The Denver Broncos have spent years trying to solve their tight end troubles

Their inadequate coverage of tight ends and inability to get much production from their own are two of the biggest reasons they've fallen so far from their Super Bowl perch and have been looking up at the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC West since 2016.Both problems appeared to be fixed this season thanks to an influx of talent on defense and a return to health of Jake Butt Oakland Raiders Hats , who missed his rookie season last year after tearing up his right knee in his final game at Michigan.Yet, Butt's season is over after he tore his left ACL at a walkthrough practice Thursday and the Broncos haven't shown much progress in throttling opposing tight ends, either.In their opener, the Broncos allowed Seattle's Will Dissly to become the first tight end in league history to top 100 yards receiving and score a touchdown in his NFL debut, one that included a 66-yard rumble featuring four missed tackles.Butt's third ACL tear was the crushing blow, coming four days before the Broncos (2-1) host the Chiefs (3-0) on Monday night ."I felt for Jake right away," Broncos coach Vance Joseph said. "He's worked so hard for the last two years to get himself back to this point. He was improving every day. He was making plays for us on Sundays. You can see the special ability this player had and the passion."This guy was the same guy every day: happy, fully engaged every day, a very smart football player. It's a shame that it ended that way on that kind of play."The Broncos promoted third-year tight end Brian Parker from their practice squad Saturday when Butt joined rookie Troy Fumagalli on IR.That means the Broncos' tight end group now consists of two undrafted players in Parker and Matt LaCosse and 2015 third-round draft pick Jeff Heuerman, who has just 23 career catches and two touchdowns."He's been a good pass-catcher for us," Joseph said. "He's always been a pretty good pass-catcher. Now Oakland Raiders Hoodie , without Jake, obviously his targets should go up a little bit. But he's done a great job in the past, especially in the red zone."Offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave said, "We're all just broken up about it."His loss is a big blow to the Broncos' special teams, too."It's a huge loss," special teams coordinator Tom McMahon said. "He's a great pro, he loves football. I love Jake. This football team loves Jake. How he acts as a man, if my boys can be that guy 10 years from now, I'll be a very proud dad."Covering tight ends has been Denver's Achilles heel for two years.It was a big reason they didn't make the playoffs in 2016 and last year they allowed the third-fewest yards (3,395) in the NFL, but tight ends accounted for 1 Customized Oakland Raiders Jerseys ,023 of those yards — third-most in the league.After focusing on fixing that all offseason, Dissly's debut was a downer for the Broncos, who also allowed four catches for 49 yards to Oakland tight end Jared Cook the following week and Ravens rookie tight end Mark Andrews' 12-yard TD catch last week.Up next is Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce, who had a 133-yard game against the Broncos last year."He's just a guy that is hard to put a linebacker on because of his ability," defensive coordinator Joe Woods said. "He has the size to match up with safeties. He's really like a wide receiver and tight end. He's definitely a difficult matchup, but I have a lot of confidence in the guys we have — Justin Simmons and our whole safety crew."I think we have a chance to go matchup at times against him and win our fair share."Raiders rookie report: Maurice Hurst gets first career sack Rookie first game jitters are out of the way now. Another week offered another chance to show improvement, but we’re still in the early stages of a long road for these rookies. Here’s what they brought to the table in week two.ActiveKolton MillerArden KeyBrandon Parker Maurice HurstJohnny TownsendTrent SiegInactiveNick NelsonPJ Hall (ankle injury)Kolton MillerAfter being the lone bright spot among the rookie crop in the season opener, Miller held his own again in week two. At least he did from a pass protection standpoint. He has yet to give up a sack this season. That’s impressive for a rookie, and he gets a lot of credit for that. Though there are potential reasons why that might be over these first two games.The Rams don’t have much in the way of outside pass rushers. They strength is the defensive interior. The Broncos have elite pass rusher Von Miller and the top drafted rookie pass rusher, Bradley Chubb. Miller lined up almost exclusively on the right side across from Donald Penn and the Raiders schemed for Derek Carr to get the ball out on quick passes all day, which takes pressure off the tackles. That being said www.raidersfootballauthentics.com , Penn gave up two sacks (one of those wiped away by penalty), so it’s not like the opportunity was not there.Where Miller struggled mightily was against the run. He gave up at least three run stuffs at the line, two of which saw Shaq Barrett toss him aside easily to make the tackle. And I didn’t notice a single run in which Kolton was the primary blocker to open things up. He gets credit for protecting Carr’s blindside for sure. But his run blocking very much needs work.Brandon ParkerPlayed four snaps on special teams and that was all.Arden Key A hat tip to Key for his work in this game. Early on, he had a missed tackle on an 8-yard run, but luckily it was third and nine, so the Broncos had to punt anyway. He seemed to settle down though from the first game, improving his run defense overall. In the second quarter he had a tackle for loss and a run stop. He added a couple QB hits as well, which haven’t been easy to come by for the Raiders this season.Maurice HurstAs few QB hits and pressures as the Raiders have had, sacks are almost non-existent in Oakland right now. They had one in the opener and one in this game. The one in this game came courtesy of Hurst. To be fair, it was off a high snap to Case Keenum, but Hurst gets a lot of credit for being there to take advantage of it. He didn’t make much noise in the game otherwise on 38 snaps (58%).Johnny TownsendTownsend had a booming punt and a couple bad punts. He launched his second punt of the day 56 yards into the thin air of mile high with no return Oakland Raiders T-Shirt , thanks in part to a stop by Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. But later, he had a punt that went 40 yards to the Denver 36 and his last punt — when the Raiders most needed to pin the Broncos deep, went into the endzone for a touchback and a 29-yard net. Overall, he averaged 47.3 yards per punt with a 42.0 net average. Compare that to his predecessor Marquette King with the Broncos who in this game averaged 51.0 yards per punt and 44.3 net yards per punt and a long of 66 yards.Trent SiegThe team’s new long snapper, just signed as a replacement for veteran long snapper Andrew DePaola who was lost for the season with a torn ACL on the first punt of the opener. No issues here with Sieg’s snapping and he recorded not special teams tackles.Good days overall for both Kolton Miller and Arden Key, earning them Honorable Mention in this week’s Ballers & Busters. PJ Hall injured his ankle in the opener and is expected to miss at least another week. Still room for improvement across the board, but some positive signs as well. It would be nice to get a look at fourth rounder Nick Nelson at some point, but he’s buried on the cornerback depth chart at the moment.Follow @LeviDamien