If you believe the rhetoric coming out of Dove Valley, there’s nothing to worry about with the Broncos offensive line.
The line is “starting to take shape,” according to denverbroncos.com.
ESPN’s Jeff Legwold says, “The Broncos have liked what the group they have together right now has done. They really like what Ty Sambrailo has done at left tackle. He appears to be the guy they’re going to keep looking to as they move toward training camp.”
The Denver Post reports, “Among the notable positives as the Broncos near the end of their organized training activities is that Kubiak said he has settled on a starting offensive line ahead of training camp.”
But when Kubiak spoke to the media after Wednesday’s mandatory veteran minicamp practice, his words didn’t exactly align with the narrative being spun that the offensive line is beginning to solidify.
When asked about the offensive line, Kubiak told reporters:
“I think that if right now we went to camp we would have a pretty good idea how we’re going to lineup and go. I think from a competitive standpoint, I think we are very competitive right now between [center Matt] Paradis and [center] Gino [Gradkowski]. That’s a very competitive situation. I think [G] Shelly [Smith] is pushing [guar Ben] Garland and [center/guard] Max [Garcia] is a young guy that’s come in and played really, really well. The tackle situation, I think we know who our three guys are right now that are battling and we’re trying to get the other ones going. I should say four, now [tackle] Ryan [Harris] is involved. As you all can see Ryan’s been working a little bit. So, I think we know how we’re going to lineup with one’s and two’s and three’s right now. But how it’s going to end up, I don’t know, we’ll see. But it will be a very competitive environment throughout.”
Mile High Sports translates:
“We have a group of guys, and we don’t really feel confident in any of them (outside of Louis Vasquez), so we’re going to call it a competitive environment.”
What’s the old hockey adage? When you have two goalies, you have none.
And in baseball? When you have two closers, you have none.
Yes, parts of an offensive line should be able to operate like Ford factory parts. One breaks down, just replace it with another. The strength of the whole will suffice while the new part breaks in.
But with only one truly road-proven part in Vasquez, the Broncos offensive line is anything but stable at this point.
When you have two centers, three guards and up to four tackles all competing for their respective positions, do you really have an offensive line?
Less than two weeks ago Legwold said Sambrailo was “working through his ‘growing pains.'” Now he’s being touted as a near no-doubt No. 1 protecting Peyton Manning’s blind side. Chris Clark has done yeoman’s work in his five years with Denver and is being slotted in to the starting right tackle role, at least early on. Yet the team signed the veteran Harris just hours after the announcement of Clady’s injury and Michael Schofield remains on the roster, not to mention undrafted college free agents Connor Rains and Kyle Roberts.
The Broncos offensive line has been a rotating cast – due in part to injury, in part to coaching ineptitude and largely in part to poor personnel management – for three years now. With the added complexity of implementing a completely new blocking scheme under Kubiak, do they really expect fans to feel confident about a unit consisting of mostly unproven parts?
Everyone wants to believe the Broncos offensive line will be just fine, but it appears that by his own words Gary Kubaik isn’t fully confident in what he has in the trenches.
