The Denver Broncos had the worst offensive line in football last year under OL coach Butch Barry. And all of a sudden, Barry is doing wonders in the same role with the Miami Dolphins. The Broncos couldn't do a single thing right in 2022 besides being dysfunctional. Everything went wrong for the team, and a huge reason for the lack of success was the poor coaching.
In fact, the staff that former head coach Nathaniel Hackett assembled was perhaps one of the worst in recent NFL history. Part of the issue was the offensive line coach, Butch Barry, who had come over from the San Francisco 49ers. Barry has spent time working with offensive lines at the college and pro level.
It seemed like a fine hire at the time, but man, the offensive line quickly turned into a disaster. In fact, when Nathaniel Hackett got fired, interim head coach Jerry Rosburg parted with Barry:
Never want to celebrate someone losing their job, but I will say that the firing of OL coach Butch Barry was a welcomed move in the Broncos locker room.
— Benjamin Allbright (@AllbrightNFL) December 28, 2022
There was also a rumor that Butch Barry would stick post-it notes inside the lockers of the Broncos' OL players detailing what they had done wrong in a certain week. Overall, Barry may have been the worst coach on that staff, not Hackett, as wild as that may sound. Somehow, Barry landed the same OL role with the Miami Dolphins, and of course, the Dolphins OL has turned into one of the very best in the NFL.
In fact, a former first-round pick of the Dolphins, OL Austin Jackson, has had a career year after being a total dud to begin his career. He's protecting the blindside of Tua Tagovailoa and recently signed a contract extension with the team:
Sources: The #Dolphins and RT Austin Jackson have agreed to terms on a 3-year, $36M contract extension to keep Jackson in Miami. The max value is $39M, including $20.7M guaranteed.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 7, 2023
On the heels of a career year protecting Tua Tagovailoa’s blindside, Jackson gets paid. 💰 💰 💰 pic.twitter.com/74L65n2f9r
Tagovailoa has been sacked just 17 times in 12 games this year, which is a shockingly low amount. Sure, the coaching greatness of Mike McDaniel is probably making life easier for Barry, but it's kind of annoying to see a former Broncos' coaching dud all of a sudden turn it around with another team.
To be fair, the Denver Broncos' offensive line has been very good this year, especially in run blocking. I think a lot of people in the fanbase assume the OL isn't good because of the sacks. Well, Russell Wilson has always taken a ton of sacks and has been responsible for many of the sacks that the unit has allowed.
All of Garett Bolles, Ben Powers, Lloyd Cushenberry, and Quinn Meinerz have been above average this year. It's a top-10 unit with one of the most-sacked QBs the NFL has ever seen. Anyway, Butch Barry has all of a sudden turned into a solid OL coach even after he looked like he didn't belong in the NFL in 2022.