No Bull roster status part 4: Offensive Line

A No Bull look at the Denver Broncos offensive line roster, its strengths, weaknesses, and what we can expect George Paton and Sean Payton to target this offseason

With the Denver Broncos offseason kicking off, it is a great time to step back, take a look at the roster, and play a little armchair GM leading up to all of the excitement of possible free-agent signings, trades, and of course the NFL Draft.

Let me give a tip of the hat to www.footballguys.com for their information on snap percentages and www.overthecap.com for their information on current contracts for all players.

All of this is my personal opinion based on my tried-and-true eye test of what I’ve seen from these players on the field this season. For the sake of brevity, I’ll be leaving out guys who didn’t see the field in any significant way in 2024 and most Unrestricted Free Agents.

I think it is important here to say that judging offensive line quality is probably one of the hardest things to do when it comes to analyzing the game of football. There’s no stat tracking that definitely speaks to a specific player’s quality as most useful stats are group-oriented. I also do not for one second acknowledge any ratings from the more popular player rating websites out there. They do not pass the sniff test nor seem to be consistent with what we see from game to game.

That being said, enjoy the discussion, join the subjective debate, and share your thoughts (good or bad) in the comments.

Next up, we’ll examine the offensive line and determine what holes the Broncos should look to fill in the 2025 NFL offseason.

Player Rating Key

1. Project / developmental - lacking necessary skills to contribute as it stands today
2. Backup quality - Can play, but isn’t a guy you want out there every snap
3. Average starter - Doesn’t bring anything special to the table, but can do the job
4. Good starter - An above-average talent
5. Blue chip player - Top 10 talent in the NFL at what he does

Unit Rating Key

1. Critical Need - lack of talent at starter and depth
2. Lacking at least one starter
3. Mediocre need
4. Solid talent and depth
5. Elite talent level

Interior Linemen

Luke Wattenburg - 2

Luke Wattenburg was our starting center for most of the season (~75% of the snaps). He seemed to do better in pass protection than run blocking from what I saw. The big problem that I noticed repeat through the season was him getting moved too easily on run plays. The line overall didn’t have huge problems opening holes for the backs, but when it did, most of them seemed to be around Wattenburg.

He’s a 3rd year player who did show that he was able to do the job up front. I’m not sure if he’s hit his ceiling or not, but if any change happens...