As the longest-tenured current Broncos player, Garett Bolles is keenly aware of the rocky road the franchise took from its Super Bowl 50 victory to this year’s playoff appearance.
And even in the wake of a humbling 31-7 wild card defeat to Buffalo, Bolles believes the Broncos’ arrow is pointing up, with a primary reason for that optimism being the experience and cohesion of the offensive line.
“(Sunday) was a game none of us wanted to be a part of,” Bolles said. “We got smacked right in our faces. There’s two ways you can look at it: Let it drag you down, or we can look at this and build upon it. And that’s what all of us want to do.
“Since I’ve been here, we haven’t really had a core of guys. Now, we have a core of guys who are under contract and are humble and hungry and want to get better. And we have a young quarterback … who I feel is one of the best in the league.”
In addition to the promise Bo Nix showed in a season where he led all rookie QBs in passing TDs, next season the Broncos — barring any trades — will return their entire starting O-line of Bolles at left tackle, left guard Ben Powers, center Luke Wattenberg, right guard Quinn Meinerz and right tackle Mike McGlinchey.
That quintet provided stability up front for Nix this season as the QB emerged as a franchise centerpiece.
Denver tied for the third-fewest sacks allowed in the league at 24, less than half of the 2023 sack tally of 52 with Russell Wilson at the helm, while also helping to increase the team’s rushing yards per game to 112.2.
Those quantifiable improvements up front are why the team’s hog mollies believe “this team can be much more than a 7 seed in the playoffs,” as Meinerz explained.
“This year was good, but not good enough,” said Meinerz, who was a first-team All-Pro selection after signing a four-year, $80 million contract extension ahead of the season. “What happened and what we accomplished this year was the floor.”
The Broncos’ linemen understand the onus on their position group going into the 2025 season, especially considering the unit’s continuity goes back to ’23. Wattenberg was the only new starter up front in ’24.
“We understand the responsibility of our group to be at the forefront of this football team and the standard we’ve set for our building,” Mike McGlinchey said. “It’s our job next year to go exceed it.”
Denver’s up-and-down season, which featured winning streaks of three and four games but also three two-game losing skids, was often directly tied to the performance of its offensive line.
When the front was able to establish the run and give Nix time in the pocket, the Broncos were capable of looking like a well-oiled offensive machine. That was seen in wins over Tampa Bay, Las Vegas twice, Atlanta, Cleveland, and in the Week 18 playoff clincher in Denver’s romp over Kansas City backups. One of the NFL’s best defenses (18.3 points per game) also contributed to the franchise’s first double-digit win tally since 2015.
But when the O-line couldn’t set the tone up front — as happened on Sunday in Buffalo on both sides of the ball — the results were drastically different. As head coach Sean Payton explained after the loss to the Bills, he hopes Denver can find more overall consistency in 2025 to potentially make a run at breaking the Chiefs’ stranglehold on the AFC West.
“Especially in the postseason, (a defeat is) always a bitter pill to swallow,” Payton said. “Yet it’ll go down and then it’s got to fuel you and light a fire in the direction we need to go. One of the things we learned early on is we have to find a way to play these (playoff) games at home. That’s another thing that’s important.”
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