Have a year, Jeff Heuerman

ENGLEWOOD – It’s already been the year of Heuerman.

During the offseason, he took a couple big-game fishing trips, a couple golfing trips, bought an extremely expensive driver then promised -- through written document that he published for public consumption -- his fiancé’ he would not buy another one for five years and visited some exotic islands.

Did we mention he got engaged to Hannah May?

Oh, and then Jeff Heuerman broke out on the football field. After three years of battling injuries, became the Broncos’ starting tight end. He had a career-best game with four catches for 57 yards in front of a Monday night prime-time audience against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Have a year, Jeff Heuerman.

“I like to golf, I like to fish, got engaged, yeah, it was a good offseason,’’ Heuerman said in a sit-down interview with 9News this week. “Got a lot of work in and but also had some fun.’’

Luckily for the Broncos, Heuerman has brought his you-only-live-once spirit to his career that is on a serious rebound after a slow start. In his second professional practice after the Broncos made him their third-round pick in the 2015 draft, Heuerman ripped an ACL during a kickoff coverage drill during the team’s rookie minicamp.

The ACL led to soft-tissue injuries in his second year before he finally emerged as the Broncos’ backup tight end to Virgil Green in 2017.

Entering the fourth and final year of his contract, Heuerman’s 2018 season was make-or-break.

“I get up every morning and do as much as I can every day to get better,’’ he said. “Sometimes it drives my fiancé crazy. It’ll be 8 or 9 or 10 oclock at night and I’ll be doing a stretching routine or something.

“But every day, I attack it and that’s what I did this offseason. There’s a lot of things you can’t control, injuries and stuff, a lot of that’s out of my hands. The only thing I can do is attack each day and do as much I can to try and better myself.’’

He has 9 catches – which was his season total in 2016 and 2017 – entering game 5 today against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

But Heuerman has been much more than 9 catches. Tight end might be the most misunderstood position in football because it’s part offensive tackle/part receiver. Fantasy leaguers only care about the receptions and yards, but the truth is, great pass receivers at the tight end position are often among the worst blockers.

“You get no fantasy points for blocking anybody,’’ Heuerman said. “You can make a great block and pop a guy for a touchdown but there’s not fantasy points for blocking.’’

With Green gone for free agency and then the Los Angeles Chargers this offseason, the Broncos’ No. 1 tight end spot was saved for Heuerman. Jake Butt, a second-year tight end coming off a right ACL injury, received far more press this offseason in part because of his receiving talent.

But Heuerman was always the starter and got more playing time even before Butt tore his other ACL in practice last week.

“I pride myself in the work it takes to be an every-down tight end,’’ Heuerman said. “That’s been fun.

Obviously, being 2-2, we’ve got to get some things rolling and start winning some games here.

“Offensively, coach (Bill) Musgrave, coach (Geep) Cryst, they’re all great. I love coming into work every day. I love being in Denver. It’s a great organization, top to bottom. Mr. (Joe) Ellis, Mr. (John) Elway and all the way down to Alfredo.’’

You might have guessed Alfredo is a cook. More specifically, Alfredo Gonzalez is the Broncos’ pastry chef.

“Shout out to Alfredo,’’ Heuerman said. “But top to bottom it’s just a great organization.’’

Heuerman said he was running next to Butt during a kickoff coverage last week when his tight end mate went down with another season-ending knee injury.

“I mean, awful,’’ Heuerman said. “I know he’s been through it before. I’ve been through it before here. … For a guy like Jake, it’s just devastating. I was running down next to him. After the play I looked over and you see him holding his knee on the ground and your heart just drops.

But he’s in a good place, as far as being in Denver and he’s still young so we have all the confidence in the world he’s going to bounce back.’’

The Broncos’ offense at the quarter pole? They rank 13th in total offense with 383.3 yards per game but they rank 25th with a 21.0 point average.

“We’ve had our ups and downs,’’ Heuerman said. “The one thing about this offense, and team in general, we’re fighters. We’ve got a bunch of fighters on this team. Which you like to see that in your team. Especially in the first quarter, when you’re trying to figure out your team dynamic and we’ve got fighters on our team and I think that’s going to take us a long way.’’

That fight comes from quarterback Case Keenum, who has struggled overall but has been a consistent drive engineer in all four, fourth quarters this season.

“When you’ve got a quarterback that fights like that it kind of fuels the rest of the team,’’ Heuerman said. “You kind of take on that mentality. Yeah, he’s a guy you want to go to battle with.’’

For all the places he’s been, Heuerman would rather be no place else. Denver, Colorado might be his favorite place on earth and if it all works out, perhaps he will get a chance to sign a contract extension with the Broncos this offseason.