O-Line

[Pruke]

Nobody regrets DEN waking away from 1983 draft with John Elway. Chris Hinton (OG) and Bruce Matthews (OT) also went in top 10...

You always take the franchise QB if it’s there... we should learn from 2 years ago when we took Chubb over Allen and Jax.

Yup - it’s sad - because if you don’t have a great OL, it’s hard to evaluate your QBs - but it would be nice to not overspend on D when the problems are ball control - Shanny knew this. He wanted to win TOP - and they did - and when they did they won the majority of those games

[fraguela09]

Ryan R a beast at RT for NO. Still can’t fathom how John Elway Met with Bolles and Lynch, had a conversation with them, and still reached to draft them.

[Broncos1963]

Why doesn’t Elway realize the only reason he won SB and TD had 2k rushing was - the OLine was remarkable- hall of famers - Glasgow was a good signing and Risner is promising but PLEASE fix the OL. It affects EVERYTHING

For the first time, I've decided it doesn't matter. Why? Because I've finally accepted that elway doesn't realize the OL matters after years and years because he isn't a good GM, maybe he never was a good GM but I thought he was. If the realization was going to happen, it would have by now. Denver needs a clear ownership, new management, new coaching staff (again). Sadly.

[BroncosIsLife]

And - btw - I’m against using high picks for OL - you get established players because the skill is 50/50 or worse translating from college

Yeah because getting 'established' OL-men like Leary, Watson, Stephenson, etc has worked out for Elway so far. Cmon now.

[listopencil]

And - btw - I’m against using high picks for OL - you get established players because the skill is 50/50 or worse translating from college

Well...

I wanted Quentin Griffin instead of Bradley Chubb in 2018. We drafted Dalton Risner in 2019. I wanted to use our 2nd and 1st pick to trade up to draft Meki Becton in 2020. If all of that had happened our WR group would still be weak but we'd have a line of Bolles / Nelson / Crunchberry / Risner / Becton. So, our WR group might still be weak but we'd probably still have Lock and our Offense would actually be functional by now.

[fraguela09]

Imagine a becton/Nelson left side for next 15 years!

[listopencil]

Imagine a becton/Nelson left side for next 15 years!

He was one of those guys that I think was worth going after, that could have come in and immediately competed for a starting spot. With James opting out I think he'd be our RT right now. I would take him in place of Jeudy and Hamler.

[johnlimburg]

Imagine a becton/Nelson left side for next 15 years!

Too slow. We need more wideouts who run quicker, the fans around here love that. Weren't we like the off-season champs after Elway double dipped at wideout in the draft ? Anyway, as Eminem once said, "snap back to reality". 4 straight losing seasons is on the way thanks to Mr. Elway, he has yet again failed, is this the nail in his coffin though ? Or is covid-19 and no time to prepare heading into the season the excuse he gets this year for why the team looks horrible from top to bottom ?

[L.M.]

He was one of those guys that I think was worth going after, that could have come in and immediately competed for a starting spot. With James opting out I think he'd be our RT right now. I would take him in place of Jeudy and Hamler.

That's a tough one because Jeudy really was BPA and kind of a steal, I can't blame them for taking him. But IF we truly have a "OL whisperer" in Munchak (debatable), then he should be able to coach up a 2nd round choice in Josh Jones or Ezra Cleveland, right?. Here are the tackles taken and their grades:
https://www.nfl.com/draft/tracker/pr...=ALL&year=2020
Jones was 5th at 6.35.

His opting out or not, the expectation that James was going to be a reliable starter is completely detached from the reality of his injury history -the man is brittle. Developing some depth at RT seemed to be the prudent choice in light of that.

[lvbronx]

Too slow. We need more wideouts who run quicker, the fans around here love that. Weren't we like the off-season champs after Elway double dipped at wideout in the draft ? Anyway, as Eminem once said, "snap back to reality". 4 straight losing seasons is on the way thanks to Mr. Elway, he has yet again failed, is this the nail in his coffin though ? Or is covid-19 and no time to prepare heading into the season the excuse he gets this year for why the team looks horrible from top to bottom ?

Weren't you one of the people arguing against drafting Q Nelson?

[samparnell]

Here’s the thing, we have a rookie C and a QB who has started anywhere from 6-9 games so far this season. It doesn’t matter what the coaches call, they’re calling it before seeing the defensive front. It’s up to either the QB or the C to read the front and make the appropriate line protections. Cush hasn’t been doing it and I don’t think they want a rookie making those calls. However you also essentially have 2 rookie QBs in terms of starts and they aren’t making them either. However Rypien was making some protection calls. I thought that Driskell and Lock weren’t being given that latitude but it appears they are, or Rypien was operating outside the script.

Either way the line is going to come out and block for what the play calls for. If the QB or C sees an extra blitzer or two (even if they don’t come) they have to identify it and change their protections. And if you can’t keep enough in to block everybody because of the play design (Shurmur does do this often) the QB and the WRs/TEs/RBs/FBs have to know this and keep their head on a swivel because even though you’re a decoy route and may be the 4th option check down, you could be the first option if things go south in a hurry. This isn’t a coaching issue though, its really a lack of experience and lack of ownership in/of the offense.

O-Line is the most unit-oriented of all positions on a football team. Unit cohesion/chemistry is essential in order for it to be effective. That only comes by playing together, and the longer they do that, the better they, as a group, will perform.

Except for Bolles and Risner, none of these guys have played next to each other, and Cushenberry is a rookie. With Lock out at the moment, being pass heavy won't work, especially when D rushes five or six as seen today. Some balance needs to be established because PAP has been effective.

There are currently eight on IR including some starters. Some starters on the roster are not playing due to injuries. That is the fact of the matter, and not much can be done about it except play through the situation.

[johnlimburg]

Weren't you one of the people arguing against drafting Q Nelson?

I wasn't into drafting a guard at 5, but I wasn't involved in that debate which occurred. I do however get criticized often for my beating of the dead horse which is the hope that off-season after off-season we commit multiple early-round picks to the offensive line.

[roushmartin6]

Our main problem is right tackle and that would have been fine if James would actually play instead of sitting at home playing Xbox

[nickmeyer]

I’m Hopeful they wax us again. This is 1/3 games we might win... don’t want to be taken out of the TL lottery ticket.

😂😂😂😂. Trevor Lawarence could not play behind this line.

[nickmeyer]

And - btw - I’m against using high picks for OL - you get established players because the skill is 50/50 or worse translating from college

The problem with that logic is very few good offensive lineman ever see free agency teams dont let them out of the building.