Broncos' offensive line is surging — even as the pieces have shuffled

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Practice reps for reserves in the NFL during the season are hard to come by. Practice reps for backup jumbo tight ends? Almost nonexistent.

When undrafted rookie Frank Crum entered a game against the Raiders as the sixth offensive lineman in the Broncos’ heavy personnel package, he was filling a role that he had rarely practiced since training camp — and even then his work was limited. Luckily, Crum’s offensive line coach, Zach Strief, is familiar with the job, which includes being required to report to an official that you are substituting as an eligible receiver. A seventh-round pick of coach Sean Payton and the Saints in 2006, Strief carved a role as the jumbo tight end in New Orleans and was used so much in that role that some fans made custom jerseys with Strief’s No. 64 and “Is Eligible” on the nameplate.

“I’ve told Frank before he’s the beneficiary of all the things I messed up when I was in that position,” Strief said. “Frank’s not getting any jumbo reps when Matt (Peart) is the jumbo. He just has to know it. And, yet, for the first time in your life, I’m going to send you into (an NFL) game, you’re going to listen to a formation, and you’re going to remember to tell the official you’re reporting and you have to report on every single play. There’s all these things you don’t think a lot about, but it’s the first time he’s ever done it. So you get to see how the player responds and steps up.”

Wednesday’s #CARvsDEN injury report:

📰 » https://t.co/GP0iT3S5AJ pic.twitter.com/ql9y829lbq

— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) October 23, 2024

Crum held his own in the second half of that win against the Raiders, a microcosm of how the Broncos have survived — and often thrived — up front despite a host of injuries. The Broncos have played four players at right tackle and two at left. They’ve had two starting centers. Three players have filled in the jumbo role. It’s a shuffling picture in stark contrast to 2023 when Denver’s starting five on the offensive line played in 16 of a possible 17 games together.

“You’re not going to go through the season like we did last year very often,” Strief said.

As much as the Broncos enjoyed the continuity in 2023, they knew it would be folly to count on similar health and availability this season. That became evident early in camp when Quinn Bailey, the team’s top reserve tackle and its original jumbo tight end, suffered a season-ending leg injury. Injuries to right tackles Mike McGlinchey and Alex Palczewski and center Luke Wattenberg followed. Left tackle Garett Bolles has started all seven games, but he’s missed snaps in two of them because of injury, including most of the second half during Denver’s Week 1 loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

Through it all, the Broncos, who are 4-3 with a home game against the Carolina Panthers coming Sunday, have produced encouraging results up front. The most recent example was a 225-yard rushing output in Thursday night’s win against the New Orleans Saints, the most for a Broncos team since 2013. The Broncos rank 10th this season in TruMedia’s rushing success metric — a measure of carry-by-carry efficiency — and in yards per carry (4.7). They rank fourth and seventh in those categories, respectively, since Week 3.

The pass protection numbers have been even better. The Broncos rank first in the NFL in sack rate at just 3.9 percent of dropbacks. It’s a testament to rookie quarterback Bo Nix’s elusive maneuvering in and out of the pocket, but the offensive line has undoubtedly played a role in that improvement. Since Week 3, the Broncos have allowed pressure on only 29.4 percent of dropbacks, according to TruMedia, the sixth-lowest rate in the league during that span.

“I think we’re deeper,” Payton said. “You’d like to be healthy, but you understand that’s not always the case. So guys are getting playing time. … You’re constantly trying to develop that back portion of your roster in the event guys have to step up when necessary.”

Three offensive linemen who have seen snaps for the Broncos this season — Palczewski, Crum and center Alex Forsyth — had never played an offensive snap in the NFL before this season. Wattenberg, the Week 1 starting center on injured reserve with a knee injury, had only one career start before this season. That group’s contributions are a credit to Strief, Denver’s second-year offensive line coach, who has simplified the picture for the team’s young offensive linemen.

“In college, I was seeing a lot more than I needed to see,” Forsyth said. “He has simplified it down to, ‘Hey, these are the looks you’re going to see. Here’s what you need to look at.’ It’s giving two to three coaching points on what we’re going to do against pressures on any given play. I think that’s been helpful because, in college, I’m looking at what technique I need to use to win against every single pressure. You just have to go out there and play, and he’s helped me with what I need to see.”

Strief makes it a point not to overload his linemen with information. He and offensive line assistant Austin King aren’t intimately teaching, say, the dozen pressure looks a given week’s opponent has cycled through during the season. They don’t ask players to pore over every blitz or simulated pressure that could be thrown their way.

“We’re going to learn where our set should go and what our eyes do and then train to react to that as fast as humanly possible,” Strief said. “So the pressure or the sim pressure shouldn’t affect you because the initial movement, where your eyes go and your reaction are the same on every one of those. … What it does do is give us a chance, as coaches, to take something that can appear very complex and simplify it down to a set angle, where you want your outside foot and what your eyes do based on the reaction of the defense. You can create reflexes rather than responses, and that’s what we aim to do.”

Tougher tests await for the Broncos. If they are to prove their mettle as a playoff-caliber team, the offensive line will need to lead the way.