Why Mike McGlinchey Expects Broncos to Take Another Step Forward

The Denver Broncos' 2026 offseason was primarily centered around maintaining continuity outside of a few notable shifts on each side of the ball.

On the offensive side of the ball, it was adding Jaylen Waddle to the receiving core via trade with the Miami Dolphins. And on the defense, it was losing John Franklin-Myers to the Tennessee Titans.

But even with the minimal changes around the roster, the Broncos' internal expectations are wired on being a step better than they were last season, even with most of the same pieces in the fold from 2025 running it back for 2026––especially when asking Denver offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey.

Mike McGlinchey Feels Good About Broncos' Continuity

McGlinchey spoke about where he feels the team stands heading into this season during his time at OTAs earlier this offseason. And while he's well aware that the Broncos made minimal changes to the roster, he still feels as if the group is a step ahead of where they were in 2025.

"I think we all have a really good understanding of what we do," McGlinchey said in June. "Obviously, there wasn’t a lot of roster turnover this year moving forward. Having the experience that we have in the building and playing together for as long as we all have is a good thing to keep building on and starting on a higher point than each year before."

"If you’re not improving, you are getting worse in this league and I think we took steps to improve from OTAs last year to training camp to the whole season. Then we played last season and the [17th] game was better than the last game and that’s the goal this year as well. We have to be better in training camp than we were in OTAs and so on and so forth.”

The last time McGlinchey was on the field with the offensive line, it was during OTAs––where you can only learn so much about how that group is performing, or has improved, because of the limited contact practices the offensive line participates in.

Jun 16, 2026; Englewood, CO, USA; Denver Broncos 2025-2026 offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey (69) and tackle Tyler Miller (71) during mini camp at Broncos Park. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

However, it's hard to expect much of a different turnout on the Broncos' offensive front from where they stood this time last year. All five starters are back in the fold for another season, and showed no signs of dropping off from the high-end level they were previously at.

And being able to possess the continuity and retain all of the talent that the Broncos held on their offensive front from 2025 into 2026 does tend to instill some added confidence about what this group could do when they're back in full pads and on the field, which could look even better than their last time out.

“I think it’s just the consistency, executing the calls and keep on keeping on. You find the little tweaks to improve each area of the game," McGlinchey said of how the Broncos' offensive line continuity.

"Obviously, you want to control the ball on first and second down in the run game, you have to protect in the third down passing game and we need to make strides to make sure we are improving those things that we didn’t necessarily do consistently enough last year. I’m very confident that we will.”

Once the Broncos' training camp gets underway later this month, seeing how this offensive line's success might translate year over year will be clearer to see than it was back at OTAs.

But based on McGlinchey's comments and personal conviction, it's hard not to feel good about what this offensive front will look like once camp, and furthermore, Week 1 gets underway.

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