Shurmur Gushes on Broncos TE Noah Fant, Compares him to Another First-Rounder

Are fans justified in worrying whether Noah Fant will have a place in Pat Shurmur's Broncos offense?

Pat Shurmur's offense isn't exactly known as being tight end-centric. However, that's not to say that Shurmur's scheme neglects the tight end. Far from it. 

Shurmur's offense is about spreading the defense out, utilizing speed and spacing to exploit the opposition in the play-action passing game. If you don't think a 6-foot-4, 249-pound tight end with 4.50-second speed can have a place or utility in such an offense, you've got another thing coming. 

The Denver Broncos drafted Noah Fant in the first round last year and despite some ups and downs, the team received some historic production from the former Iowa Hawkeye. Fant's 40 receptions and 562 receiving yards are the most ever for a rookie tight end in Broncos' history. It is among the team's highest priorities to ensure Fant gets the coaching and tools he needs to take that next step in year two. 

Under Shurmur, the Broncos might not be a team that runs many two-tight end sets, however, you can bet your bottom dollar that an explosive receiving talent like Fant is going to see the field a lot as the projected TE1. During Shurmur's introductory press conference on Thursday, Fant was compared to New York Giants' TE Evan Engram, which the new OC acknowledged shares many similarities with Fant. 

“Very similar type of players," Shurmur said of Fant and Engram. "Yes, he’s [Fant] primarily a pass receiver with what you’re looking for as a tight end, but quite frankly he was a pretty gritty blocker when he was asked to do so last year."

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Fant didn't get much credit for it because he was so raw to begin with, but he came along quite well as a blocker as his rookie season progressed. What he lacked in technical acumen he more than made up for with his tenacity and willingness, even though it sometimes resulted in a little yellow laundry flying. 

Shurmur would go on to gush about Fant, figuratively licking his chops at the prospect of working with him. 

"I haven’t seen him in person," Shurmur said. "I remember him from the draft process. He was another player that we had a really, really high opinion of. I’m looking forward to working with him.”

Some misguided fans point to Engram's relative statistical drop-off in New York over the last two years as reason to have misgivings about Fant falling under Shurmur's new purview in Denver. Those same fans, however, omit the fact that Engram missed eight starts in 2018 (year one of Shurmur's Giants tenure) and 10 starts in 2019. 

And yet, Engram still hauled in 45 receptions for 577 yards in 2018 and 44 receptions for 467 yards in 2019, while scoring six combined touchdowns over that two-year period. Meanwhile, Fant's rookie-season production came close to what Engram accomplished in either one of those years but it took Fant nearly twice as many games. 

In other words, if Shurmur could get nearly 50 receptions and 600 yards out of Engram in just eight starts, imagine what Fant can do in 16 games in this offense. Even go back just one stop further to Minnesota where Shurmur coached Vikings TE Kyle Rudolph to a Pro Bowl nod in 2017 where he caught 57 balls for 532 yards and eight touchdowns — with the extremely limited Case Keenum throwing the rock. 

Replace Keenum with the uber-talented Drew Lock and Rudolph in what was his seventh NFL season with Fant entering just his second, and sky's the limit for what this young Broncos offense could accomplish under Shurmur in 2020. 

Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.