Over the past two drafts, Bron­cos gen­er­al man­ag­er John Elway felt he added a pair of long-term pil­lars to the offen­sive line: left guard Dal­ton Ris­ner and rook­ie cen­ter Lloyd Cushenberry.

But in that same time frame, Elway also doled out a record con­tract to right tack­le Ja’Wuan James, only to see that four-year, $51 mil­lion deal look like a bust with James start­ing just three games in 2019 due to injuries and opt­ing out of 2020.

This sea­son will be a big lit­mus test to see if Elway has made the right choic­es, as the unit relies on youth and anoth­er expen­sive free-agent acqui­si­tion — right guard Gra­ham Glas­gow — to bring some sea­son­ing up front and enable sec­ond-year quar­ter­back Drew Lock to grow into his job. 

“As an offen­sive line, we’ve got to take pro­tect­ing Drew upon our­selves,” Ris­ner said. “I don’t just say that with­out any weight. That car­ries some seri­ous weight with me. I want to be able to pro­tect Drew this year and I want to be able to give him time to make those plays. John Elway and (coach Vic) Fan­gio went after it and got some tools for us on offense. If we can give him time to make some­thing hap­pen, I think we can make some­thing shake with the guys we have.”

While Fan­gio empha­sized the Bron­cos “can’t have cracks or leaks in the fort” they had sev­er­al of those last sea­son as the unit allowed 41 sacks (tied for 16th in the NFL).

There are numer­ous ques­tion marks around the line as cur­rent­ly con­struct­ed, even with Glas­gow and Ris­ner (a PFWA All-Rook­ie team selec­tion in 2019) as sta­ble anchors at the guard spots. Glas­gow fig­ures to be a clear upgrade over Ron Leary, who remains a free agent after the Bron­cos declined his option in the off­sea­son, while Ris­ner has Pro Bowl poten­tial if he con­tin­ues on his cur­rent trajectory.

But there will be a learn­ing curve for who­ev­er wins the cen­ter bat­tle, whether it’s Cushen­ber­ry com­ing from the col­lege game or sec­ond-year pro Austin Schlottmann, who start­ed four games at right guard in 2019. And in place of James at right tack­le, either 34-year-old vet­er­an Demar Dot­son (signed to a free agent deal Aug. 11, 106 career starts) or fourth-year pro Eli­jah Wilkin­son will have to pick up James’ slack.

Does that cast make you ner­vous, Bron­cos fans? It makes Glas­gow optimistic.

“The entire line as a whole is very young, and we have a lot of young, tal­ent­ed play­ers along with a cou­ple new vet­er­ans who are hun­gry to go out and prove them­selves,” he said. “That’s a recipe for suc­cess in the NFL.”

Of course, the most antic­i­pat­ed per­for­mance on the line comes at left tack­le, where Garett Bolles’ mad­den­ing incon­sis­ten­cy was some­what cur­tailed over the final stretch of 2019. The for­mer first-round pick from 2017 enters a prove-it year after the Bron­cos declined his fifth-year con­tract option in May, mak­ing Bolles a free agent next March.

Ris­ner assured fans “will prob­a­bly see a whole new Garett Bolles this year.”

“Him play­ing bet­ter at the end of the sea­son is a tes­ta­ment to his hard work,” Ris­ner said. “I think some­thing that peo­ple need to remem­ber is (offen­sive line coach) Mike Mun­chak. That guy is a Hall of Famer and he has a Gold Jack­et… I tru­ly believe with the way Mun­chak coach­es, it’s per­fect for Garett. He’s going to call Garett out when he needs to be called out, he’s going to uplift Garett when he needs uplift­ing and he’s going to teach Garett.”

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Offensive Line Instability

A look at the starts made by the Bron­cos’ offen­sive line since the start of the 2016 season:

Left tack­le: Two (Garett Bolles 48, Rus­sell Okung 16).

Bolles has not missed a game since enter­ing the NFL as a first-round pick in 2017.

Left guard: Four (Max Gar­cia 35, Dal­ton Ris­ner 16, Bil­ly Turn­er 7, Ron Leary 6).

Gar­cia start­ed every game in 2016–17 and Ris­ner start­ed every game last year as a rookie.

Cen­ter: Two (Matt Par­adis 41, Con­nor McGov­ern 23).

Par­adis start­ed 41 con­sec­u­tive games until break­ing his ankle in 2018. McGov­ern start­ed every game last year.

Right guard: Six (Ron Leary 23, Michael Schofield 16, Con­nor McGov­ern 13, Eli­jah Wilkin­son 7, Austin Schlottmann 4, Max Gar­cia 1).

Leary end­ed on injured reserve in all three of his Bron­cos’ sea­sons. Schlottmann start­ed the final four games of 2019.

Right tack­le: Ten (Don­ald Stephen­son 17, Eli­jah Wilkin­son 12, Jared Veld­heer 12, Mene­lik Wat­son 7, Allen Bar­bre 4, Bil­ly Turn­er 4, Ja’Wuan James 3, Ty Sam­brai­lo 3, Jake Rodgers 1, Cyrus Kouand­jio 1).

Con­stant turnover at right tack­le. The most games start­ed in one sea­son was 13 by Stephen­son in 2016.