Broncos Lineman Fined For Posting Drug Test Notice

It’s rarely a good thing when an offensive lineman gets noticed, and Quinn Meinerz is definitely doing just that as a fine-drawing machine. 

The Denver Broncos guard was recently fined for being part a dice-rolling touchdown celebration -- his defense was that it was Yahtzee — and now he’s been fined for posting notice of his drug test after he “manhandled” Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald in the Denver Broncos 30-26 win over the Rams back in Week 3, per a report from Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. 

Whether the fine for dice rolling will be rescinded is still up for debate, but this one isn’t going away. According to Florio, any posting of video or photography of any part of the “collection process” via social media is forbidden. That’s the gist of the policy, but there’s a lot more verbiage in the official version.  

The fine was for $15,000, per Parker Gabriel of the Denver Post, and Meinerz will appeal the punishment.

Fining aside, it’s rare for offensive lineman to be posting anything, much less a video this inflammatory. The Broncos won’t see the Rams again unless the two teams happen to meet in the Super Bowl, and right now both teams are stuck in third of their respective divisions at .500. 

But there’s a lot of down and dirty stuff that goes on in the trenches that nobody sees, and Meinerz is now laying himself open for hidden retribution. Linemen on both sides of the ball get flattened and manhandled all the time, and some of that results in serious injuries.

It’s also probably not the sort of thing coach Sean Payton wants to see from his lineman given the Broncos’ record and the state of the running game, as Denver’s listles play has caused him to take back the playcalling chores from new offensive play caller Davis Webb. A conversation will probably take place, if indeed it hasn’t happened already. 

Add in the fact that it’s not exactly great form to be posting something like this after a narrow win that ended with an interception from the goal line by safety Talanoa Hufanga, which makes a bad look even worse. 

The Broncos haven’t posted anything close to a dominant win so far, and offensive linemen are supposed to do things as a cohesive unit with their teammates, which also hasn’t happened much to date in Denver. The Broncos meet the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday to try to get back over the .500 mark.