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Jeff Legwold, ESPN Senior Writer
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Last offseason, no team handed out more top-tier contracts to lure free agents than the Denver Broncos. And no non-quarterback got a bigger free agent contract than the one tackle Mike McGlinchey signed with the Broncos.
The Broncos were the only team to offer a contract worth more than $47 million to more than one player from another team — McGlinchey, guard Ben Powers and defensive end Zach Allen. They were also the only team to award two contracts worth more than $50 million to two offensive linemen. McGlinchey’s five-year, $87.5 million deal was the biggest given to any player who switched teams other than quarterback Derek Carr‘s deal to sign with the New Orleans Saints.
Despite those hefty offseason investments, the big-picture return was another playoff miss — the Broncos’ eighth consecutive.
McGlinchey, a team captain, is at the forefront of an offseason in which the Broncos face similar questions up front on offense as they did last year, without the ability to wave their checkbook around. But McGlinchey saw some progress and minced no words about what the offense has to do in the months to come.
“We’ve grown a lot … biggest stride is you’ve got to maintain that consistency all the way through,” McGlinchey said. “Offensively we don’t feel we did enough this year and that’s where we’ve got to start in April.”
Regarding his own play, McGlinchey added: “Ups and downs. Learning a new offense, new expectations of what’s required of my job. There was some growing pains. I think I got better as the season went on, got to continue to do that than moving forward.”
The Broncos finished 18th in the league in scoring (21 points per game; their seventh consecutive season averaging less than 22 PPG) and 27th in sacks per pass attempt, and quarterback Russell Wilson was benched by coach Sean Payton with two games remaining. At the time, Payton said he was searching for a spark in an offense that still finished 20th in percentage of touchdowns in the red zone and 30th in percentage of touchdowns in goal-to-go situations.
“I would say we have to be great with the details, and obviously, we weren’t good enough with the details if there were certain mistakes that were repeating themselves,” Payton said. “That starts with the teaching, our coaching. Are we saying the right things? The 10-yard line and in sticks out — that’s unusual. That bothered me a lot. Those are four-point swings, really, if you kick a field goal instead of scoring a touchdown.”
On the offensive line, center Lloyd Cushenberry, with 57 career starts over the past four seasons, is poised to be an unrestricted free agent. Left tackle Garett Bolles, who turns 32 in May, will have the team’s biggest salary cap hit for 2024 — $20 million — if the Broncos follow Wilson’s benching with the quarterback’s release.
Wilson’s release would put the Broncos in a salary cap pinch, with a “dead money” charge of $85 million over the next two seasons. The team could be looking to find some relief by reworking the contracts of some of the high-profile veterans like Bolles or moving on from some players.
General manager George Paton has already said the Broncos “won’t be in on the first wave of free agency like we were last year. You can’t do that every year. We’ll be very strategic and very specific on what positions and what players we try to sign.”
The Broncos have six picks in the April draft — no second-rounder, however — and what projects early to be a quality group of linemen on the board to choose from if they wish, especially at tackle. At the Senior Bowl last week, the offensive linemen were consistently a standout group in the practices as players like Oregon center Jackson Powers-Johnson, Oregon State tackle Taliese Fuaga, Connecticut guard Christian Hayes and Arkansas center Beau Limmer led a quality group in both one-on-ones and team drills.
McGlinchey said he expects the Broncos to continue to improve on the offensive line despite some uncertainty and that the group can be part of the team’s ability to “overcome all the B.S. that comes with losing and becoming a winning franchise … confidence that comes with expecting to win every week.”
“Think we took great strides, to be honest with you, in turning this thing around believing that we can win games,” McGlinchey said. “The great disappointment that you feel after a season like this … that disappointment doesn’t come without the expectation of being great.
“That expectation comes with winning ballgames and believing we can do this.”
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