The Denver Broncos are a sound team with a great foundation pretty much everywhere on the field, especially on the offensive line.
The Denver Broncos have a lot to consider going into free agency and the draft after a disappointing finish to a great season.
At 14-3, the Broncos were the best team in the American Football Conference and secured the No. 1 seed, getting the home-field advantage through the championship game.
Denver made it there and hosted the New England Patriots with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line but lost a low-scoring affair. So many things went wrong for the Broncos in that game: quarterback performance, kicking, weather and poor rushing attack.
However, something that was as effective as it had been all season was the protection from the offensive line, specifically from tackles Garett Bolles and Mike McGlinchey. Both Bolles and McGlinchey graded inside the top 20 offensive tackles according to Pro Football Focus (PFF), with Bolles being graded as the fifth-best at the position.
Bolles was a first-team All-Pro this season and for good reason. He didn’t allow a single sack, played the third-most snaps as a tackle and was absolutely dominant as a run blocker and a protector.
Since this duo was elite, it may seem weird for the Broncos to draft an offensive tackle or two in the upcoming draft, but it would be a smart decision on General Manager George Paton’s part.
Considering Bolles will be 34-years-old this summer and McGlinchey just turned 31, finding their eventual successors is a priority in the eyes of ESPN’s Jeff Legwold.
“This is certainly not urgent because Garett Bolles and Mike McGlinchey were one of the best tackle tandems this season,” Legwold wrote Monday. “But the Broncos were lucky that both have remained healthy for most of the past two seasons. The Broncos have not drafted a lineman to play tackle in any round since they selected Bolles in 2017. Given the scarcity of consistent tackles, it would behoove the Broncos to have a homegrown solution ready.”
If something were to happen to one or both of them, the Broncos would seemingly be in trouble. Bolles and McGlinchey are as consistent and reliable as they come and when they aren’t on the team anymore, having young players that were mentored and coached by them would be extremely beneficial to the Broncos of the future.
Linebacker seems to be the biggest priority in the draft considering the potential losses of star Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad to free agency, but it’s never a bad idea to add depth to the offensive line. Even in the later rounds, finding a guy or two with raw talent that might not be ready to play big snaps right away but will be in the next couple of years seems like the best thing to do for Denver.