Let’s see how Garett Bolles did against Maxx Crosby and the Las Vegas Raiders during the Denver Broncos road win on Sunday.
Offensive tackles, especially left tackles, are a massive component to any successful team and offensive line. Good ones are hard to come by, especially in recent years. And if you look ahead to next year’s batch of free agents, there’s not a whole lot of talent available at this position.
That’s why it has been so important for Garett Bolles (for himself at least) to have a productive season heading on the final year of his current contract with the Denver Broncos. If he performs well, then that means a nice payday is waiting for him.
And what we’ve seen out of him so far this year has been impressive. He is near the bottom of the league in pressures, QB hits, and sacks given up, and he has hardly been penalized. He still has the occasional hold, but nothing like it’s been in the past.
Part of why Bo Nix is having as much success as he is is due to the safety that Bolles has been providing on his blind side.
Since it’s been long overdue this season, let’s take a look at Garett Bolles’ performance against the Las Vegas Raiders and see if he should be up for an extension or not.
Stat crunch
Garett Bolles was on the field for all 65 offensive snaps that were counted (not called back by penalty). Out of those 65 snaps, 21 were in run protection and 44 were in pass protection.
He had six snaps where Maxx Crosby was his key defender. It was an even split of run plays and pass plays while lined up against him with three apiece.
His best drives of the game were the first and final ones (drives one and eleven). He graded a perfect 8/8 on drive one and 3.5/3 on drive eleven.
Bolles gave up one pressure, zero QB hits, and zero sacks.
According to the RGS (Ross Grading System) Bolles had two “great” blocks (1.5 points), 48 “good” blocks (1 point), 14 “meh” blocks (0.5 points), and one “bad” block (0 points). With no penalty deductions, this would give him 58 total points and a score of 89.2%.
He had 18.5 points on run blocks (88.1%) and 39.5 points on pass blocks (89.8%).
Against Crosby specifically, he had four “good” blocks and two “meh” blocks for 5 total points on six plays, or a score of 83.3%.
In general
Bolles definitely played to his strengths on Sunday. His run blocking was good, and dang good on a couple plays, but his pass blocking was stronger in this game, and the grades showed that. And while it wasn’t a large difference, you can see it on the eye test when watching film, and I’d even argue this for his career as a whole, Bolles is more comfortable and skilled as a pass blocker.
Which isn’t a bad thing. And it might even be considered a good thing.
The left tackle is usually the more athletic one, compared to the right tackle. The left tackle is likely good with run blocking, but they excel in the passing game. Whereas the right tackle is good in pass protection but excels in run blocking. And the Broncos have that.
Bolles is a good run blocker but is a better pass blocker. Mike McGlinchey is a good pass blocker (even though this was not his best game on the year) but is a better run blocker.
The main issue I’ve had with Bolles is that he turns out too quickly in pass pro (we’ll see that a couple times in the clips), but he showed improvement in that sense on Sunday. And he’s been better with that for most of the year.
You’ll see him, on bad reps, swing his arms out wide and open up his hips to the sideline after two steps and that usually results in him getting beat. But it’s when he’s able to get that third kick step in before he turns out and keeps his hands in tight when he strikes results in most of his good reps. It seems simple but it’s hard to implement these changes, especially when it’s been made a habit.
The specifics
The good
On this play Bolles demonstrates the technique of a single arm stab. The point of it is to get your arm underneath a shoulder, lock it out, and then use your hips as your source of leverage and just keep the defender at the end of your arm.
Using your outside arm to get leverage on the playside of the defender is a great way to prevent the defender from working back across your face, and like what happens here, it only allows the defender the option to go inside, which is where Bolles is directing him to go. Good play.
Bolles does a great job of working the defender by Nix, giving him a pocket to step up into if needed.
His initial pass set is good, not giving the defender any options besides having to keep working up field, and when the DE is forced to attempt to turn the edge, Bolles does the right thing of working his right hand to the defenders hip/ side and pressing him up field.
This is exactly what you’re supposed to do in this situation.
The meh
This is a play that happens quick, and might not even look that impressive, but it’s a good job by Bolles to work Maxx Crosby inside. Considering how quick Crosby is and that he’s slanting inside, Bolles has to work quickly to get his body in front of him and to get his hands on the right spot.
He just needs better hand placement and slightly quicker feet on this one and it would have been better.
On the flip side of the last play that we looked at, this is what happens when you turn out too soon.
Bolles only gets about one and a half kick steps in before he turns his hips out to the defender. The rule of thumb is to turn out at quarterback level. This is far from that. And since Bolles turns out, he loses mobility and is not able to keep up with the DE attacking vertically.
This allowed the DE to turn the corner on Bolles and get close to Nix.
The bad
The one bad play that I gave Bolles is not even entirely his fault. And if it wasn’t for the bad block by Adkins, he might have even been able to get away with it.
The Broncos are running Y Wham Duo Right, so that means that the offensive line is running Duo Right, while the Y is kicking out the backside end man on the line of scrimmage.
Adkins failed to secure the kick out block, which forced Williams back inside, but there was no lane because Powers left the DT too quickly and went up to backer, and Bolles was unable to get across the DT.
Bolles needed a quicker first step to get hip-to-hip and in front of the DT to prevent penetration.
The great
If you’ve been around football coaches, especially offensive line coaches (right here), then you’ve probably heard the term “play through the echo of the whistle” or something along those lines about a million times. I think I say that no less than five times a practice. Bolles demonstrates what we mean by that on this play.
He starts the play off by winning the leverage battle on the DE and gets his hands inside, and when the DE tries to get into the play, Bolles makes sure he has no chance to make a play or jump on the pile.
I love it.
The last play we’ll look at is from the second-to-last offensive snap for Denver from Sunday, and it’s another example of Bolles putting someone on the ground.
He plays a dangerous game crossing his feet over, but Bolles handles the wide blitzer very well, winning the leverage battle, and it was all over when Bolles got his hands involved.
I have to give five credit though, that was a nice somersault he did at the end to try and draw a flag.
Final thoughts
Bolles has been one of the best pass blockers in the league and has been a valuable asset to Denver and Bo Nix.
There is no doubt in my mind that Bolles deserves to be extended. His talent is worthy of it, and there is no backup on the roster, rookie they’ll be able to draft, or pending free agent that will be an upgrade.
I say Denver should give Bolles a three-year deal with most of the money coming in the first two (thanks to fellow writer and oline fan Chris Hart for this idea).