Denver Broncos offensive line is a serious liability early in 2022
The Denver Broncos offensive line got beat to smithereens on Sunday against the Raiders, continuing an unfortunate trend of bad play overall. The Denver Broncos offensive line has been hovering around average for years now. However, they have a tendency to fall into that “low floor” area during games at times.
Against the Raiders in week four, the offensive line was nothing short of an abomination. Multiple holding penalties killed promising drives. The interior of the offensive line, specifically Lloyd Cushenberry and Graham Glasgow, completely whiffed on blocks. And both of the tackles, Garett Bolles and Cameron Fleming, looked completely outmatched at times.
Denver Broncos made a mistake letting Mike Munchak walk
It was a puzzling decision to let Mike Munchak, the Denver Broncos’ former offensive line coach, walk out of the building when Nathaniel Hackett got to town. Since then, Butch Barry, a former 49ers’ assistant, has taken over as the unit’s coach.
Through four games, it’s clear that the unit has been below average. Russell Wilson does take more sacks than the typical quarterback because of his style of play, but it’s clear that most of the reason for the constant pressures and sacks on Sunday were because of the line.
Since his monster 2020 season, Garett Bolles hasn’t looked nearly as good. I maintain that Dalton Risner is replaceable, and I am no fan of Lloyd Cushenberry or Cameron Fleming. It’s clear that Graham Glasgow could serve as a backup, but his fall from grace after signing a $40 million contract with Denver a few years ago is apparent.
Quinn Meinerz is easily the best player on the offensive line in my opinion, and I think he’s the only one who could end up staying with the starting unit for 2023. General Manager George Paton needs to use some of his magic to inject some legitimate talent along the offensive line.