Film Room: What LT Garett Bolles did at Lambeau Field to turn his game around

Garett Bolles played a more-than-solid game at Green Bay. How exactly did he improve? The film tells the tale.

The Denver Broncos' left tackle has been under the microscope for a while now. Denver is at a point that either Garett Bolles has to step it up or see himself replaced after this season. 

Every little mistake he makes draws the ire of fans. Any positive play he makes and it is met with 'remember the bad' from fans. The fact is, Bolles is still growing as a football player, and he has had some big flashes of being a solid left tackle.

In no way shape or form am I defending Bolles and his horrible play. I am just adding context to his body of work, because this isn’t a normal situation for an offensive tackle. He is entering just his fifth year of organized football, which made him a really raw prospect and a long-term project when Denver spent a first-rounder on him. 

However, this is Bolles' third year in the NFL so there should be better technique and knowledge displayed by him.

His Week 2 holding-palooza game against the Chicago Bears was an abysmal showing because of the yellow laundry, and there were many other plays he could have been called for holding on. Even so, he had some really good plays in that game. The holding calls clearly got into his head, and Bolles has always been a player who compounds mistakes mentally.

After the game, from John Elway on down, it was made it clear that such incompetency wasn’t going to be tolerated and the coaches needed to fix it. Denver needed Bolles to not compound one bad game after another. 

His Week 3 game against the Green Bay Packers wasn’t perfect, but it was a great game from him and he showed a lot of improvement in technique which helped him play a lot better and avoid getting penalized for holding. He answered the bell, so let's look into three plays specifically from Bolles that reveal what improvements he made.

Play 1

The tight end is supposed to help Bolles on this run play, disengage and climb to the second level. However, it looks like the TE does more harm here than good.

You see Denver is trying to run this up the middle, and Bolles has his assignment handled decently. Bolles' technique is solid and he is getting improved positioning when the TE gives Bolles some help. The shove from the TE actually makes the defender break free from Bolles and clog the middle.

Once the middle is closed, Phillip Lindsay has to cut outside, where there is now a decent hole. After Lindsay's cut, Bolles makes sure his assignment isn’t able to come back and make the tackle. If Noah Fant is able to seal the edge a little better, this could have been an even bigger gain.

The rep wasn’t perfect from Bolles, but he shows a lot of improvement from previous games to this one. The biggest being when the defensive lineman gets free, thanks to the tight end, Bolles didn’t wrap him up. Instead, he keeps his hands together and gives an extra show to secure the hold.

Play 2

This play we get to see Bolles on the edge without any help this time. Denver is running to the left edge, so it puts more pressure on Bolles to step up.

Bolles meets the edge rusher quickly, which opens the inside running lane, as designed. There is a linebacker there the meet Lindsay, so Lindsay has to cut it outside or get stuffed. He cuts it outside, and this is where things get dangerous for Bolles. Typically this is when he will wrap up the defender, or hold onto them to keep them from making the play.

Instead, Bolles just gives the defender a little shove on the inside shoulder. It may not look like much, but it bought Lindsay an extra moment to get to the corner and turn upfield. This is one of the better plays from Bolles for the simple fact that it really highlights that he's beginning to understand what holding is (the do's and don't's) and made a step to prevent himself from holding. It's the little things sometimes that can have a big impact on a play.

All bets are OFF on the Broncos' 2019 season! Don't miss out on any news and analysis! Take a second and sign up for our free newsletter and get breaking Broncos news delivered to your inbox daily!

Play 3

Here we have a deep shot with Bolles handling the edge rusher one-on-one. It's time to see just how Bolles does in pass protection.

Bolles barely touches the edge rusher here, so it may not look all that great. However, there are multiple technical aspects to this play that were really good on Bolles' part, as well as mental aspects. Bolles has a quicker kick to help keep in front of the edge rusher, when previous weeks his feet have looked like they were made of stone.

He doesn’t keep his hands up at the start, but he does a good job bringing them up prior to engagement instead of bringing them up as the defender is engaging him. There is also a better effort for him to keep his butt on the quarterback instead of getting parallel to the line of scrimmage. This makes the edge rusher take an even longer arch to the quarterback.

Again it is very simple, but sometimes the best pass protection it just guiding the rusher past the corner. Bolles does that, and gives a little shove at the top of the corner. These are all rather simple things for tackles to do, but Bolles hasn’t really shown the capacity to execute, especially as cleanly as he does.

The Takeaway

If Garett Bolles is able to not only follow this Week 3 performance with a good game, but build on it, that will be good news for Denver. He has shown before he can play very well at tackle, but he lacks consistency. 

It is time to see that consistency from him. 

Follow Erick on Twitter @ErickTrickel and @MileHighHuddle.