Denver Post Broncos writer Parker Gabriel posts his Broncos Mailbag weekly during the season and periodically during the offseason. Click here to submit a question.
It seems to me that six Broncos have a legitimate shot at being selected as All-Pro: Courtland Sutton, Quinn Meinerz, Pat Surtain, Nik Bonitto, Zach Allen and Marvin Mims Jr. I’m sure that’s too optimistic, but who do you think?
— Fred Waiss, Prairie du Chien, Wis.
Hey Fred, thanks for writing.
Yeah, that’s probably optimistic in terms of actual results, but no doubt a bunch of Broncos have put themselves in position to at least be considered for All-Pro honors, Pro Bowl selections, etc.
Surtain is the easiest call, at least to me. He should be a Defensive Player of the Year candidate for his all-around work, and that would put him right in the mix for All-Pro, too.
Bonitto and Allen are also among the most productive at their respective positions defensively, and each is having the best year of his pro career.
Meinerz got off to a slow start but has been much more dominant since then. He’ll be a regular in these conversations for years to come.
Sutton exits the bye week No. 16 overall in the NFL in receiving yards but obviously on a great run as of late. He’ll need a strong finish to get real All-Pro consideration, but it’s not entirely out of the question.
Mims is third in the NFL in punt return yardage but teams have been careful on kickoffs and, while he’s made some important plays in special teams he hasn’t ripped off a score yet. If he does that down the stretch, he’ll be right back in the mix after All-Pro honors last year as a rookie.
A couple of others who could warrant some consideration: kicker Wil Lutz and nickel Ja’Quan McMillian. McMillian’s made more splash plays — highlighted by the game-sealing pick-6 vs. Cleveland — of late but he helps Denver in a lot of ways in the secondary. He’s had a couple of rough patches and may not end up with big recognition, but certainly, the Broncos appreciate what he brings to the table.
Parker, thanks for your work with the ‘Bag. Now that the Broncos have cut bait with tight end Greg Dulcich, what’s your take on the Broncos’ plans for perhaps their most glaring position of need, tight end? I’m not seeing any real game-changing TEs in the draft, and with the TE position being such a vacuum for the Broncos, it’s obvious a SERIOUS upgrade is needed.
— Will Christensen, Orem, Utah
Hey Will, thanks for writing into the ‘Bag. And no doubt about it. Tight end is high on the to-do list this offseason.
Give Denver credit for this: It’s figured out a functional mix of Adam Trautman, Lucas Krull and Nate Adkins as the season has gone along. But Sean Payton loves having a matchup problem at that position and at running back, and Denver’s got neither at the moment.
There may not be a Brock Bowers-caliber player in the draft — they don’t come around all that often — but there are some interesting guys who will come off the board early.
Michigan’s Colston Loveland and Penn State’s Tyler Warren are both really good players who will garner first-round consideration. A handful of others should be in the Day 2/early Day 3 mix, but one interesting receiving type is Syracuse’s Oronde Gadsden II. He had 61 catches for 975 yards and six touchdowns in 2022, then missed all but two games in 2023 due to injury. This year he’s got 69 catches for 860 and five touchdowns.
There’s always the trade market and free agency as well, and the Broncos will have more than just a position or two on their needs list, but tight end will be a big one.
Hi Parker, Cody Barton has played well this season and he’s only on a one-year contract. Alex Singleton and Drew Sanders are coming off major injuries. Wouldn’t it make sense to sign Cody to a two-year deal after this season? Do you think that is something the Broncos have in their plans?
— Jeff, North Salt Lake, Utah
Hey Jeff, good question and thanks for writing. That could end up making sense, as could bringing Barton back on a one-year deal. Singleton will be coming off the ACL, as you noted, and carries a $7.33 million cap number with no guaranteed money in 2025, so he could be a candidate for some kind of action on his contract.
Denver hasn’t put premium draft capital into inside linebacker in recent years — not many teams do, unless there’s a special player available — and even when they drafted Sanders in the third round in 2023 it was with the idea that he could end up inside or on the edge.
Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph had an interesting comment earlier this season about their belief in developing starters at ILB and safety. We’ll see if they can do that with Levelle Bailey and if they end up taking a young guy in the draft. Teams are always looking to get more athletic in the middle of the field and the Broncos should be no exception.
