Mile High Report
The Bronco offensive line had a big challenge on Sunday. The Chiefs boast a strong defensive front, with strong pass rushers, and Chris Jones is a tough guy to handle in the interior. This was also another test to see if Alex Palczewski can perform against an All-Pro. The guys up front did their job well, and Palczewski more than held his own throughout the majority of the game.
This week we’ll focus on the third year man out of Illinois who made his fifth start this year in replacement of Ben Powers. And I wanted to look through the film with the question in my head of “Can Palczewski be a future starting offensive guard for the broncos?”
This is truly what I want to know, because that will open up a ton of opportunities and options for this team moving forward. And a huge part of being a Denver offensive lineman is proving that you can handle and beat the Chiefs. Did Palco do just that?
The Broncos ran 59 offensive snaps, not including the intentional grounding or Bo Nix’s run on the penultimate play of the game to set up the field goal. 19 of those snaps were designed run plays and 40 of them were designed pass plays.
Alex Palczewski played every offensive snap.
The ball was ran behind him five times for 12 yards (2.4 YPC). The Broncos averaged 2.95 YPC. The longest rush went for a gain of five, and the shortest went for a loss of one.
Palczewski had one blown block that resulted in a gain of one on a run play. He gave up zero TFLs.
He gave up one pressure, no QB hits, and no sacks.
Palczewski had one holding penalty.
Palczewski finished the game with one “Bad” block, 11 “Meh” blocks, eight “Alright” blocks, and 39 “Good” blocks. After deducting 1.5 points for the holding penalty, he had 49 points on 59 snaps, or 83.1%.
That penalty would end up resulting in a 72.4% in run blocking (80.3% before deducting for the penalty). In pass protection he finished with a 88.1%.
This was not going to be an easy task for Alex Palczewski. He spent most of the game having to handle guys like Chris Jones and George Karlaftis, among others. The Chiefs have a solid defensive front, and while the Broncos have gone up against many good fronts, sometimes it just feels different when the opponent knows you better. But even with this new challenge, Palczewski didn’t falter. He held his own on most occasions, and had his shining moments spattered throughout the contest.
His game also looked similar to the previous four. He’s solid at sticking with Luke Wattenberg on pass protection while keeping his eyes outside, just waiting for someone to throw an inside move against Garett Bolles. He plays well with those two guys on their double teams as well. And he showed off his athleticism by being able...
