NEW-LOOK O-LINE
Building on sack-free outing
Putting the Broncos’ offensive line tumult into perspective: Eight players have started at least one game. Only one player (Garett Bolles) has started all 10 games. And three players — Connor Mcgovern, Max Garcia and Billy Turner — have started games at two positions.
But the current starting group of Bolles (left tackle), Elijah Wilkinson (right guard), Mcgovern (center), Turner (right guard) and Jared Veldheer (right tackle) responded well in last week’s win over the Los Angeles Chargers and intends to carry that over to Sunday’s game against Pittsburgh. They really have no other choice. “You can’t show panic,” said offensive line coach Sean Kugler. “The players see that if you do. And you have to show belief in them, which we have in all of our players. And they believe in themselves.”
Depth was a strength of the Broncos in Week 1. But it has been decimated due to season-ending injuries to left guard Ron Leary (Achilles in Week 6) and center Matt Paradis (broken ankle in Week 9).
The offensive line combination debuted with a no-sack, no-holding, no-false start game against the Chargers.
“You grind and you get the guys prepared to play and do their best job,” Kugler said. “We’ve got a great group of guys. They work hard and they’re the ones who went out there and did the work.”
This week, the offensive line actually had a full set of practices and meetings to smooth out any issues and build on their chemistry.
“The more they play together, the better they’re going to be,” coach Vance Joseph said after practice Friday. “I was really pleased with both Billy and Eli — they played good football. I thought (Bolles) played his best game of the year as far as technique and blocking those two Pro Bowl rushers ( Joey Bosa/melvin Ingram).
“With time, they should play better, but I’ve been really pleased with that whole room (during) the whole year and the depth that’s come out of that room.”
Back in September, Garcia was a reserve guard and Turner/wilkinson the backup tackles.
Garcia started at right guard against the Los Angeles Rams and was rotating with Mcgovern until Leary was injured. Garcia returned to left guard, his starting spot in 2016-17.
Paradis was injured in the first half of the loss to Houston, forcing Mcgovern to slide to center and Wilkinson to play right guard.
But what happened Nov. 15 topped everything. Garcia tore his ACL in practice, forcing Turner to become a guard.
“You just try to focus,” said Kugler, who coaches the guards/centers while Chris Strausser coaches the tackles. “(Garcia’s injury) happened so late in the week, you really didn’t have time to think about it, the players or the coaching staff. But we try to train these guys to be prepared for situations like that.
“From Day One, we’ve let them know that if the opportunity is there, it’s their time to step up and we expect them to have the same level or a higher level (of play) than the last person in there.”
The Broncos’ offensive line passed their first test, but Pittsburgh has the league’s top pass rush (37 sacks) and are ninth-best against the run (99.6 yards per game). It will be up to Mcgovern in particular to make the proper pre-snap checks to keep the offense on schedule.
“I thought Connor did a great job (last week),” Kugler said. “You lose a great leader in (Paradis) — he’s done it for years, and nobody really does it better than Matt. That part of it is the biggest challenge. Athletically, Connor can handle the position, and he’s a smart guy too.”