The hamstring of Greg Dulcich is ‘great,’ but now he has ‘weird’ foot injury

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — For Greg Dulcich, the good news as his second season concludes is that his hamstring is fine.

“The hamstring feels good. And it was feeling good while I was practicing,” Dulcich said Monday as the Broncos cleaned out their locker-room stalls before scattering for the next three months. “Like, I was stoked to come back to practice, I was like, hitting my high speeds the weeks coming up to it.

“And then, yeah, the week I come back, I just had to get screwed up.”

In his first practice after missing 62 days following a hamstring injury suffered in the Oct. 12 loss at Kansas City, Greg Dulcich suffered swelling in his foot.

“It was weird,” he said. “Of course, it had to happen the week that I was coming back to practice. Just some weird swelling. I just have unfortunately, some bony feet, and my cleat just kind of irritated it in a really kind of freaky way.

“Yeah, it’s a bummer.”

Greg Dulcich, on the foot injury he suffered on his first day back at practice: “It was weird. Of course, it had to happen the week that I was coming back to practice. Just some weird swelling. I just have unfortunately, some bony feet, and my cleat just kind of irritated it …” pic.twitter.com/80BEdeUwtM

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) January 8, 2024

And he doesn’t know when he will be fully healed from the foot injury.

“There’s a ton of stuff that I’m going to look at and try and figure out,” he said. “There’s still more healing that I’ve gotta do.”

THE PATH OF GREG DULCICH TO TRY AND RETURN

As Greg Dulcich worked through his fourth injured-reserve stint in two NFL seasons, he went through the gauntlet to try and get back. He saw “a few” specialists. He lost weight.

“I think there’s a lot of factors that kind of go into it,” he said. “That’s why we were trying to think of all the things and leave no stone unturned.

“That was kind of the plan with losing some weight. I mean, it worked, because my hamstring feels great. It just ended how it did.”

Without Dulcich, the Broncos’ tight ends struggled to produce in the passing game. The rest of the group — Nate Adkins, Lucas Krull, Chris Manhertz and Adam Trautman — combined for 337 yards this season.

During the 2022 season, Dulcich alone had 411 yards — in just 10 games. In the end, the UCLA product proved irreplaceable — at least with the components the Broncos had on hand.

Which is part of why offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi talked up Dulcich last week, noting that the 2022 third-round pick remains firmly in the Broncos’ plans.

“Yeah, I mean the plan is going to be just try and get healthy,” Dulcich said, “and then just stay healthy and make sure I put this stuff behind me.”