Half of Broncos Country can’t stop holding onto 72. Ironic, isn’t it, Garett Bolles?
“You know, it’s funny,” Bolles, the Broncos’ first-round draft pick in 2017, told me with a sly grin as we kibitzed about his future. “Because I look back, and everyone said, ‘Oh, you’re never gonna be here. You’re not gonna last long.’ And I’m still here. So I get to laugh a little bit about that.
“But at the same time, I’ve just got to keep my head down and I have to go to work. And I have to continue to do the things I love. But this is home. And we’ll see where it goes.”
Halloween’s trade deadline is creeping ’round the corner, and Sunday against the Chiefs — the forecast calls for snow and no Taylor Swift — could say a lot. Or nada. Win it somehow, and the Broncos hit the bye 3-5 with a pep in their step. Although they had a similar bounce coming back from London last October, too, only to roll right back into the ditch.
Lose, and 2-6 — 0-5 vs. the AFC, and a Nov. 13 visit to Buffalo looms next — feels like the official beginning of the end. Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer said earlier this month that the Broncos would listen to offers for “pretty much anyone,” including Bolles, who’s in the third season of a four-year, $68-million deal.
While the wounds aren’t fresh, that 70-burger in Miami was a shock to everybody’s system. Sushi Sean Payton wants some of this roster out of his sight line forever. And vice versa.
“Have I thought about it? Sure,” Bolles told me as we talked trade deadline at his locker inside Centura Health Training Center on Wednesday. “Do I worry about it? Not really.
“Because there’s always light at the end of the tunnel. God knows where I’m supposed to be. My family is gonna be here, regardless if I’m here or not.”
Bolles’ young son Kingston was born with Childhood Apraxia of Speech, an oral motor disorder. He’s receiving stellar therapy, Garett says. As a dad, you don’t ever want to move your kids out of their comfort zone, given a choice. Especially a child with special needs.
“I mean, until my son is healthy, until he’s done with it — you never know with kids with apraxia how long is this going to be,” Bolles said. “But this is home, for now … being in Orange and Blue is something special.”
The Madden solution is to melt this roster to the studs. Start the heck over. Reality, alas, is more nuanced.
Any NFL GM worth his or her salt will surrender a family member before they give up a draft pick. Everybody knows that the Broncos are staring at quarterback hell with Russell Wilson and salary-cap hell if they cut him. As a franchise corner, Pat Surtain II is your biggest trade chip but biggest gamble to move. Courtland Sutton and Jerry Jeudy’s values are stunted by health and head, respectively.
Bolles might land you a better package than Sutton, but the returns for veteran stars have looked awfully underwhelming thus far. The Eagles sent a fourth- and sixth-rounder and safety Terrell Edmunds to Tennessee for All-Pro safety Kevin Byard, which smelled very much like the rich getting richer and the Titans dumping salary.
Bolles sports a $17.8 million cap hit this fall and a $20 million hit next fall. Highway 72 is coming to an extension or an end, and given the $81 million in guaranteed scratch splashed out this past spring for right tackle Mike McGlinchey and left guard Ben Powers, the latter feels more likely.
“I don’t think we’ve — I’ve — ever really talked about it,” Bolles told me. “Just because I’ve always just wanted to be there for (my family). But at the same time, I understand the business side of football. I understand, the older I get …
“I mean, my play speaks for itself. I can talk the talk all I want. But if I’m not performing, they have a right to get rid of me. But coming back from this (broken) leg injury, I think I’m hungrier than ever.”
Before the hip started acting up, Bolles’ arrow was pointing up. Against Green Bay, Pro Football Focus graded the left tackle out with no sacks or pressures allowed over 31 passing snaps. The site’s unofficial tracking charts him with 266 pass-block snaps, 10 pressures and just one sack allowed through seven games.
Those stats speak plenty. So do these: From 2017-19, over his first 48 games as a Bronco, according to NFLPenalties.com, Bolles was called for holding 20 times, or once every 2.4 games. Since the pandemic, he’s played 41 games with only nine holding calls — one every 4.5 games.
And for all the foibles at Dove Valley over the last five years, your heart’s gone out to Bolles, largely because a.) the big lug cares so dang much; and b.) he never hid from reporters. Or responsibility. Ex-teammate Calvin Anderson lived at his house for two years. Former Broncos defensive lineman Derek Wolfe took a young Bolles under his wing and the pair remain close — whether it’s talking family, hunting or life.
“I’ve worked my butt off, man,” No. 72 continued. “I’ve done everything I can to get back.
“Watching my team last year crushed me. I feel like it was me not being in there for my quarterback, with (Wilson) and the relationship I have with him and the love that I have for him — and the talks and the long nights and the teary nights, the frustration nights. I’ve had all those moments. It was just really hard for me, because I generally do love and care for this team.
“One of my mentors is Andrew Whitworth. We talk on a regular basis … we have the same consultant, we (have) very similar (games). And that technique can last a very long time. At the end of the day, I can only control what I can control. That’s what it comes down to, my mama says. You can never doubt your mama.”
Or your heart. The closer you hold that feeling, the harder it is to let that bad boy go.
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