Veteran tight end Owen Daniels visited the Packers in 2014, but Green Bay didn’t make him an offer. Credit: Associated Press

San Francisco — The Carolina Panthers solved their dilemma at tight end in 2011 by making one of the great trades in recent NFL history and also signing an effective veteran in 2014 unrestricted free agency.

The Denver Broncos compensated smartly for the departure of their Pro Bowl tight end in March by signing an unrestricted free agent and trading for another veteran.

The tight end position, increasingly valuable in an increasingly passing-oriented league, was as good as it gets for the Panthers this season and more than just functional for the Broncos.

Those two teams will be meeting Sunday in Super Bowl 50 while the Green Bay Packers, a team that lost Jermichael Finley to a career-ending cervical injury in October 2013, will be watching from home still without a suitable replacement 2½ years later.

"A good tight end is the best friend of any quarterback," Sean McDermott, the Panthers defensive coordinator, said Thursday. "He not only can stretch the field but he also is in that 5-yard stick window when (the quarterback) gets in trouble."

The NFL game, according to McDermott, hinges on identifying favorable matchups and exploiting them. With Richard Rodgers at tight end in post-Finley Green Bay and with little speed at wide receiver, the Packers became an easy mark this season for many defenses.

Packers coach Mike McCarthy summed up the offensive malaise by saying, "Philosophically, to have a successful passing game, you have to have big targets that can turn in the middle of the field, whether it's a tight end or a big wide receiver."

The Denver and Carolina coaches and players were familiar with the Packers, having defeated them in back-to-back games in November. Fred Pagac, the Broncos' outside linebackers coach, was the Vikings' defensive coordinator in 2011 when Finley probably had his best season and the Packers broke their scoring record.

"Finley was a matchup problem," said Pagac. "I didn't think he was a problem in the run game, obviously. But when they moved him out in wideout situations, you had to decide who to put on him. Linebacker, safety or corner.

"Rodgers is a good player. I don't think he's as big of a matchup problem as Finley was."

The Panthers had been without a top-flight tight end since Wesley Walls when they traded a third-round draft choice to Chicago for tight end Greg Olsen in July 2011. In five seasons, Olsen has played in 85 straight games and caught 371 passes, counting playoffs.

"You want to talk about one guy that's the guts of that team, Olsen is the guy," a defensive coach for the Arizona Cardinals said last week. "He's one of those guys that will do whatever it takes, like Larry Fitzgerald."

The Broncos' defensive coaches vowed to know where Olsen is on every snap and pay him the utmost attention.

"You can't even compare those guys," Denver nickel back Bradley Roby replied when asked to contrast Olsen with Rodgers. "Olsen's way more athletic than dudes give him credit for. He's in that (Rob) Gronkowski category.

"When you have a great pass catcher like that it's always a threat. Is he's going against a corner who covers for a living, or a linebacker? If the corner's not that big, you have an issue."

Olsen played an astronomical 95.5% of the snaps whereas his backup, former Raven Ed Dickson, had 53.9% playing time. On a maximum protection team, Dickson often stays in and does an effective job blocking.

Carolina signed Dickson in April 2014 for slightly more than minimum salary. After playing 47.3% playing time, Dickson went back to the Panthers on a three-year contract with $2 million guaranteed.

In March, the Broncos made the difficult decision to let talented Julius Thomas walk in unrestricted free agency even though he caught 24 touchdown passes in 2013-'14. His five-year deal in Jacksonville contained $24 million in guarantees.

They responded by signing Owen Daniels at the start of free agency to a three-year contract with $3 million guaranteed. New coach Gary Kubiak had coached Daniels for his entire nine-year career.

In the AFC Championship Game, Daniels burned Pro Bowl linebacker Jamie Collins of New England for touchdown receptions of 21 and 12 yards on almost identical stop-and-go routes.

"He knows what his role is going to be and he'll give you everything he's got," said Brian Pariani, the Broncos' tight ends coach. "Studies the game. Savvy route runner."

In March 2014, one day after Daniels said he had been released because of a failed physical after eight productive seasons as the starter in Houston, he agreed to visit the Packers.

"I was excited," Daniels said Wednesday. "I knew they didn't bring free agents up there very much. It would have been cool to go back up to Wisconsin."

