Garett Bolles' Future: Insider's Draft Forecast Points to Broncos' Best Move

This spells out what the Denver Broncos should do with left tackle Garett Bolles.

Oct 6, 2024; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Broncos offensive tackle Garett Bolles (72) celebrates following the game against the Las Vegas Raiders at Empower Field at Mile High. / Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

The Denver Broncos are trending up. After years of inadequacy to the standard set by late owner Pat Bowlen and the fallout from the Russell Wilson trade and release, the Broncos sit just two games away from surpassing the oddsmakers' predicted win total just seven weeks into the 2024 regular season.

Sitting at 4-3 with a very winnable game at home next week versus the flailing Carolina Panthers, the Broncos should remain very much in the thick of things in the AFC Wildcard race as long as the defense and special teams continue to play at top-five levels and the offense shows some semblance of growth and consistency. This team might not make the playoffs come January, but after years of being an afterthought, the Broncos are once again NFL-relevant.

Even with Denver winning four of its last five and already close to surpassing league-wide expectations this season, it's important to remember that this team is still very much in transition. Starting a rookie quarterback, possessing the highest dead-cap total in the league at $79.3 million, and only having seven top-100 selections and one first-round pick over the last three drafts, means that this Broncos team wasn't supposed to be any good.

The jury is still very much out on Bo Nix and the Broncos offense on the whole. However, the combined top-five (or better) play of Denver’s defense and special teams will give this team a shot in nearly every game.

While Denver is competing with an arm tied behind its back from a team-building perspective, the options to improve the roster grow tremendously next offseason. Denver will still have a large chunk of Wilson’s dead cap space on the books. Still, sitting at 10th in projected cap space for 2025 (ranking in the top eight in 2026, 2027, and 2028), and still in possession of all of its top 100 selections in the 2025 NFL draft, the Walton-Penner-led Broncos can be aggressive buyers this coming offseason.

With all those resources to add to the roster, the Broncos will still have some difficult internal moves. One of those difficult moves is the complexity of what Denver is facing on the future of left tackle Garett Bolles.

With a propensity to draw holding fouls and erratic up-and-down play marking most of his rookie season in Denver, Bolles has developed into an above-average starter at left tackle. He's far from a star at the position. Still, given the outright starvation for even serviceable offensive tackle play in the NFL, let alone above average, Bolles's contributions are still underappreciated and overly criticized by fans.

Bolles is a solid left tackle, but will Sean Payton and the Broncos retain him? Given how financially limited the Broncos have been due to dead money against the cap and the current status of Bolles having just one year left on his deal, if the team really valued Bolles, one would think he'd already have been offered a new contract, while lowering his 2024 cap hit.

Instead, Denver has seemingly prioritized keeping flexibility with Bolles rather than committing to him further down the road with a new contract and guaranteed dollars. It's entirely possible Denver could be working on an extension with Bolles and that the sides haven’t been able to reach an agreement.

Maybe Denver has a set price on how it values his play, and perhaps Bolles and his representatives have a higher number in mind. With opinions from inside the league about the offensive tackle class in the upcoming NFL draft, Bolles might be wise to draw this out and try to hit the market if he wishes to maximize his earnings.

According to The Athletic's Dane Brugler, the NFL is emphatically unimpressed by the offensive tackle depth in 2025. With a majority of teams viewing preseason prospect favorites — LSU’s Will Campbell and Texas’ Kelvin Banks — as guards (as opposed to tackles) and the overall offensive tackle class being far worse than is typical, it would not be shocking to see any free-agent player at the position have their value drastically inflated this offseason.

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There's still time for risers to emerge, such as Texas’ Cameron Williams or West Virginia’s Wyatt Milum. Sadly, Ohio State's Josh Simmons, whose stock has been rising, is likely to miss the rest of the season with a knee injury.

The class doesn't appear to have the quality of offensive tackle prospects to meet the glaring demand of many teams. The lack of tackle talent is likely a double whammy for the Broncos as it will likely make Bolles' cost a lot higher while also limiting options to replace him without reaching in the draft.

Denver hasn’t drafted a tackle since the team selected Bolles in 2017, but taking one and expecting him to be a day-one starter next year might not be the best time to end that trend. The Broncos do have options should they decide to let Bolles walk this offseason.

The team could bring in a short-term veteran option near the end of his career or a reclamation project such as Jedrick Wills or Mekhi Becton. These are downgrades from Bolles, but they'd likely come at a fraction of the cost and commitment.

Denver also has the fallback option of shifting Mike McGlinchey from right to left tackle, where he played his junior and senior seasons at Notre Dame, with Alex Palczewski at right tackle. Overall, it wouldn't be an ideal scenario for a team trying to help build around its young quarterback.

The Broncos could also kick the can down the road for a year and utilize the franchise tag on Bolles. This move would greatly limit what Denver could do in free agency next offseason, but it would also keep open the option of trading Bolles without committing to him long-term, rather than letting him walk and playing the compensatory game, which is unlikely given that the Broncos will likely be active on the market.

The Takeaway

Whether or not Bolles will remain in Denver beyond 2024 is a mystery. This is Sean Payton’s team and whether or not Bolles is one of 'Sean’s guys' is yet to be determined.

Bolles is no superstar at tackle, but in a league where so many teams are starving for adequate tackle play, he will very likely have a robust and expensive market should Denver let him walk. Amplified by the expert opinion that the 2025 draft class could be one of the worst in a decade, the Broncos’ decision on what to do with Bolles and the future of the team’s blindside protector is a storyline worth paying attention to.

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