Report: Broncos Decline Garett Bolles' Fifth-Year Option
With the May 3 deadline barreling down on the Denver Broncos, the team had to decide whether to pick up the fifth-year option on left tackle Garett Bolles' contract. Most first-rounders in the NFL get their fifth-year optioned.
Cornerback Bradley Roby was the last Bronco to get the fifth-year. 2015 first-rounder Shane Ray didn't garner the same, while 2016 first-round QB Paxton Lynch didn't even make it three full seasons before being cut. Would Bolles, a 2017 first-round draft pick of Denver's, fare any differently?
Nope. At least, not according to KUSA's Mike Klis who reported on Friday afternoon that the Broncos would not be picking up Bolles' fifth-year.
While I might have raised my eyebrow when this news broke, I certainly wasn't surprised. Although, in the spirit of transparency, I expected the the Broncos to just bite the bullet and pick up Bolles' fifth-year based on his draft pedigree and the fact that he's started every game at left tackle since arriving in Denver.
However, all those penalties and his imperviousness to coaching took a toll on GM John Elway, it would seem. We received a little hint that Denver might decline Bolles' option when Elway admitted during his post-draft presser that Bolles is going to have to battle for his job in 2020. No longer will he be spoon-fed as an incumbent.
“We have to get better there, there’s no question about it," Elway said with regard to the offensive tackle position. "I think we are going to have an open competition [at left tackle] and [T] Ja’Wuan James [at right tackle] with great expectations of him last year... As Vic [Fangio] said, it’ll be an open competition at the left tackle with [G/T] Eli [Wilkinson] and Garett Bolles."
Wilkinson is coming off his most productive year as a pro, starting 13 games at right tackle opposite of Bolles while James nursed a nagging knee injury. However, Wilkinson left much to be desired as he relinquished a whopping 10 sacks on the season and was penalized six times.
As a fail-safe or a swing guy, the Broncos could do a lot worse than Wilkinson at tackle. But as a serious contender for the blind-side protector to second-year QB Drew Lock? I shudder to imagine Wilkinson's slow-footed kick-slide trying to keep up with the No. 1 rusher on opposing teams coming off Lock's blindside.
But that's apparently how fed up the Broncos are with Bolles, or, at the very least, have been frustrated enough to posture their former first-rounder in an open competition in the court of public opinion. The odds of Wilkinson beating out Bolles are slim for a lot reasons, not the least of which is that despite his lack of football IQ, Bolles is a talented and gifted athlete.
However, picking up the fifth-year on his rookie contract would have seen Bolles' cost in 2021 balloon north of $11 million, based on the NFL CBA. That was simply a bridge too far for Elway and company in light of Bolles' shocking recidivism as a perpetrator of holding penalties.
"We still feel like we can be very competitive with the tackle situation that we have and the open competition," Elway said. "The best player is going to play.”
Don't completely sleep on Wilkinson because in the NFL, players do develop and they do get better. But based on what we saw from him at right tackle, combined with Bolles' clear improvement down the stretch last year in which he finally cut down the penalties and relinquished just one sack on Lock, I'm not holding my breath on Wilkinson winning out.
Bolles will get one more year as a Bronco before becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2021. Although the Broncos will be precluded from exercising that fifth-year option beyond May 3 of this year, if Bolles were to put it all together and play at a top-10 left-tackle level this coming year, the team could always franchise-tag him.
I doubt that happens. But Mike Munchak has spectacularly salvaged the careers of several lost-cause players on the O-line over his storied coaching career. Bolles has the talent but it still remains to be seen whether he's got what it takes between the ears to truly capitalize on Munchak's coaching.
Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.
