Getty Denver Broncos players take the field prior to a game against the Cleveland Browns at Empower Field At Mile High on November 26, 2023 in Denver, Colorado.
The Denver Broncos are not getting any love from experts regarding their chance to compete in the 2024 NFL season.
In an article published on May 30, ESPN’s Football Power Index gave the Broncos a 12.4% chance of earning the top overall pick in the 2025 draft. The percentage increased to 50.9% for a top-five pick and 77.1 for a top-10 selection.
Meanwhile, a May 17 article by The Athletic’s Austin Mock showed the Broncos as the American Football Conference with the lowest percentage of making the playoffs (5.5) and winning Super Bowl 59 (0.1).
While those writeups excluded the Broncos, ESPN NFL analyst Mike Clay praised the Broncos’ offensive line in his 2024 NFL Projection Guide. He wrote on the document last updated on May 26, “The overall grades are weighted based on positional importance. The scale is 4.0 (best) to 0.1 (worst).”
Clay rated Denver’s OL crew one of the league’s best, giving them a 3.3. Only seven other teams received a mark of 3.0 and above. The OL crew is the only Broncos position group that received a commendable grade, with the cornerback rotation a distant second at 2.1.
Likewise, Clay considers the Broncos offensive line elite within the AFC West. The Kansas City Chiefs were a close second (3.1), followed by the Las Vegas Raiders (2.4) and the Los Angeles Chargers (2.3).
Garett Bolles, Quinn Meinerz Anchor Broncos Blocking Approach
GettyBroncos offensive tackle Garett Bolles
This season, Garett Bolles’ $20 million cap hit is the highest among active Broncos players. He will also get the biggest base salary ($15,750,000), a testament to his invaluable worth.
Pro Football Focus gave him a 75.9 overall grade after committing eight penalties and surrendering three sacks in 1,073 snaps played last season. However, he excelled in pass blocking, as proven by his team-leading 83.8 grade.
He had six games with a pass-blocking grade of 80 or more, including a season-high 89 during their Week 4 road game against the Chicago Bears.
Conversely, Quinn Meinerz had an 88.7 run-blocking grade, the highest among offensive guards last season.
Bolles and Meinerz will lead a Broncos offensive line that gave up the fourth-most sacks (52) last season, a slight improvement from the league-leading 63 in 2022.
But as excellent as they’ve been last season, the Broncos must prioritize signing them to long-term extensions before the season starts.
Bolles and Meinerz are in the final year of their contracts. The left tackle from Utah signed a four-year, $68 million deal on November 28, 2020, after the Broncos declined his fifth-year option. Meanwhile, the right guard from NCAA Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater will earn $3,366,000 in the final season of his rookie scale contract.
Sean Payton Lauds Alex Forsyth’s Intelligence
GettyCenter Alex Forsyth played for the Oregon Ducks before getting drafted by the Broncos
Lloyd Cushenberry’s departure led to a wide-open race for the starting center role. The Broncos added a new competitor by signing former Bears and Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman Sam Mustipher to a one-year, $1.125 million contract, per Spotrac.
Luke Wattenberg, a lineman who started in three different positions with the Washington Huskies, is among the hopefuls for the starting job.
Then there’s Alex Forsyth, who received an 85 PFF pass-blocking grade for his final year at Oregon after allowing one pressure in 408 pass-block snaps. While that feat highlights his physical strength to play the position, it’s also a testament to his football smarts, which Payton recognized.
“We knew when we drafted him, he was extremely intelligent. We knew we were drafting a highly intelligent player, and you could see that in his film,” Payton told the media during the team’s May 30 OTA, as written by Broncos Wire’s Jon Heath.
“I think that (intelligence is) one of his strong suits. It’s one of the reasons why I sat down with him a little bit to discuss (Bo) Nix. I knew that I’d get a pretty intelligent answer, a responsible answer, a thoughtful answer. He has high, high football IQ,” the second-year Broncos head coach added.
Despite the high regard, Payton gives Forsyth, Mustipher, and Wattenberg equal opportunities to earn the starting role.
“The quarterbacks are rotating ones, twos, and threes. It’s just so happened that we’ve gone every third day, and you guys have seen (Bo) Nix running with the ones. So that’s a little bit of a coincidence. The centers are doing the same thing,” the Super Bowl 44-winning coach said during the same OTA.