It must be great to be a Kansas City Chiefs fan now. With the best defender in football, the Chiefs made everything look easy last Sunday against an extremely talented Buffalo Bills team.
With Andy Reid pulling the strings, Patrick Mahomes delivering outstanding shots and Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce making play after play, it is almost painful to watch the attack being executed so easily and efficiently. Despite putting on the field an offensive line full of second, third and fourth strings, due to injuries and opt-outs, the Chiefs’ attack was as impassive and powerful as ever.
Oh, having an elite franchise quarterback with the ability to bridge huge talent gaps and holes in the depth chart. With the young and talented, but erratic and error-prone, Drew Lock currently striker for the Denver Broncos, this team currently lacks that kind of luxury.
While on paper the Broncos’ offensive line destroys the unity that Kansas City will field in Sunday’s Super Bowl, Denver doesn’t have the margin of error that the Chiefs have with Mahomes. To regain the relevance and containment of the playoff, the Broncos have an extremely thin line to walk on, which probably requires a solid offensive line to give this team, and whoever is playing as a defender, the best chance of performance.
The Broncos’ offensive line has been a little painful for the team since Peyton Manning retired and, to be completely transparent, has been a problem since Mike Shanahan split from the organization at the end of the 2008 season. Denver is not alone in their struggles along the offensive trenches, as teams from across the league have struggled to adjust to less padded practices during the Off Season Training Program (if OTAs continue) and far less technically developed blockers joining the league since then advent of the offense spread in college.
There is a shortage of competent attackers in the NFL and more teams feel exposed in the unit than satisfied. Despite the scarcity of top-quality offensive line talent currently in the NFL, the Broncos started the trend in the right direction.
John Elway has prioritized unity for the past few seasons, both in the draft and in the free agency. Not every move was successful and there were some abject failures, but the Broncos’ struggles along the offensive line are not due to the lack of frontline attempts.
The offensive line is not yet in the top 10, but it is definitely within reach of the Broncos in 2021. Under the masterful hand of offensive lineman Mike Munchak, the front line of the big Broncos is young and has reason to hope. Garett Bolles, perhaps the best story of the season for Denver in 2020, took a remarkable turnaround year and played as the left tackle the team had envisioned when he called him in the first round.
Dalton Risner started off a little slow on the left guard, but regained his consistency as the season progressed. Newcomer Lloyd Cushenberry III was extremely outdated and muscular at the start of the season to take a turn and show real growth in the final stretch.
Graham Glasgow was as stable and solid as could be expected, while Netane Muti showed the strength that made him worth a choice in the sixth round of the draft, despite his terrible injury history. This unit has unquestionable talent and its arrow is pointing upwards.
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So, there is the right equipment
That is, until the correct tackle position is reached – a place that can be seriously cursed due to the team’s passage through players since Orlando Franklin held him in 2011-14, the Broncos just can’t get it right.
If it weren’t for the importance of the question ‘What will the Broncos do as a quarterback?’, The city’s topic would probably be: ‘What does Denver have to do with Ja’Wuan James and the right attack position?’
After playing all 63 snaps in the past two seasons, it is safe to say that the Broncos did not recover what they expected from James when they signed him on a $ 51 million four-year contract in 2019. From bruises in 2019 to opting for COVID in 2020, the reasons for James not being available are valid, but considering how long he’s been away from the game, it’s fair to question what kind of game he could offer in 2021.
James is not perfectly safe
Broncos insider Mike Klis recently stated that he sees Denver leaving James this off-season as a real ‘possibility’. Even if releasing James would result in a $ 10 million cap loss (it would cost Denver $ 6 million more to free James than just keeping him and letting him have tea alone every week at the end of the bank).
It is totally fair to question whether he can bring something to the field in 2021, after wasting so much time. In the words of Bolles, “(James) knows what he needs to do to regain our confidence”. It is not exactly a total endorsement of reliability.
Sure, the Broncos could go to the scorched earth with James on releasing him, but is this squad worth burning $ 6 million, especially in a year when the limit will come much lower than projected? In my humble opinion, probably not.
The best decision would be to climb James and expect him to play and play well, but don’t put yourself in any position where you depend on him playing and playing well. Simply put, the Broncos would be utterly foolish entering 2021 with their hopes of a certain attack depending entirely on James.