Hi Parker. Help me understand why it took so long to get Levi Wallace out of the game last week. It was so obvious he needed to get pulled out of the game. He was getting beat by 5 yards on several occasions.
— Brandon Brown, Rogers, Minn.
What high school does Levi Wallace attend? He’s certainly not a pro football player.
— Ed Schofield, Mesa, Ariz.
Brandon and Ed had similar thoughts from last week’s game, so let’s lump them together. And yeah, Wallace had a bad night at the office. No doubt about it. I was a little surprised they didn’t try a different guy earlier in the game, too. We haven’t actually talked to coordinators or assistant coaches since the Monday night game — that’ll be Thursday — but a couple of thoughts on why: First, Wallace had been solid in his work before Monday night. Also, teams go into a game with a plan, and sometimes changing roles mid-stream can be disruptive in its own right. Not to say teams should never do that, but Damarri Mathis, for example, had a specific role and found himself on tight end David Njoku several times on third downs.
All of that said, obviously Jeudy had a field day whenever Surtain wasn’t covering him. Rookie Kris Abrams-Draine was solid when he came in for the final two drives.
If Riley Moss isn’t back out there this weekend against Indianapolis, Denver’s plan at cornerback will be very interesting to follow.
Why do the Broncos continue to run up the middle when it did not work the first time? Can they use a slant or counter play for the run?
— James Jenkins, Mason, Mich.
It seems the Broncos never try running off the left side of the formation. Are Garett Bolles and Ben Powers the reasons why?
— Larry, Canon City
Another set of related questions. Thanks for the notes, James and Larry. The Broncos do run to the right most frequently, but the numbers aren’t overly dramatic. According to Pro Football Focus data, they’ve run 159 times right of center and 138 left of center — not accounting for jet sweeps and quarterback runs.
That’s less an indictment on the left side, I would imagine, and more about Meinerz and Mike McGlinchey being regarded as among the better run-blocking duos in the NFL.
In recent weeks we’ve seen some of the linemen get out in space, whether on outside run or screen game, and that picture looks pretty good. For the most part, though, Denver’s approach to keeping defenses from overplaying the run is more about play-action, RPO and the threat of rookie quarterback Bo Nix running than it is about dialing up a bunch of true counters or misdirection runs.
I’m interested to see what the approach looks like coming out of the bye week with some extra time to drill down on what the offense is currently doing well.
Parker, appreciate your thoughtful Broncos coverage. How much football does a sports reporter have to know, and how did you learn the finer points of the game: On-the-job training, or through other means?
— Jacob Riger, Columbine
Hey Jacob, terrific question. I’ll use football as the example since that’s what I cover.
Generally speaking, I think the answer is the more, the better. But you don’t have to watch 40 hours of film a week and be able to take a Payton-esque 15-word play call and diagram it on the grease board to be a good football reporter.
That’s because there’s a lot of other stuff that goes into covering the NFL, for example, besides knowing how the quarterback reads a high-low or exactly how the keys change for an inside linebacker depending on formation strength. Not that that stuff isn’t interesting or useful, but it’s not the whole job.
You also should know the ins and outs of the salary cap, the way different types of free agency work, rules on practice squad and injury lists and all kinds of other stuff. And just learning the way particular leagues or organizations work. And how information flows. And how to listen to and talk to people.
In terms of learning, it’s in a lot of different ways. One of the coolest parts of this job is that no matter how much stuff I learn about any of those subjects, most of what I do is talk to people who know a lot more about them than I do.
Here’s one example of many: After the Broncos had that field goal blocked vs. Kansas City, I watched every place kick Denver had taken on the season. The left-side pressure became the thrust of what I wrote about, but another thing that caught my attention was that Denver lines the left side of its starting offensive line up to the right of the long-snapper on place kicks and vice versa. So the five in the middle of the protection unit are like an inverted offensive line. Left to right for Denver, that quintet goes: Mike McGlinchey, Quinn Meinerz, Mitchell Fraboni, Ben Powers and Garett Bolles.
I didn’t know why, so I asked Meinerz about it in the locker room and he explained that it’s about the stance and footwork. The way they protect, the footwork stays the same by switching sides from their normal spots on offense.
If not for this mailbag question I might have never had a reason to write that, but it’s a finer point that you learn as you go.
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