ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — One by one, year after year after 10 years, a trap door opens up below the right tackle position and drops the latest contestant to a dark hole.
The easiest selection on the 9NEWS’ most recent Broncos’ All Decade team was Orlando Franklin at right tackle. He got the nod in part because he was pretty good but also because he was the only player who played more than one season at the position.
Franklin, a Broncos’ second-round draft pick in the Von Miller draft of 2011, was the Broncos’ right tackle for three consecutive seasons from his rookie year through the 2013 Super Bowl drubbing from Seattle.
After which, left guard Zane Beadles left for free agency and the Broncos’ decision-makers believed Franklin was better suited to play inside at left guard.
What the Broncos didn’t plan on was how difficult it was to replace Franklin at right tackle.
Even when signing veteran free agents to multiyear, multimillion contracts like Donald Stephenson, Menelik Watson and Ja’Wuan James to stabilize the swinging gate at the quarterback’s eye-side, the Broncos’ couldn’t get the same right tackle to start a second season in succession. The Broncos even spent big to make James the highest-paid right tackle in NFL history in 2019. He played but one half of three games before injuries made him one of the biggest free-agent busts in Broncos’ history.
The Broncos’ season-opening/season-long right tackles of the past 10 seasons:
2022 – Cam Fleming/Billy Turner
2021 – Bobby Massie
2020 – Elijah Wilkinson/Demar Dotson
2019 – Ja’Wuan James/Elijah Wilkinson
2018 – Jared Veldheer
2017 – Menelik Watson
2016 – Donald Stephenson
2015 – Ryan Harris/Michael Schofield
2014 – Chris Clark
2013 – Orlando Franklin
And most likely it will be 11 years in a row with a new right tackle as both Fleming and Turner are unrestricted free agents.
“We need to upgrade at the offensive line,’’ general manager George Paton said here Tuesday at his NFL Combine press conference. “There’s a lot of different ways to acquire any position—free agency, the draft. It just kind of depends on what’s stronger. Is free agency stronger or the draft stronger? Obviously, we need to upgrade there on the offensive line.”
Besides right tackle, Dalton Risner, the Broncos’ starting left guard the previous four seasons, is a free agent whose market could well command a contract north of $12 million per year. And veteran Graham Glasgow, a 33-game starter at right guard and center the previous three years, has a non-guaranteed $11 million salary due in 2023. The Broncos are unlikely to pay him that despite playing well after he returned on a pay cut last season.
The Broncos have also previously brought in competition for center Lloyd Cushenberry III, who is coming off a season-ending groin injury. But it will be difficult to upgrade three offensive line spots in one offseason. The Broncos are set at left tackle with Garett Bolles returning from a fractured leg injury and right guard Quinn Meinerz, their best blocker last year.
But stability at right tackle is what the Broncos and quarterback Russell Wilson could use most. With the Broncos not drafting until the No. 67 and 68 picks in the third round this year, free agency is where the team figures to sign at least one offensive starter. And there are some good ones at both right tackle and left guard, including:
Right tackle
- Mike McGlinchey, 49ers
- Kaleb McGary, Falcons
- Jawaan Taylor, Jaguars
- Orlando Brown Jr., Chiefs
- Kelvin Beachum, RT, Cardinals
- Cam Fleming, Broncos
Left guard
- Ben Powers, LG, Ravens
- Isaac Seumalo, RG, Eagles
- Evan Brown, RG, Lions
- Dalton Risner, LG, Broncos
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