Wilkinson and Dotson
With both notable tackles worth noting in 2020 – Elijah Wilkinson and Demar Dotson – hitting the free agency, the Broncos have no choice but to deal with the position somehow in this off season or to become completely dependent on James. The team has Calvin Anderson, but in his very limited sample size, he seemed much more comfortable on the left than on the right tackle.
Furthermore, given the ample opportunities for a young tackle to take the right place in the past two years, the fact that Anderson has not done so is probably reason enough to look elsewhere. Not addressing the problem is not a forgivable plan, given James’ reliability.
So, what should the new GM George Paton do? Given how ridiculous the tackle market has been in the past decade, pouring more resources into the offensive line through a free agency with a large subscription seems extremely unlikely.
Free agency
The Broncos could bring in an average free agent who could provide a competent game this year (especially since many surprising cuts will occur in this off-season, as teams struggle to try to reach below the reduced limit). However, Paton can also use the draft to continue to reinforce the offensive line.
At Paton’s introductory press conference, he was asked about the importance of trenches in building a competitive football team.
“I think that’s the core of the team,” said Paton. “I think you will be in every game if you have a very strong defensive line and a very strong offensive line.”
Given these comments and a kind of anomaly with a draft class full of offensive talent, perhaps the Broncos will spend another initial draft resource on the unit that already features three chosen ex-top-100s.
Landscape project
This does not mean that the Broncos have to enter the field in the 9th overall choice. What if the Broncos are still reaching 9th place when the draft arrives and Penei Sewell lands in Oregon, Denver shouldn’t think about it too much and accept the tackle to play in front of Bolles for the next eight years.
The Broncos also have needs like cornerback, linebacker and edge rusher, but the draft is more about getting the best players possible than filling in the weaknesses of a season’s squad.
It is not impossible for Sewell to fall for no. 9. Recently, NFL insider Daniel Jeremiah released his first draft of the season and sent Sewell to overall tenth place for the Dallas Cowboys and second striker after the Cincinnati Bengals selected Northwestern’s Rashawn Slater in fifth place. Never speak at all when it comes to recruiting candidates, as the perception can vary greatly from the media to the league and from team to team. Sewell is unlikely to fall to 9th position, but it is more possible than you think.
More likely than Denver to face 9th overall is Paton using a Day 2 choice in position. While it is impossible to project who will go up and down this far from April, especially in a really different off-season like this, names like Alex Leatherwood from Alabama, Liam Eichenberg from Notre Dame, Jackson Carman from Clemson, Dillon Radunz from North Dakota , Tevin Jenkins of Oklahoma and Spencer Brown of northern Iowa are options that may be available on day 2 of the next draft.
Perhaps another strategy that Paton could employ is to trade back from the general No. 9 and drop the board, perhaps capitalizing on a tackle to be at or near the ‘best available player’ after trading. In Minnesota, Paton said the team’s strategy was to try to acquire as many choices as possible in the draft.
The more choices, the more flexibility and the more darts on the recruitment board. If Denver swapped nine, about 5-10 choices back and a tackle like Christian Darrisaw from Virginia Tech, Samuel Cosmi from Texas, Alijah Vera-Tucker from Southern Cal or Jaylen Mayfield from Michigan (or one of the Day 2 tackles listed previously raises boards) and Denver takes them. Giving yourself options and flexibility while letting talent in high-value positions fall on you is like winning the draft consistently.
Solidifying QB is Priority No. 1
Whatever the Broncos do in the right attack this off-season, they will probably only mess with the needle compared to Drew Lock proving to be ‘the guy’ in the quarterback or Denver bringing someone in and finally providing the competent quarterback that this franchise has been missing since then Manning retired. Even though it has been one of the most promising offensive lines of the team for some time, the general attack will only go as far as the defender can.
Still, to give the quarterback the best chance of success now and in the future, the correct tackle position must be addressed. Simply trusting James is a very risky move, given how reliable he has been. It is a sunk cost at this point that if you get it right, fantastic, but it cannot be the only plan.
Result
Whether in free agency, a cheap castaway handpicked from another team by coach Munchak, retaining Wilkinson or Dotson for another season or the most exciting route to getting a young but promising tackle in a talented recruiting class, the Broncos offensive line the role looks as good as it could reasonably be expected in 2021 – out of that $ 51 million hole in the correct tackle position.
James did not do enough in his management as a Bronco to stop Paton from trying to improve the right tackle position, with a big contract or not.
Follow Nick on Twitter @NickKendellMHH and @MileHighHuddle.