No one is talking about this elite Broncos player and his contract situation

The Denver Broncos legitimately have a top-10 offensive line in the NFL, and their best player on this unit quietly needs a contract extension. And I have seen no one make mention of this situation. The Broncos got famous this offseason for cutting Russell Wilson, which is now forcing them to eat an NFL-record $85 million in dead cap money, which will be spread out in 2024 and 2025.

But after 2025, Wilson's contract is off the books for good. The next biggest headline for Denver is them having Bo Nix and taking him 12th overall in the 2024 NFL Draft. Beyond that, Denver did make a slew of modest free agency moves, and a hypothetical Patrick Surtain II contract extension has also been mentioned as well.

However, no one is talking about the Denver Broncos best OL, guard Quinn Meinerz, and his pending extension. In fact, the guard market absolutely exploded this offseason, and there are now a whopping 10 guards in the NFL who make over $15 million per year on their contracts. There are four guards who make at least $20 million per year, and they are Landon Dickerson, Chris Lindstrom, Robert Hunt, and Quenton Nelson.

You could argue that Dickerson, Lindstrom, and Nelson are better than Meinerz, but Hunt is not. In fact, PFF ranked the Broncos 2021 NFL Draft pick as the fifth-best guard in the entire NFL heading into the 2024 season. Folks, there are 64 starting guards in this league.

"Meinerz played in all 17 regular-season games for the first time in 2023 on his way to an 83.7 PFF overall grade, the third-best mark among guards. The third-year pro has improved his overall grade for the past two seasons and has quietly taken his place as one of the better guards in the NFL.

His 3.8% pressure rate allowed was the 14th lowest in the NFL, and his 88.7 run-blocking grade ranked second. Meinerz is showing he can dominate in both run-blocking and pass-protecting assignments — no easy feat."

- Thomas Valentine

If you thought Patrick Surtain II was going to be expensive, just wait until you see how much money Quinn Meinerz can get. I don't think there is any way he does not get at least $20 million per year, which was once the top of the market for quarterbacks. Oh, how times have changed. Frankly, Meinerz deserves every penny.

He's the Denver Broncos best offensive linemen and was in the same draft class as Surtain, so while we talk about his extension, we also need to talk about Meinerz' as well.