Film room: Is time running out for Broncos' OT Garett Bolles?

The film doesn't lie.

In the 2017 NFL Draft, the Denver Broncos were pretty set on Garett Bolles early on in the process and ended up taking him 20th overall. It was a high-risk selection based on Bolles' one year of play at Utah. 

There were flashes of serious potential in Bolles, but you could easily see the technical and fundamental flaws in his game that plagued the tape and kept consistency away.

It has since been two years in the NFL for Bolles and the growth has not been seen as expected by the Broncos. Everyone knew it was going to be a long, hard road to develop someone as raw as Bolles was, but by now there should have been clear signs of improvement in all aspects of his game.

I'm not going to say Bolles hasn't improved because he has, but only in certain areas of his game. His feet have improved and there seems to be more of an understanding mentally of the game. However, from a technical and fundamental standpoint, his growth has been going at a snail's pace with little to show at this point.

Typically in these 'Time running out' articles, I don't break down film, but I'm making an exception for Bolles, analyzing his latest outing. In the Niners game on Monday night, Bolles played 33 snaps, and 12 of them were pinpointed as very bad plays. I won't break them all down here, but there are three that stand out.

Before getting into them, I want to add that Bolles has only played 61 snaps this preseason and he averaged 69 snaps per game and 66 snaps per game last year. In each those two seasons, he had seven holding penalties, which the combined 14 is most in the NFL over that time period, and this is an important thing to remember for a play that'll be broken down here shortly. 

Let's get a look at the plays. 

Play 1: 13:10 | First Quarter | Preseason Game 3

Situation: 2nd-&-5

This was one of the first plays the Broncos ran. Just watching it through, you see Bolles get pushed back and the run goes for the loss of a yard, all thanks to Bolles.

Off the snap, Bolles is tasked to run block the stretch, but he opens up his hips too much and gets too parallel to the line of scrimmage. If you notice the rest of the line, they move but do so laterally with their body squared to the line, which is what Bolles should have done. With his body turned, Solomon Thomas had easy access to the pads and that is a death sentence for offensive linemen.

As the play goes on, you see Bolles drop his hands and bring them up in an attempt to recover and bounce back in the rep. Three issues with that. The first is, his hands drop slow and then are slow to rise back up. The second issue is, he is already late in the rep. Third, his body is still at a bad angle to recover. 

So Bolles brings his hands up and tries to get Thomas' hand off the inside shoulder — this is to get Thomas turned and open up the inside lane. As it stands Thomas is in perfect position to take either the outside or the inside.

Thomas has the strength to fight off Bolles' recovery attempt, though it was a poor attempt. Recovery has been an issue of Bolles' going back to his time at Utah and we have seen no improvement from him in that area.

Being able to recover after an early loss on a rep is something that any good offensive lineman must be able to do. It is about timing and technique, and Bolles showed neither in this rep. It is a shame because everyone else executed this play to near perfection.

Play 2: 9:26 | First Quarter | Game 3

Situation: 1st-&-10

Next, we go to a few plays later. Denver is trying to get the ball to rookie TE Noah Fant on a screen and Bolles is supposed to be the lead blocker here. Fant has the athleticism to kill it in the screen game, if the blocking is there, which it wasn't and this play goes for a loss of four yards. Two steps forward, four steps back.

The start of the play is fine. Bolles lets his defender leak into the backfield and he climbs to set up the screen block for Fant. Fant does what he is supposed to as a blocker, then fades back for the screen. All good there. The issue is when Bolles goes to make his block. As you can see, he misses and that defender makes the tackle for a loss.

Bolles meets with the defender late, and again has his body is at a bad angle. He doesn't square up the defender, but gives him an attempt to block. It comes back to the angle of his body on this play. The defender is easily able to slip the block attempt because of the angle and get to Fant in a flash.

Getting in front of the defender is blocking 101, and Bolles doesn't do that. He is slow to get out there, which puts him at a disadvantage from the start and then fails to put himself into proper position to execute the block.

Despite all those issues, after the play, Bolles had the balls to look like someone else messed up on the play and shrug it off. No one messed up on the play that caused the four-yard loss besides him. From a mental maturity perspective, this is a discouraging display of attitude.

Play 3: 7:01 | First Quarter | Game 3

Situation: 2nd-&-6

The third play is a sweep run by Royce Freeman, and Bolles and TE Troy Fumagalli are the two pullers. Now, this play isn't just on Bolles. It's on both of them, and not much analysis is needed.

Bolles does an okay job pulling, but he could be tighter to the line and get out there a little quicker. As a result of not being tighter and slow, Bolles lets a defender run right across his face between he and Fumagalli, leading to the loss.

Fumagalli was the far puller, which puts the defender as Bolles' responsibility first. However, Fumagalli should have been more aware, catch the defender to give Freeman more of a chance. Still, it falls on Bolles first, but Denver needs better from their second-year TE, too.

Play 4: 2:26 | First Quarter | Game 3

Situation: 3-&-15

The last play I'm really going to break down is the holding penalty that negated a 45-yard pass play and explain why Bolles still holds (get it?) lot of blame for the play despite not getting the chip from Troy Fumagalli, who also had a bad showing as a blocker.

This play goes back to an earlier point about a tackle being able to recover from an early loss on a rep, except in this case, not a loss but the failure of a teammate. There are a lot of instances where a TE or RB will forget to chip, and it falls on the tackle to cover for that. Here Bolles fails at doing so. 

I should add, however, that if Bolles doesn't hold there is a good chance this is a strip sack. The hold was needed, but there should be the technique installed to where he wouldn't need to resort to holding.

Bolles is playing catch technique. He lets the defender come and then is to guide him beyond the QB. That isn't what Bolles does, though. Again we see him drop his hands, instead of keeping them at a 90-degree angle at the elbow with hands at the ready. This is a bad habit of Bolles', and is a big reason for the many mistakes he has had in his career. Keeping the hands at the ready will help him strike quicker and get hands on to recovery sooner.

This isnt a matter of it being a Monday morning QB or a couch coach. This is years of study into football with a focus on the offensive and defensive lines and the technique Bolles showed isn't improved from where he was as a rookie. This is disappointing, and with having months with Mike Munchak as a coach, he should be further along in his development. The question is, how serious is Bolles about improving?

Through multiple contacts in and around the Broncos, the answer to that question is not a comforting one. It's safe to say that the only thing holding Bolles back, is himself. 

There are two games left in the preseason, and Denver needs Bolles to really step it up. The improvements they made at other positions on the offensive line are all for naught because Bolles is still a weak link.

Through the Niners game, he compounded mistakes, which is another thing that has plagued his play for the last two years. For any position in the NFL, you need to have a short-term memory. You make a bad play, you move on and rebound, but Bolles can't do that. He lingers on the mistake, overthinks it and his technique suffers as a result.

Bottom line

So with all this in mind, is time running out for Bolles? It is hard to say that it isn't, due to his technique being no farther along than it was when he was drafted. 

Now, the door isn't likely to close this season, but with the 2020 draft looking pretty good for tackles, it'd be a safe bet to wager that the Broncos will be digging into those prospects. Time is running out, but there is still a lot of sand left to fall in the hourglass. 

Follow Erick on Twitter @ErickTrickel.