Finally a move Broncos Country can stomach.
The Broncos agreed to a four-year, $80-million contract with The Belly on Tuesday, meaning promising right guard Quinn Meinerz isn’t going anywhere.
This is the type of transaction a team makes that is in transition — the Latin word for rebuilding. There is a reason the Broncos decided to eat $53 million of Russell Wilson’s contract this season. This is a reset, an acknowledgement that there are stairsteps in the climb back to relevance.
It’s OK Broncos Country. Regardless of what is said in news conferences beginning next week, you no longer have to indulge delusions. This is a process. It’s going to take a minute.
The road to redemption requires a series of correct decisions. Securing Meinerz ranks as one. Several more are needed. This represents the second contract extension under the Walton-Penner ownership group. Wilson spooked them. No matter your net worth, paying a quarterback $124 million for 11 wins and $85 million to not play for you is not a vanity chess move. It is a net loss, pure and simple. A red-faced mistake in a sea of orange.
The sheer absurdity of absorbing this cap hit should bring clarity. Four months later, there are indications that it has. Coach Sean Payton got his way, shedding Wilson for his hand-picked successor Bo Nix. He desperately wants to be right about Nix. And he has to be for this construction project to pass specs. The challenge has left the coach in a much better mood, energized by young players and positional battles.
It is easy to smile in July. But facing Andy Reid, Jim Harbaugh and John Harbaugh five times means Payton’s “Getting Even With the NFL” World Tour will be delayed until 2025.
Drafting a first-round quarterback — if Nix isn’t the guy, Payton won’t be choosing the next one — and rewarding Meinerz were the right decisions.
How do they stay on this path? There is a simple question to guide roster decisions, and, more specifically, investment: Is this player going to be around when the Broncos win again? With the 25-year-old Meinerz, the answer is yes. With 24-year-old Patrick Surtain II, it is (bleep) yes. He remains next in line for a monster deal.
With Courtland Sutton, who turns 29 in October, the answer is no. Let him play out this year and look to trade him. The Broncos will be flush with cap space after this season, and must land Nix a playmaker worthy of Netflix’s “Receiver” series. They haven’t done extensions for Sutton, Garrett Bolles or D.J. Jones when reducing their cap hits would have made sense. That shows the Broncos are not (yet) convinced they are part of the future.
What Tuesday’s signing shows is what most know. The Broncos view the offensive line as their foundation. They have guaranteed Meinerz ($45 million), left guard Ben Powers ($28.5 million) and right tackle Mike McGlinchey ($52.5 million) a total of $126 million. This could be Bolles’ last season in Denver, and there will be a new starting center, but this unit remains the team’s biggest strength.
They need a powerful run game — like top 12 in the league — and must keep the quarterback, especially Nix, upright. Internally, the Broncos believe the pass protection is much better than the analytics, blaming Wilson for a huge chunk of sacks because of misreads and eyes-down scrambles.
Meinerz cashed in because of his age and talent. The Broncos desperately require more players like him. ESPN recently ranked Denver’s roster 31st in the league, ahead of only the Giants. Agreeing to a deal with Meinerz represents another remarkable milestone in his journey from Division III star to Rocky Balboa workout videos in the Canadian wilderness.
Meinerz is a road grader in the ground game and flirting with excellence in pass protection. They need improvement from Powers and McGlinchey, who will be counted on to step up with the reduced glare on their contracts.
Meinerz’s development hints at a possible path forward. The draft is general manager George Paton’s strength, even if it is a mixed bag. He should have been fired for the Wilson trade and signing edge rusher Randy Gregory. He took big swings. I supported the Wilson deal not knowing that he was going to try and re-invent himself as Drew Brees while playing for a spineless head coach in Nathaniel Hackett. When you whiff, you get canned. That’s how the GM role works in pro sports.
But CEO and owner Greg Penner likes how Paton and Payton mesh. Paton was hired because of his scouting ability. His draft picks routinely received second contracts in Minnesota. And that’s the secret sauce to returning from the abyss. The Broncos were forced to fill in the ghost draft classes of 2019-2020 with moderate free-agent additions Brandon Jones and Malcolm Roach and bringing back P.J. Locke.
They have to create waves of young players that blend with free-agent additions identified by Payton.
There is nothing sexy about this. It will take this season and through the 2025 draft to become competitive again. Nix must be the fix. Meinerz must turn into a Pro Bowler. Surtain must be rewarded as a franchise cornerstone. Between outside linebackers Jonathon Cooper, Baron Browning and Nik Bonitto, two must become keepers. And this is the year receiver Marvin Mims Jr., cornerback Riley Moss and center Alex Forsyth must become starters.
Then you have something. A vision. Athleticism. A core group of impact players growing together.
The days of overvaluing ordinary veterans must end. The Broncos need more Belly, not rosters of misfit toys that produce indigestion.
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