After Michael Schofield saw his first game action last Sunday against Minnesota, it appears another young offensive lineman will get the call against the Raiders.
With left guard Evan Mathis officially “questionable” for Sunday’s game, head coach Gary Kubiak today said that rookie Max Garcia will be figured in to the offensive line rotation.
Kubiak expects to start the same offensive line from last week (L to R: Ryan Harris, Mathis, Matt Paradis, Louis Vasquez, Schofield), but said he expects to play Garcia along with recently acquired swing tackle Tyler Polumbus as part of a rotation of players at multiple positions.
“…I think we’re going to play a lot of people, Kubiak said. “I think you’re going to see Max [Garcia] play some. You’re going to see Polumbus play some. I think you’re going to see us play deep up front with some of things we’ve got going on.”
Those “things” are the shoulder injury that has kept Sambrailo out of practice and games this week and last. Mathis is dealing with a lingering hamstring. Vasquez was limited in practice this week and last with a knee, the same injury that saw Harris miss time this week.
“We have some veteran players like Ryan [Harris] who are a little beat up right now this early in the season and I think that it will make us a better team if our young players continue to contribute,” Kubiak continued.
The positive in this development is that Kubiak feels confident enough about the matchup with Oakland that he can afford some “on the job training” with these young offensive linemen and that he’s planning for the season on the whole, not just winning the next game.
Garcia has been on the field for just five snaps this season, his first, but will likely see at least a few series, maybe more if Mathis is having any difficulty.
Kubiak has been planning for this rotation since the early parts of the season, mixing his young guys in for more reps especially during camp. But now it’s become a necessity, not a luxury. As he said earlier in the week, “We’ve been rotating a few guys by necessity. Hopefully we’ll keep everybody healthy.”
As for Mathis, whom Garcia will likely spell at times on Sunday, Kubiak is trusting his veteran and former All-Pro to respond when the bullets are live.
“He played through it last week and didn’t miss a snap. Our goal was to give him Wednesday off and go back to work on Thursday. We did that, but he was sore today, so we’re just responding to how he came out of yesterday’s practice.”
Here at Mile High Sports, we have a lot of confidence in Garcia (see our OL power rankings) to log some quality snaps and keep Mathis fresh.
