Keeler: Broncos, Bo Nix only a tight end away from catching Chiefs, Eagles

What do the Chiefs have that Bo Nix doesn’t? I mean, besides a line judge who actually winks back?

“I think it’s good, obviously, to get here, to understand what it’s like,” the Broncos’ Adam Trautman, affable to the last, told me in Buffalo last month, shortly after the Bills ran him and his mates out of Highmark Stadium in the AFC wild-card round. “And then understand that all these teams are in the playoffs for a reason. You’ve got to be close to flawless to win these games.”

You’ve also got to have a tight end. The cool run shallow crosses like long, slow, deep, soft kisses that last three days.

Saquon Barkleys are harder to find than $4.00 eggs. But if there’s one position on the field that has the most separation between the new-money Broncos and the Super Bowl LIX cage match between Kansas City and Philly, it’s tight end.

Because the good teams, by golly, don’t leave home without one. The Chiefs logged 15 receptions by tight ends that went for 20 yards or more during the regular season. The Eagles had 13. Buffalo totaled 12; Washington logged eight.

The Broncos managed three.

Trautman collected two such grabs; Lucas Krull, one. Broncos Country salutes you, gentlemen. Even as it so badly needs to replace you.

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes had Travis Kelce long before the Chiefs had Taylor Swift. His Eagles counterpart, Jalen Hurts, has 6-foot-5 Dallas Goedert, who in the NFC title game lit the Commanders up for 85 receiving yards on seven grabs and ran the ball twice for 13 more.

Imagine if Nix had one of those toys to play with, given the brush strokes he left between the hash marks as a rookie QB1. Imagine if Nix had Las Vegas’ Brock Bowers, a 6-4 sledgehammer who caught 112 balls for 1,194 yards and, more impressively, somehow made the Raiders occasionally watchable.

“He’s a true Joker tight end,” Broncos coach Sean Payton gushed of Bowers, a few months back, after the Broncos’ first win over the Silver and Black in Sin City. “And those are — listen, when you have them, there’s nothing better. Because it involves interior people, sometimes not exterior people.”

It involves doing unto others what others liked to do to the Broncos — and to Josey Jewell in particular. Namely, making a downhill defender have to turn on a dime and sprint uphill. All while backpedaling.

All-world tailback Ashton Jeanty would look just as sweet in Broncos orange as he did in Boise blue. But if it’s me, and I get one big swing in the first round of the draft, I’m moving mountains for a franchise tight end to grow with Bo over the next decade. Penn State’s Tyler Warren looks like the second coming of Dallas Clark. Michigan’s Colston Loveland is 6-5 with Spider-Man hands and reportedly runs a 4.7 in the 40-yard dash.

Only Harleen Frances Quinzel loves Jokers as much as Payton. But those guys can be tweener tight ends, too. Right, Jimmy Graham?

“That was the first exposure at this level for me as head coach, where we had Tiki Barber when I was in the Giants. He was a Joker-type player,” Payton recalled last month. “Jeremy Shockey was a Joker-type player. Jason Witten was a Joker-type player early in his career. And so then pretty soon, you had Shockey, then Jimmy Graham, then Darren Sproles, then (Alvin) Kamara (in New Orleans).

“And I didn’t really appreciate it at the time, but in that stretch, we went through a stretch of 15 or 16 seasons with (a) real high-end offense. That maybe (we) didn’t have a receiver get to a Pro Bowl, but those other spots did. And I think in our league, when you look around and you reference, just take some of the top teams — you know, they’ll always remember Kelce with the Chiefs. I don’t know that you’ll remember the receivers, sometimes. …

“Do I think we have some candidates (internally)? Yeah. But that inner triangle of attacking a defense is real important.”

How important? The last nine Super Bowl champs have all featured a tight end who’d caught at least 45 passes during the regular season. The last 10 AFC champions all showcased at least one 45-catch tight end. Of the 10 Super Bowl matchups dating back to Broncos-Panthers, 17 of the 20 participating teams — 85% — brought at least one 45-catch tight end with them to the party.

“Yeah, possession kills,” Trautman noted.

You can platoon at tailback if push comes to shove. You can share the wealth, the load and glory. But like the Swiss franc and the Indonesian rupiah, tight end is a beast to fake. And a joy to cash.

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