Coming off a Week 3 win against San Francisco and heading into a divisional game at Las Vegas with a chance to get to 3-1, Broncos right guard Quinn Meinerz had a positive outlook on his hamstring injury.

At his locker, he said adamantly that the muscle, an odd one to strain for a lineman, was healing quickly after it knocked him out of Denver’s season opener. He planned to play against the Raiders.

Instead, a practice setback kept Meinerz out two more weeks and served as a harbinger of what was to come for Denver’s front line in 2022. Rarely does a team roll out five starters and watch them play together uninterrupted for an entire season. Rarely, though, do teams go through stretches like the Broncos did this past season.

In fact, the Weeks 2-5 that Meinerz missed ended up representing the only time all season that Denver started the same quintet four consecutive games. His return in Week 6 marked the Broncos’ first game without stalwart left tackle Garett Bolles, who sustained a fractured lower leg during a Thursday night loss to Indianapolis.

Between Week 5 and Week 11, Denver rolled out a different starting offensive line combination each game.

In all, the Broncos ended up using 10 different starting combinations and saw 12 linemen receive offensive snaps. No lineman played more than 15 games and only Cam Fleming (85.9%), Dalton Risner (85.1%) and Graham Glasgow (81.8%) played more than two-thirds of Denver’s offensive snaps.

None of them are sure bets to be back in 2023. And their coach, Butch Barry, is already gone — fired along with head coach Nathaniel Hackett on Dec. 26.

The 2022 churn only served as a setup for what will be somewhere between a re-tool and complete rebuild of the Broncos’ offensive line this offseason. Outside of maximizing quarterback Russell Wilson’s ability, it is perhaps the biggest offensive task ahead of whoever becomes Denver’s next head coach.

Roster questions

Five of the Broncos’ offensive linemen become unrestricted free agents in March: Risner, Fleming, Billy Turner, Calvin Anderson and Tom Compton.

Fleming only signed with Denver on the eve of training camp as it became clear Turner might need additional time after offseason knee surgery, but he ended up leading the unit in playing time. Anderson could return, too, as a similar depth/swing option, while Turner and Compton had longer histories with Hackett.

Risner’s the biggest free agent question. He and the Broncos did not talk about a contract extension during the season and the 2019 second-round pick said late in the season he wants “to be valued.”

Will that be in Denver? Perhaps but the Broncos appear willing to let Risner test the market first.

Glasgow, meanwhile, is under contract in 2023 but currently has a $14 million cap hit. The Broncos could clear $11 million in cap space by cutting him, around $7.5 million by extending him or have the veteran, like last winter, take a pay cut. He almost certainly will not play for Denver at the $14 million number.

How long does he plan to play?

“As long as they’ll let me, I suppose,” he told The Post.

Injury returns

The Broncos should get a boost if Bolles and Cushenberry return healthy. Cushenberry said after the season he felt he was ready to play as early as Week 11, but the team kept him on injured reserve and ran out of return designations, opting instead to stick with Glasgow in the middle, a move Cushenberry called “frustrating.”

Entering the final year of his rookie contract, Cushenberry may not have a starting job locked down, but he’s in position to reclaim the center spot or compete at guard, depending on how many additions the Broncos make up front.

“We all understand that we all have to get better,” Cushenberry said. … “Next year, man, we’re going to turn this thing around. This offseason is nothing but work.”

Bolles, meanwhile, played his best ball in 2020, had an uneven 2021, but appeared to be beginning to settle into a rhythm when he went down against the Colts this fall.

The 30-year-old’s cap number is $17.8 million for 2023. While cutting him would save $9.8 million on the cap, it would also leave $8 million in dead money and the Broncos without a clear option at left tackle. More likely: Denver could create $6.3 million in cap space with a simple restructure that would include paying some salary as a bonus.

Thin pipeline 

After that pair and Meinerz, though, Denver has nothing but question marks. Also in the picture at the moment: Luke Wattenberg, who got his feet wet at multiple positions and mostly struggled as a rookie, as well as late-season practice squad promotions Will Sherman and Christian DiLauro and restricted free agent Quinn Bailey.

Wattenberg (2022 fifth-round pick) and Meinerz (2021 third-round) are the only linemen general manager George Paton has selected in his first drafts here. The franchise has selected multiple linemen just once in the past six drafts (third-rounder Cushenberry and sixth-rounder Netane Muti in 2020) and hasn’t drafted a true tackle since Bolles in 2017.

Possible additions

Denver will likely create substantially more salary cap space than its current effective room of about $6.8 million, according to Over the Cap data.

The franchise also has other positions to sort out, of course, like whether to re-sign defensive lineman Dre’Mont Jones and/or inside linebacker Alex Singleton, among its 17 free agents.

It remains to be seen whether Paton and company have the room or the inclination to pursue the tackles that – unless they re-sign with their current teams – figure to be near the top of the free-agent class like San Francisco’s Mike McGlinchy or Kansas City’s Orlando Brown. They could explore a Risner replacement via free agency or check on center Ethan Pocic, who played for Cleveland in 2022 but spent the first five years of his career in Seattle and started 29 games at center during Wilson’s time there.

If the Broncos still own San Francisco’s first-round draft pick come April, they could also look to the offensive line, though several positions will be in play. Other contenders include edge rushing help, secondary or an offensive skill position.

Of course, teams find quality offensive linemen up and down the draft. Paton at the moment has a relatively modest seven picks to work with and no second-rounders, though he does have a pair of picks at the top of the third round (Nos. 68 and 69).

How free agency and the draft play out remains to be seen, but one of the surest bets of the Broncos’ offseason is that the offensive line will be one of the most fluid and active corners of the roster.

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