Denver Broncos left tackle Garett Bolles is currently the league’s best pass-blocking offensive tackle (and Mike McGlinchey is also high up there with him as well), and after last season, we shouldn’t be surprised. Bolles is the NFL’s equivalent to a fine wine. He’s aged perfectly.
His game against the Cincinnati Bengals may have been his best work of the season. Trey Hendrickson couldn’t do a dang thing for essentially the entire night.
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Now we get to break down some of the greatness we’re seeing out of Denver’s longest active tenured player.
Stat crunch
Garett Bolles played 74 offensive snaps that weren’t kneel downs. He missed one snap on the final drive in the game, but besides that he played every offensive snap.
Out of Denver’s 33 designed run plays, the ball was ran behind Bolles 12 times for 76 yards (6.3 YPC). Eight of those runs were at least five yard gains, and the longest one was a 16-yard carry by JK Dobbins. He gave up zero TFLs.
On Denver’s 41 designed pass plays, Bolles gave up one pressure, zero QB hits, and zero sacks.
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Bolles had zero “Bad” blocks, four “Meh” blocks, 10 “Alright” blocks, 58 “Good” blocks, and two “Great” blocks for a score of 70 points, or 94.6%. One of the highest grades I have ever given out.
In the run he had a score of 31 points or 93.9%.
In the passing game he had a score of 39, or 95.1%.
In general
Besides one pressure given up on the first pass of the game, Bolles was absolute money. Hendrickson, or any other Bengal, were completely useless on the left edge of this offensive line.
What stood out to me the most was just how smooth Bolles was in pass protection. 90% of his snaps looked essentially the same. He’d get a great initial pass set, get hands on, wall off the rusher, then get a hand on the hip and wash him up field. His mix of great technique, a solid base, good hips, and strength are all used in such an efficient manner. It looked like Hendrickson had zero answers for this, which was true.
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And while he’s the best pass-protecting offensive tackle in the league, that doesn’t mean that he’s a slouch in the run game. In fact, I had much more fun watching his run game film. There’s a certain amount of aggression, nastiness, and play-through-the-whistle ability that he brings to the table.
Bolles was moving guys off of the line of scrimmage when called upon. Or he was effectively walling off the backside. There was a play that Dobbins had to bounce to the backside, and his chunk run was only made possible because Bolles stayed on the backside DE for so long.
And it feels like there’s always at least one play where Bolles is blocking a guy through the whistle, resulting in a much-irritated defender. It always gives me a good chuckle.
Bolles was a great blocker in Denver’s Outside Zone and Toss concepts. On Monday. His reach blocks were always money, he always got the backside three tech, and he was fast to get to the boundary and always threw a good block. We’ll take a look at a play that had him blocking two guys on the same rep.
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The specifics
Good block – Duo – 21 personnel – I Formation – Gain of 8
Normally being able to smash a double team block on Duo or Inside Zone is an ability shown best buy the offensive guards, but Bolles works with Ben Powers here and they absolutely bully the DT off of the line of scrimmage.
Bolles does a great job with getting great hand placement as soon as he makes contact and driving with low pad level, allowing him to run the DT off of the ball. And when Powers comes off the block to pick up the backer, Bolles does a good job washing the DT to the right.
Good block – Crack Toss – 10 personnel – Singleback – Gain of 11
Reaching the 3-tech on the backside of a Toss or Outside Zone concept is not the hardest block a lineman can make. But it is not an easy one either, and failure on this block completely eliminates the chance of a cut back by the RB. You have to give a lot of credit to Powers on this play as leaving his backside hand on the DT gives Bolles more time to get across the DT and get the block.
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Bolles turns his hips and runs parallel to the line of scrimmage to get proper leverage on this block. The one thing I’d fault him on is that he doesn’t really gain much ground laterally with his first step. Which is what makes the following steps more impressive, as Bolles is able to get completely across the face of the DT, even running past him down the field. This is a great display of athleticism by the 33-year old. And I wouldn’t expect this result if all I saw was the first step.
Great block – Pass protection – 11 personnel – Gun
This is perfect teach tape for what to do if the pass rusher tries to work inside on you after showing an outside rush.
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The main weakness of Bolles’ technique that has him turn his hips out to wall off the DE if they get up field enough is that it leaves you vulnerable to an inside move due to hip positioning and feet, as this form makes it hard to transition back to the inside as the offensive lineman.
And finally for Hendrickson it looks like he might actually get a good rush on Bolles, but that door got slammed in his face, quickly. Bolles catches this move as soon as Hendrickson tries it, and besides him being able to turn his hips back to square with the line of scrimmage, the real key here is him getting his left hand on the hip of Hendrickson. Bolles then just drives his feet, almost turning this pass set into a run block, and puts Hendrickson into the ground. Fantastic.
Great block – Toss – 11 personnel – Singleback – Gain of 16
Here’s the play I was talking about earlier, where Bolles blocks two defenders on the same rep.
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This is some more teach tape for offensive linemen of how to handle perimeter blocks on Toss plays. His get-off is fast and he gets to his spot quickly. A smart move by him here is when he throws his first block, he forces the defender to his backside, which eliminates him from the play. Realizing this, he looks for more work, and he just so happened to have the backside DT running right at him.
Just look at what Bolles does to him. He plants, throws the shoulder, and puts the big guy on the ground. One of my favorite parts of this play is how Bolles stands over him until another defender comes to stand up for his teammate.
Side note: the second-longest Denver Bronco, Courtland Sutton, throws a heckuva block on this play, pancaking the defensive end and putting him into the sideline. This is just incredible.
Final thoughts
Garett Bolles is really good at what he does. Each game he more than earns his most recent contract extension. He is everything you want in your starting left tackle, both from a on-the-field and off-the-field perspective. He is a smart player with great technique that completely nullifies an opponents best pass rusher on a common basis.
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There is nothing this offense needs that Bolles can’t do, and he does all of it at an exceptionally high level. And I will never get tired of being able to say this sort of stuff about him considering how his tenure with the Broncos started. He will always be one of my favorite players ever to wear the blue and orange.