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Denver Broncos: Max Garcia injury leaves team thin on OL

By Sayre Bedinger

KANSAS CITY, MO - OCTOBER 28: Case Keenum #4 of the Denver Broncos yells a protection call to teammate Max Garcia #76 in deafening crowd noise during the first quarter of the game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on October 28, 2018 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by David Eulitt/Getty Images)
KANSAS CITY, MO - OCTOBER 28: Case Keenum #4 of the Denver Broncos yells a protection call to teammate Max Garcia #76 in deafening crowd noise during the first quarter of the game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on October 28, 2018 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by David Eulitt/Getty Images) /
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The Denver Broncos are now having to get really creative with their starting OL combination. Max Garcia’s injury is the latest to hit the unit.

The Denver Broncos’ offensive line has lost yet another player in a snake-bitten season with left guard Max Garcia tearing his ACL at practice on Friday.

Garcia was in his fourth season with the Broncos and playing in relief of starting left guard Ron Leary, who also went down with a season-ending injury.

The Broncos made the injury news official:

https://twitter.com/Broncos/status/1063525752677826563

At this point, it’s getting hard to keep track of which players are actually going to be playing for the Broncos on the offensive line, but according to Vance Joseph, the line will look like this come Sunday afternoon against the Chargers.

LT: Garett Bolles
LG: Billy Turner
C: Connor McGovern
RG: Elijah Wilkinson
RT: Jared Veldheer

Considering the fact that Veldheer has only played five games this season (missed weeks 5-8), the Broncos’ offensive line has had virtually no continuity.

Billy Turner was the starter at right tackle while Veldheer recovered earlier this season and he now kicks inside to the left guard position.

Connor McGovern was the team’s right guard and was playing pretty well before one bad game forced the team to consider benching him, only he was immediately re-inserted into the lineup when Ron Leary was injured, forcing Max Garcia into the left guard position and McGovern back into his right guard spot.

Matt Paradis broke his leg against the Houston Texans, forcing the team to move McGovern back to the center position where he spent the entire 2017 offseason (with Paradis recovering from hip surgery).

Wilkinson has only played a small handful of snaps dating back to last season but the Broncos were confident enough in the 2017 undrafted player to give him the first shot at the right guard position over rookie Sam Jones, who is now the Broncos’ primary backup interior lineman.

Jones was expected to be an essential redshirt player this year, but with the way things are going, it would almost be shocking if he didn’t end up playing at some point in the team’s final seven games of the season.

Garcia is a former fourth-round draft pick out of Florida who has been a starter for the majority of his time in Denver, including at left guard during the team’s Super Bowl 50 year (his rookie season) when he was a co-starter with Evan Mathis.

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The Broncos will have to address the offensive line this offseason, but this latest injury and the injuries they’ve suffered this season will pave the way for an important evaluation period of the players in-house.

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