Once the Broncos determined earlier this month that Mike McGlinchey’s knee injury would cost him a matter of weeks rather than months, a palpable relief spread through the organization.
When he returned to the field just two weeks later, jumping right back into the starting lineup with nary a ramp-up required, coaches and teammates were thrilled.
“We’re better when he’s out there,” head coach Sean Payton said.
That might seem like an obvious statement considering Denver gave McGlinchey a five-year contract in March worth up to $87.5 million ($52.5 million guaranteed).
But while the Broncos shored up one question this offseason — the right tackle revolving door — another remains unanswered going into the preseason’s final weekend.
Is Denver equipped to handle an injury or, in the case of a 2022 reprisal, multiple injuries to tackles McGlinchey and Garett Bolles?
If the preseason knee sprain to McGlinchey was a tornado warning siren blaring on the first Wednesday of the month — to ensure working order — the Broncos better hope a storm doesn’t blow into town over the next 18 weeks.
Any team that has injury issues like Denver did in 2022 is going to be affected. Denver used 10 different starting combinations over 17 games and needed 15 players to get through the season, none of whom played in more than 15 games.
Some level of attrition, though, is almost certain to happen.
With a new staff, several new players and the normal shuffling that comes during the preseason, predicting the Broncos’ response to that attrition remains a tough task just days from the Aug. 29 roster cutdown. Payton maintained this week that’s for positive reasons rather than negative.
“Linemen 7-9, if you’re keeping nine, there’s a lot of guys that are pushing for those spots in a good way,” he said Tuesday.
Let’s assume No. 6 is Cam Fleming, who led the Denver offensive line in snaps last year and made starts at both right and left tackle. He looks like a swing tackle again this year after signing a one-year deal over the summer.
To fill out three more spots means to choose between veteran journeymen and a collection of young late-round picks and undrafted free agents.
Right guard Quinn Meinerz could play center, but Payton values him at guard, so one spot likely goes to somebody who can serve as a center and interior option. Second-year man Luke Wattenberg got the first crack at that, but more recently veteran Kyle Fuller has taken second-team reps. Both have played center and guard, while seventh-round pick Alex Forsyth has mostly manned the third team center spot.
Former undrafted free agent Quinn Bailey has a slightly different blend of versatility – he played both guard and tackle in the preseason game against San Francisco — which is his case for placement on the 53-man roster.
Tackle is perhaps most interesting because Payton might be looking for both a fill-in presence in case of injury but also darts at the wall for an eventual succession plan on the left side. Bolles has been ramped up slowly so far this summer after a broken leg in 2022. He’s shown clear signs of rust in the preseason, but the Broncos and quarterback Russell Wilson are steadfast in their belief that he’ll round into form.
Carrying him in 2024 at a $20 million cap hit will be a different conversation entirely. One Denver doesn’t have to have for several months, to be sure.
Even still, the Broncos haven’t drafted a true tackle since 2017. Maybe they’ll break that drought next spring, but for now their developmental projects are rookies Demontrey Jacobs and Alex Palczewski. Jacobs earned praise earlier in camp for his talent and Palczewski played 55 snaps of right tackle over Denver’s first two preseason games.
“Tough. Smart. Has played a lot of football,” Payton said of Palczewski, the five-year starter at Illinois. “It’s not always pretty, but there is this quality of, he gets the job done. I said this at the beginning of camp: After the draft I think we did a good job in that two-hour period of singing free agents. Sometimes offensive linemen are hard to get and we were abel to sign a pretty good class of offensive linemen that’s helped us and will help us not only this year but in the future. I’m encouraged.”
That group: Palczewski, Jacobs and guard Henry Byrd.
Fans and reporters tend to overestimate the likelihood that players who are waived in the cutdown to 53 get claimed. Typically, that list is somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 league-wide. So Perhaps the cleanest path is to keep veterans like Fuller and tackle Isaiah Prince to start the season and try to stock the practice squad with the UDFA class and perhaps others.
If Payton and offensive line coach Zach Strief think the young, unheralded players can get the job done, though, they won’t hesitate.
Either way, if you’re making a list of positions where the Broncos really need to stay healthy, tackle’s right at or near the top.
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