scheme, but never a displacer. The signature was the vertical stem from a three-point stance; few tight ends in the class threatened the deep middle that fast from in-line.
The Broncos' offensive system, characterized by a West Coast timing and run-action passing approach, frequently utilizes tight ends in motion and as primary receiving options.
Dulcich can immediately contribute as a receiving tight end, with a high ceiling to develop into a reliable, every-down 'Y' tight end who excels in intermediate routes and after the catch.
A purely run-heavy, two-tight end alignment scheme that demands consistent in-line blocking from its tight ends would diminish his immediate impact.
His athleticism and receiving prowess align well with modern NFL offenses that value a versatile pass-catching tight end.
Greg Dulcich 2021 Highlights | UCLA TE | 2022 NFL Draft Prospect
Full first-team All-Pac-12 season reel: seam releases from in-line, deep-over tracking and the 17.3 yards-per-catch profile.
UCLA's Greg Dulcich jukes out LSU, breaks away for 75-yard TD
The signature explosive play of his career, showing the catch-and-run juice that separated him from the rest of the tight end class.
New Denver Broncos TE Greg Dulcich Senior Bowl Highlights
Senior Bowl week in Mobile, where he won repeatedly as a route runner against man coverage and cemented his day-two stock.
Dulcich entered the process as the class's cleanest vertical-tight-end archetype. He arrived at UCLA as a walk-on receiver, redshirted into a tight-end body, and by his redshirt sophomore year was the offense's most efficient explosive-play generator. He is not a move-blocker or an H-back; his value is tied to how often an offense will threaten the deep middle from 12 personnel.
The production supports the projection rather than inflating it. He caught 26 balls for 517 yards and five scores in a seven-game 2020, then 42 for 725 and five in 2021, finishing as a John Mackey Award semifinalist and first-team All-Pac-12. He posted 100-yard games against LSU and Arizona State. The flags are just as clear: the blocking is raw, he plays tall and lets his hands drift at contact, and physical defenders can reroute him at the line.
The board had him as a late-second to mid-third value, a receiving specialist who needed a play-caller with a plan rather than a plug-and-play starter. Denver, having sent Noah Fant to Seattle in the Russell Wilson trade, took him at 80 as the direct replacement. The logic was sound: a vertical tight end for a quarterback built on play-action. The risk was that all of it rested on the one thing that would define his career.
- 01
Vertical speed from in-line
Released off the ball with genuine seam-stretching burst, a 4.69 forty at 242 pounds that forced safeties to open their hips before he declared a break.
- 02
Explosive-play production
Averaged 17.3 yards per catch in 2021 and 19.9 in 2020, both marks near the top of the country at the position rather than the product of one long play.
- 03
Ball tracking over the shoulder
Adjusted comfortably to throws away from his frame and over either shoulder, with the body control to finish contested deep-middle targets.
- 04
Run after the catch
Ran through arm tackles instead of sliding down, including a 75-yard catch-and-run against LSU in which he made the first defender miss in space.
- 05
Developmental arc
Walk-on receiver who added weight, earned a starting job, and improved his yardage total in three consecutive seasons, a curve that suggested more coaching was available.
- 01
In-line blocking technique
Plays tall out of his stance, lets his hands drift outside the frame, and loses the leverage battle against defensive ends who get under his pads.
- 02
Play strength
Sixteen bench reps and an average anchor showed up on tape when he was asked to sustain, limiting him to zone-scheme wall-offs rather than displacement.
- 03
Release against contact
Physical defenders could reroute him off the line and disrupt the timing of the seam stem that his entire pass-game value depends on.
- 04
Change of direction
Far more impressive in a straight line than working back to the ball, with a 7.05 three-cone that matched the stiffness visible on option and comeback routes.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.69sp50
- Vertical
- 34inp50
- Broad jump
- 122inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.05sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.37sp50
- Bench
- 16repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | UCLA | 3 | 1 | 6 | 0 |
| 2019 | UCLA | 11 | 8 | 105 | 1 |
| 2020 | UCLA | 7 | 26 | 517 | 5 |
| 2021 | UCLA | 12 | 42 | 725 | 5 |
| Career | — | 33 | 77 | 1353 | 11 |
Season lines cross-checked against cfbstats (2021: 12 G, 42-725-5 exact). Season totals sum to the career line (77 rec / 1,353 yds / 11 TD in 33 games). 247Sports lists 76-1,347-11 because it omits his three-game 2018; UCLA-sourced totals include it.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
The realistic outcome he has largely lived: a gifted receiving tight end who produces in the right system but moves between teams without ever locking down a job.
The ceiling if the blocking ever caught up: a flex Y who stays on the field for all three downs and becomes a play-action staple in a timing offense.
The floor, and the cautionary Denver precedent: elite straight-line traits at the position undone by availability and an inability to block well enough to stay on the field.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Greg Dulcich played one season for the Denver Broncos as a tight end, showing promise as a pass-catcher. He has been significantly impacted by injuries, playing only a few games in his second season.
The rookie year was the argument for the pick. Dulcich opened 2022 on injured reserve with a hamstring problem, was activated in mid-October, and immediately became Denver's most productive pass-catcher at the position, posting 33 catches for 411 yards and two touchdowns in ten games on an offense that produced little else. He closed the year back on IR. The hamstring never really left: he played two games in 2023 across two separate IR stints, logging 32 snaps all season. Under Sean Payton in 2024 he started three of the first four games, caught five passes for 28 yards, was a healthy scratch by Week 5, and was waived in November. The Giants claimed him and released him in August 2025; Miami signed him to the practice squad and promoted him in October, where he produced 26 catches for 335 yards in ten games.
In hindsight this is an availability story, not an evaluation error. Every trait the board bought has shown up whenever he has been healthy, including in Miami three years later. What the process undersold was how much a soft-tissue injury to the exact trait that defines a straight-line vertical player can cost, and how little margin a one-dimensional tight end has when a new staff arrives with its own plan. Denver got 41 catches and 464 yards from a top-80 pick. He is not a misread player; he is the more common outcome, a real skill that never got a clean runway.
Data note: from New Orleans via Houston