The Broncos picked up a crucial part of the offense in the NFL Draft when they spent their first round pick on University of Utah offensive tackle Garrett Bolles.
Bolles had a rough coming-up, being kicked out of his house by his Navy veteran father at 19. Bolles had become caught up in the wrong crowd and got into drugs and other things, but was taken in by the lacrosse coach at his high school. He underwent a drastic change and changed his life around, where he took part in missionary trips, attended college, got married and had a son.
At the NFL Draft Combine, the 6’5”, nearly 300 pound Bolles ran a sub-five second 40-yard dash, but some scouts doubted his core strength. Turning 25 in the end of May, Bolles also isn’t as young as most of the other recruits and that caused many teams to reconsider drafting him.
Coming into the draft last Thursday, I was somewhat hopeful that Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey would stick around long enough for the Broncos to not have to give up too much to trade up and snag him. I thought he’d be a great addition to the team and a great potential slot receiver, but I wasn’t too disappointed when Carolina picked him up with the eighth overall pick. Many thought that the Broncos would pick up Ryan Ramczyk to fill in the obvious holes in the Broncos’ line, but the team went a different direction and picked up Bolles with the 20th pick.
I think Bolles is going to be a great addition to the team. Anyone who watched a Broncos game last season could probably easily see that the team had some gaping holes in the offensive line, and it’s great to see Elway and the coaches picking up solid players to fill those holes. Back in March, the team grabbed guard Ron Leary and tackle Menelik Watson. I’m thinking that these two will take up the right side of the line, veteran Matt Paradis will play at center, and then Garrett Bolles and probably Max Garcia will take the left side tackle and guard spots, respectively.
What the Broncos need to do in the midst of this quarterback battle, is to get a solid group of lineman together that can give three or more seconds to whichever quarterback starts under center come September. Whether it’s Trevor Siemian, Paxton Lynch, or (least likely) Chad Kelly, they all have very little NFL experience, and the Broncos need to be solid upfront to allow the offense to operate and the running game to flourish.
This pick will hopefully workout for the Broncos and fill the holes they had in their offensive line last season. Look for Bolles to come in and make an impact right away this season.
