On the final day of Broncos rookie minicamp, like it was the first day of school, Freddie Whittingham told his kids they had to snap a picture.
And thus, they lined up on the turf of Denver’s practice facility and smiled, three iterations of Utah tight ends brought together in Dove Valley. Thomas Yassmin on the right, a staple in the Utes’ program from 2019-23. Caleb Lohner in the middle, a rookie who played his first dose of collegiate football in 2024. And Cole Fotheringham, a tryout invite who’d started at Utah back in 2018.
Somehow, for some reason, no less than six straight years of the Utes TE room was clad in Broncos gear this offseason.
“I’ve never heard of this before,” reflected Whittingham, Utah’s longtime tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator. “Three from the same school, being in the same rookie minicamp.”
A couple of years ago, the Utes staff started noticing their number of program alumni in the NFL climbing — specifically with the Broncos. Ask anyone in the building today where the most Utah kids have wound up, as defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley noted, and every single person would tell you it’s Denver. In the last few years, a quiet pipeline has been built 500 miles east from Salt Lake City. The Broncos currently carry more players from Utah (five) than from any school outside of Texas, and Fotheringham still floats outside of the 90-man roster on the team’s injured reserve list.
“One more from Utah,” Broncos head coach Sean Payton cracked in early June when asked about the prevalence of former Utes on Denver’s roster, “then one from Utah has got to go.”
He wasn’t lying. Denver had literally waived Fotheringham two days earlier.
An exhaustive in-depth investigation by The Post — okay, fine, a few conversations with staffers in Utah’s program — didn’t reveal any concrete answers to this particular riddle. When asked about it during minicamp, Payton made it abundantly clear that he never sat in a draft room and specifically targeted one school. Pablo Cano, director of NFL relations at Utah, thought this phenomenon was simply a coincidence. Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham said he had “no good answer” as to why this connection was developing.
But it is happening. Everyone acknowledges that.
“I’ve been here 30 years,” Kyle Whittingham said. “I can’t remember a time where we’ve had as many guys on one NFL team as we do with the Broncos.”
On the surface, the only obvious reason for Denver’s interest in Utah would be proximity. The Utes finished 5-7 last year and didn’t field a particularly dynamic offense. A large percentage of Utah’s roster is made up of in-state recruits, and Utah has some solid talent but typically produces only a small handful of four-star kids in any given recruiting class.
Utah Utes’ Garett Bolles (72) and Kyle Lanterman (66) stand with the trophy after a win against the Indiana Hoosiers in the Foster Farms Bowl game at Levi’s Stadium on December 28, 2016. in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)
The fundamental reason here lies in the Broncos’ scouting preferences, an organizational attitude that bleeds from the top down. Colleagues and players from Payton’s past, and particularly with the New Orleans Saints, are adamant he has an affinity for the underdog. And Payton and general-manager George Paton are “totally in sync” as far as talent acquisition in the NFL draft goes, new assistant GM Reed Burckhardt said.
The Broncos are an organization, as O’Connell noted, that likes “lunch-pail guys.” And Utah is a program expressively built on lunch-pail guys.
“We’re not the school that recruits a class full of four- and five-star players,” Freddie Whittingham said. “We’re often getting guys that didn’t have a dozen or more offers coming out of high school, developing them, and sometimes moving positions, things like that.”
In good years and bad, that philosophy has been consistent, too.
Kyle Whittingham has been helming Utah for two decades. Brother Freddie and defensive coordinator Scalley have each been there over a decade. There’s little turnover in terminology, or in culture.
Glance at the careers of Denver’s Utah imports, and there’s rather distinct commonalities. None of the Utes on Denver’s roster, plus Fotheringham and Yassmin, ever transferred. Wide receiver Devaughn Vele, the Broncos’ seventh-round pick in 2024? Played at Utah all five years. Linebacker Karene Reid, an undrafted free agent signing this year, played all four years at Utah. OLB Jonah Elliss, Denver’s third-round pick in 2023? Played at Utah all three years — and his father, Luther, is both a former Bronco and Utah’s defensive tackles coach.
“They might not be the best testers, or the fastest guy or the longest guy,” Luther Elliss said of Utah products, “but they’re going to be consistent.”
Most all of the Broncos’ scouts who have come through the building, as Luther Elliss said, have told him and Scalley they like Utah’s guys. Denver hasn’t targeted a Ute specifically because they are a Ute. But the trust, certainly, doesn’t hurt.
Around midseason, Broncos western national scout Sae Woon Jo, as Scalley remembered, came out to Utah for a practice. He’d identified Reid, who ended up signing in Denver for roughly $250,000 guaranteed.
“He said, ‘I’m gonna get another one,’” Scalley recalled. “‘I’m gonna get another Ute. Karene’s going to be my next Ute.’”
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