Mile High Report
Finally. Let’s spend today talking about a man who is quietly one of the best offensive tackles in the league this season.
Mike McGlinchey’s tenure with the Denver Broncos has not been completely positive. Not that I necessarily agree with those sentiments, but his first year with the team was rocky at times, and he did have those moments last year as well, particularly in the passing game. But I think that overall he has been playing really solid football and has been a key contributor to the success of this offense.
This year he has been proving me right. He has been consistently reliable, always in the game, rock solid, and has sneakily been one of the best players on the offense. McGlinchey really does feel like he embodies the classic offensive line sentiment that you only hear about them when they’re bad, and when they’re good no one talks about them.
Let’s change that.
Mike McGlinchey played every offensive snap of the game. The Broncos had 61 of them on Sunday, running 22 designed run plays (including RPOs) and 39 designed pass plays.
He had a statistically perfect night as he gave up zero TFLs, zero pressures, zero QB hits, and zero sacks.
He finished the game with one “Bad” block, five “Meh” blocks, 12 “Alright” blocks, and 43 “Good” blocks. This gave him a score of 5.5 points or 89.3%.
In run protection he finished with 19.25 points (87.5%) and in pass protection he finished with 35.25 points (90.4%). His lone “Bad” block came in pass protection.
Unlike last week’s film review on Quinn Meinerz, there was nothing super flashy about McGlinchey’s game and there weren’t these huge blocks that he was making. But that’s not something I’m going to hold against him. Not every game has to be that way and not every player has to play that way. McGlinchey on Sunday was not spectacular, but he was very, very solid.
He was strong in pass protection all day long. We’ll take a look at one of his mistakes, but it wasn’t horrible. For the most part as long as he was able to absorb the initial impact or counter the initial pass rush, these Houston Texans defenders weren’t doing a dang thing. He only got beat on a stunt. Bull rushes weren’t working, speed rushes weren’t working, and he didn’t give the edge rushers any space to work with.
In run protection he fixed some of the mistakes I’ve seen him make semi-regularly this year. In particular, as the playside tackle on Inside Zone he wasn’t playing as soft on the LOS as he has. He was taking that inside shoulder and working through it, not giving the defender an opportunity to work back inside on him. He looked pretty strong out there too, which isn’t something that usually happens. There were a couple of plays where he straight-up just manhandled someone.
And while you didn’t hear his name...
