Hi Shawn,
Just to clarify, are you currently leveraging SCCM to deploy images? As long as you have the correct NIC drivers injected into the boot image you are using for the task sequence, it'll pick up the NIC. If you have not done that, that is your first step. Your second step will then be to update the boot image on your DPs, then you will want to create new media that will include the new updates you made to your boot image.
As far as needing PXE or MDT, you don't need either. PXE is nice, but too much overhead in my opinion and you don't need MDT if you are using SCCM (sorry for all the MDT lovers out there, I know that is blasphemy!). Also, neither of these are going to help you with your issue. Any non-recognition of the NIC is due to drivers not being in the boot image.
Best,
Matt