After up-and-down camp, Broncos tight end Joly closes preseason with a flourish

DENVER — Sometimes, the hardest catches to make can appear to be the easiest ones.

So it was for Broncos rookie tight end Justin Joly during the fourth quarter of Friday night’s preseason finale against the Minnesota Vikings, when he ran his route down between the hashmarks, made a head fake as he cut and was passed off by Minnesota Vikings safety Kahlef Hailassie to … um, no one.

“It’s like it’s hard to believe,” Joly said. “Why am I that wide open? I feel that’s a once-in-a-lifetime type of thing.”

Joly knew what to do the second he saw the coverage setting up and the deep middle open.

“I saw it was cover-one and then the safety dropped me and I was like, ‘Go vertical, don’t get yourself covered,’ and then Sam (Ehlinger) got great protection by the O-line and I was just open,” Joly said.

By the time Joly approached midfield, the nearest defender barely occupied the same ZIP code as Joly, the rookie fifth-round pick for whom the Broncos traded up in April, but whose camp has been defined as much by the plays he nearly made as the ones he actually converted, such as a downfield reception wiped out when he was adjudged to have committed offensive pass interference in the process of gaining separation.

There was no such concern this time as he approached the Broncos logo painted at and around the 50-yard line. Just the sensation that with over 10 yards of separation from the nearest defender, he’d face certain embarrassment if he somehow DIDN’T haul in Ehlinger’s pass.

“I had time, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,'” Ehlinger said. “He was wide open. I was like, ‘There has to be someone around,’ and luckily there wasn’t.”

Making grabs in traffic is one thing. But as Ehlinger’s toss flew, all eyes among the those in the 65,778 still on hand at Empower Field at Mile High turned to Joly, by himself, waiting for the football.

“Honestly, you would think that the ball like was in the air for at least 30 minutes,” Joly said. “You’re just waiting there, just like, ‘All right, time to go, time to go, time to go.”

When time slows down, all one can do is think. It’s not a matter of reacting to — and fighting off — a defender. And that’s where a seemingly simple catch becomes difficult.

“Oh yeah, without a doubt. It was like an open layup in basketball,” Joly said. “It’s like, hey, you just gotta go back to fundamentals, catch the ball, tuck it, run, and don’t drop it at the one-(yard line).”

When Joly reached up to secure the pass, it all came together.

Vikings cornerback Bryce Phillips was in pursuit, but he didn’t come close to Joly, who completed the 88-yard play — 50 of which came after the catch — to put an explosive cherry on the Broncos’ 34-6 sundae of a rout.

8️⃣8️⃣ yards to the 🏡!

📺: 9NEWS pic.twitter.com/R1xQTw5Xbe

— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) August 29, 2026

It was a moment to validate the work Joly has put in to master the all-around job description of a tight end, which is effectively at least three jobs: pass protector, run blocker and pass catcher.

His first training camp has been educational, humbling and an eye-opener. That’s part and parcel of life for any rookie, and the lessons aren’t just about technique — he noted his inside-hand placement as an area he’s improved — but about mindset.

See, one aspect of success in the NFL that no analytic has a metric for is to see how a young player rises after he falls. For many NFL rookies, this level marks the first time in their football lives that they’ve dealt with true individual frustration in their on-field work.

So, many players have must how to adapt. And to know that despite working toward perfection, you can’t expect it; you have to be prepared to be knocked down — and learn how to rise again.

That is among the biggest lessons for Joly so far in his months as a Broncos player. But there’s more.

“The amount of knowledge that you have to know to play ball,” Joly replied when asked about what he wish he had known before he arrived in the NFL.

“Just learning everything, learning the whole playbook — and you gotta realize that not every single play is going to be perfect, and you can’t be a perfectionist on the field. You just gotta go with the next one.”

There won’t be many plays where Joly is as wide open as he was Friday evening. But there are plenty of catches likely in front of him. He might have already made the most difficult grab — the one that looked simple on the surface.

For more from Friday night’s Broncos win, watch the embedded video.

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