Broncos RG Quinn Meinerz Sounds Off on Egregious Pro Bowl Snub
For nearly the entire 2023 season, Denver Broncos right guard Quinn Meinerz has been one of the top two or three highest-graded interior players in the NFL. Meinerz has started all 16 games for the Broncos this season and currently sits as the third-highest-graded guard in the NFL via Pro Football Focus with an 83.4 cumulative mark.
No question, Meinerz has hit it out of the park in Year 3, becoming an NFL media darling whose bulldozing game clips were often flexed on social media. It seemed fait accompli that he would be recognized for his stellar play with a Pro Bowl selection.
Instead, Meinerz was snubbed. Being named an alternate seems to have been cold comfort to the 25-year-old people mover.
“I think I played well enough to make the starting lineup, but I didn’t,’’ Meinerz said via The Denver Gazette's Chris Tomasson. “And at the end of the day, I don’t play this game for individual awards and it’s still cool to be on the map.”
As has been the plight of the Broncos' best players over the past seven years of living in the NFL doldrums, the lack of team success makes it exceedingly harder for the thriving individuals to garner the attention they deserve. With one-third of the Pro Bowl voting comprising of fan voting, a team that limped out to a 1-5 start this season saw NFL fans across the fruited plain tune out on the Broncos.
That five-game winning streak helped bring a modicum of positive scrutiny back on the Broncos and likely played a big role in the team's three Pro Bowlers being selected. To wit, cornerback Patrick Surtain II, safety Justin Simmons, and rookie kick returner Marvin Mims Jr. were selected to the Pro Bowl this year, with Meinerz and fullback Michael Burton named as alternates.
For those individual Broncos who've turned in Herculean performances amid the sub-.500 team finishes over the recent years, many have gotten snubbed by the Pro Bowl only to earn All-Pro selections via the Associated Press. Left tackle Garett Bolles is one example of this phenomenon, who missed the Pro Bowl in 2020 but garnered second-team All-Pro honors.
Simmons is another example, earning All-Pro honors in 2019, 2021, and 2022 without the corresponding Pro Bowl selection. This season marks the second Pro Bowl nod of the safety's prolific career, following his first in 2020.
The truth of this phenomenon is further illuminated by the fact Simmons was also the NFL's co-leader in interceptions last year (2022), but being on a five-win Broncos team, he didn't receive enough votes to make the Pro Bowl. He got that All-Pro nod, though.
My theory will only be further proven when Meinerz is named to the All-Pro team this year by the A.P. Consider it a bold prediction.
Meanwhile, although Meinerz was disappointed in being a Pro Bowl snub, his first focus is doing his part to help create a winning culture that translates to the standings. In his first full season as a starter, he's definitely been a big factor in head coach Sean Payton being able to move the Broncos' needle, improving on the team's 2022 finish by three wins — with a chance to make it a four-victory improvement on Sunday in the season finale vs. the Las Vegas Raiders.
With Payton at the controls, the Broncos finally snapped the ignominious losing streak to the Kansas City Chiefs that stretched all the way back to 2015. Meinerz is intent on doing likewise in Vegas and snapping the Raiders' current seven-game winning streak over the Broncos. Meinerz has yet to beat the Raiders as a Bronco.
“Very frustrating,’’ Meinerz said via Tomasson. “It was very frustrating to have that streak with the Chiefs and so now it’s time to stop this one and keep moving forward in (the AFC West).”
The Broncos drafted Meinerz in the third round out of Wisconsin-Whitewater back in 2021. With his last collegiate season being literally wiped out by the pandemic, he became a pre-draft sensation of sorts with his training videos of knocking down trees in the Wisconsin wilderness.
Initially known as 'The Belly,' Meinerz has since buried that nickname. He's appeared in 44 games as a Bronco with 38 starts.
The 2024 season will be Meinerz's contract year. The Broncos are in a bit of a hole relative to the salary cap entering this offseason, which will only be exacerbated by the Russell Wilson albatross of contract, but as soon as the team has a bit of breathing room, Meinerz is in line for a nice extension.
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