Daniels, who played for the Badgers, had recently undergone sports-hernia surgery after sitting out the last 11 games of 2013 because of a fractured fibula. In 2009, he missed the last half of the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

According to Daniels, he met with McCarthy and some coaches but never met general manager Ted Thompson. No offer was extended, but Daniels said a deal "probably would have" gotten done if he had been healthy.

"They kind of sent me on my way," said Daniels. "After that, we just never got anything done."

It was about a week later, Daniels said, that he committed to a one-year, $1.56 million deal with Baltimore. He was reunited with his old coach in Houston, Kubiak, and his old position coach, Pariani.

Daniels caught 56 passes in 17 games for the Ravens. This season, despite troublesome knees that limited his ability to practice, he has 50 catches in 18 games.

"I don't know what I could run. I'm old," said Daniels, 33. "But I have a little quickness left in me."

Kubiak, who has always operated an offense friendly to tight ends, was a tight end short behind Daniels and veteran Virgil Green after rookie Jeff Heuerman, a third-round pick, blew out a knee in a spring minicamp.

On Nov. 2, just before the trading deadline, general manager John Elway dealt a pair of sixth-round picks to San Francisco for tight end Vernon Davis and a seventh-round choice.

Davis, who turned 32 on Sunday, knew the Packers' Andrew Quarless was out with a knee injury leaving Green Bay with little depth (Justin Perillo, Kennard Backman) behind Rodgers.

Davis said he believed the Packers would be interested in him given his outstanding performance against them over the years and their ugly depth chart. He was informed three teams were talking to the 49ers, but said he didn't know if the Packers were one of them.

The Packers, who haven't acquired a player via trade since safety Anthony Smith in October 2010, weren't interested, a source involved with the trade said.

Said Daniels: "He's still super fast." Added Roby: "Vernon is a great athlete. I think (Aaron) Rodgers could have used him well. He can be the X Factor. I think it would have helped them."

Davis averaged 45.2 snaps in Games 9-14. However, since Peyton Manning returned from injury in Game 16, his playing time has been almost nonexistent (17 snaps). In 11 games, he has 20 receptions for 201 yards to go with a couple drops.

It would appear likely that the Broncos will let Davis walk as an unrestricted free agent and pick up a compensatory draft choice in 2017.

"I guess it has to do with Peyton being so complex," Davis said Thursday. "I make mistakes in practice. I just got here.

"I laugh at this stuff, man. I got about six, seven more years. I honestly feel my best days are ahead of me. I clocked in at 4.38 this off-season. Of course, I think I could have went there (Green Bay) and really contributed."

Meanwhile, Richard Rodgers' father, Richard, strongly endorsed his son as the Packers' tight end of the present and future.

"He was always a wide receiver," said the elder Rodgers, the Panthers' assistant secondary coach. "The problem for him is, he's just developing into his body. His lower body is massive; in the upper body, he looks kind of slender and more like a basketball player.

"In my opinion, he's gotten a lot better. His skill set is to be a great pass catcher, and that's what he is. He's in the same mold as Antonio Gates because it's hard to match up with him.

"He just has to find his happy medium in terms of his weight. He played this year between 270 and 275. Probably 260, 265 would be a good weight for him."

Rodgers' 40-yard dash time of 4.87 seconds works against him ever approaching the all-time exploits of Gates, the Chargers' eight-time Pro Bowl tight end who has 844 receptions and 104 TDs.

However, Pariani, an NFL tight ends coach for 20 seasons, maintained that speed isn't the be all and end all at the position.

"Everybody is so concerned with stretching the field," he said. "Really, you want to find an athlete that you can teach and understands football and can win against linebackers and safeties. They have to get open for their quarterback. That's where a lot of teams struggle.

"They're hard to find. We're fortunate."

On the other hand, Carolina tight ends coach Pete Hoener said he judges the position on a player's ability to threaten a secondary deep.

"In its simplest form, defenses have a harder time playing a hard eight-man box against you if you have an (elite) tight end," said Hoener, who was Davis' position coach from 2006-'10 in San Francisco. "Because somebody in zone (coverage) has to carry him and, in man (coverage), they've got to match him.

"There aren't many of those guys around."

Whether it's through the draft, free agency or trade, the Packers need to come up with one.

Send email to bmcginn@journalsentinel.com