BRONCOS’ BOLLES WORKS TO SILENCE CRITICS
There’s nowhere for Garett Bolles to hide. Everywhere the big offensive tackle turns, he’s under siege.
Broncomaniacs lustily boo him. The zebras throw penalty flags at him out of habit. John Elway doesn’t trust him enough to show Bolles the money.
Amid all the turmoil in Bolles’ professional life, the team is attempting the most delicate operation of this coronaviruscompressed training camp.
The Broncos are trying to transplant the brain of Hall of Famer Mike Munchak into the body of Bolles.
If Denver wants to make the playoffs, failure is not an option for a ballyhooed offensive line coach working with a student who has demonstrated improvement, yet can be frustratingly slow on the uptick with tough concepts.
“A work in progress,” said coach Vic Fangio, describing a left tackle the Broncos don’t completely trust but desperately need to succeed.
Hey, everybody from Uncle Vic to quarterback Drew Lock hopes for the best. But I fear this stressful situation might cause Bolles to do what he does best: Blow a gasket.
Oh, there’s no doubt Bolles means well. His competitive streak and passion for protecting the quarterback’s blind side are good attributes for any left tackle.
The tricky issue for Munchak, however, is finding a way to curtail meathead mistakes that have caused Broncos Country to hate on Bolles. Somewhere inside the tackle’s massive, 305pound frame is a faulty regulator for his emotions. When Bolles messes up, we’ve seen his blood roil, causing him to compound a blown assignment with a dumb penalty.
So on Thursday I asked
Bolles a question nagging me for a long time: Does he allow emotions to get the best of him on the football field?
“All offseason I took it seriously to really work on my mental game and do whatever I can to make myself mentally ready. When something happens, I can’t physically take that back. If it happens, I have to let it go and move on to the next play,” Bolles said during a
Zoom session with reporters that sometimes felt more like a trip to the principal’s office.
While not taking offense,