Tight end Hale Hentges played in four straight CFP championship games, earned two national titles and served as captain of the 2018 team while at Alabama.

But his value to the Crimson Tide's offense lay mainly in his blocking ability. In four seasons, Hentges caught 15 passes for 124 yards and six touchdowns, so the NFL Draft came and went in April without his name being called.

Hentges chose to join the Indianapolis Colts as a free agent for a $15,000 signing bonus in May and started showing the coaching staff that he could catch the football, too.

"We know he’s not the most athletic guy, but he just finds a way to get open,” Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni said as Indianapolis progressed through training camp. “He finds a way to get open, and even when he doesn’t find a way to get open, he catches the football, and that’s ultimately what a receiver and a tight end, when the ball is in the air, are judged upon.”

While at Alabama, Hentges played with tight ends O.J. Howard, preparing for his third season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Irv Smith Jr., a second-round draft choice of the Minnesota Vikings in April.

Now Hentges is facing the task of earning a spot on the regular-season roster on the team with perhaps the best tight-end pair in the NFL.

Jack Doyle earned a Pro Bowl invitation in 2017, when he caught 80 passes for 690 yards and four touchdowns for the Colts. With Doyle limited to six games last season, Eric Ebron came in and was a Pro Bowler, too, after he caught 66 passes for 750 yards and 13 touchdowns, the most among the NFL's tight ends in 2018.

The Colts also have 6-foot-5, 267-pound Mo Alie-Cox, who caught seven passes for 133 yards and two touchdowns as a rookie in 2018 after not playing college football.

It doesn't seem likely that Hentges could beat out Doyle, Ebron or Alie-Cox for a spot on the regular-season roster, but with the Colts, he doesn't have to. Head coach Frank Reich's offense uses tight ends in a wide variety of ways, and Indianapolis had as many as five on the regular-season roster at times last season. The training-camp roster lists seven.

“There’s such a great opportunity for tight ends here,” Hentges told reporters on Monday. “There’s a lot of them here, and they’re all really good. I just wanted to get my name in there.”

Hentges will enter the first of the Colts' four preseason games on Thursday night with momentum built in training camp.

“I had a pretty decent past couple of days," Hentges said, “but like I said, I’m just trying to learn from the guys that are so good in front of me — guys like Jack, Eric and Mo — and really just absorbing everything that they’re doing and watching them and watching their film and trying to figure out what makes them so good and trying to emulate that.”

The Colts kick off against the Buffalo Bills at 6 p.m. CDT Thursday at New Era Field in Orchard Park, New York, and Hentges hopes to show he can handle Indianapolis' full tight-end palette.

“I’m trying to show my value,” Hentges said. “Anything they want me to do, I’ll do, and if that’s play fullback, I’ll happily do it.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.