The Denver Broncos again did not draft an offensive tackle

For the sixth straight year in the NFL Draft, the Denver Broncos did not draft an offensive tackle. When will this trend end? I'm not necessarily saying this in a negative way, but man, this is getting out of hand, isn't it?

The last time the Broncos drafted a tackle was back in 2017 when they selected Garett Bolles in the first round. Bolles took some time to develop but did turn into a quality tackle in the NFL. He missed most of the 2022 season and should be back for week one.

The Broncos went through about 15 different names at right tackle since then and finally landed on signing former first-round pick Mike McGlinchey to a massive five-year contract with $87.5 million. McGlinchey is above average, and he should be able to provide some stability at this position.

However, the one downside to not drafting tackles is the lack of developmental prospects that Denver can lean on. They did have Calvin Anderson who was undrafted, but he signed with the New England Patriots.

Denver does seem to be banking on Bolles and McGlinchey to remain the steady starters for them. If one of them goes down, though, Denver doesn't really have much in the way of backups to keep the unit together.

Bolles is under contract for 2023 and 2024, so Denver does have their starting tackles for the next two years at least. It's way too early to predict how Denver could address their tackle situation moving forward, but them not drafting tackles is going to catch up with them at some point.

I do trust George Paton and Sean Payton in the draft. I think that's one aspect that we won't have to worry about. Payton consistently fielded strong offensive lines in New Orleans, so maybe the team isn't necessarily going to have to invest high draft capital in the position.

However, at the very least, taking stabs at late round developmental prospects should be the bare minimum, and the fact that Denver hasn't even done that in over a half decade is scary.