Garett Bolles timeline: Analyzing what Broncos' coaches & players have said about him since Week 2

Garett Bolles' teammates and coaches have been inundated with questions about him since his five-holding-foul performance against the Bears in Week 2.

In case you’ve been hiding under a rock, Denver Broncos’ left tackle Garett Bolles has been under fire this week. Getting flagged a whopping five times (four accepted) in Week 2’s 16-14 loss to the Chicago Bears will trigger a fanbase, no doubt.

While fans and media have been puzzled at the Broncos’ stubbornness to keep Bolles in the lineup, despite the risk he presents on every snap, the question is; what do the coaches and players really think?

We have a pretty good inkling that GM John Elway and the Broncos’ front-office are the source of the propping up of Bolles, hoping against hope to salvage the 2017 first-round pick invested in him. There are other considerations, of course, like the lack of depth the Broncos have at the tackle position, especially with Ja’Wuan James sidelined with a knee injury.

The options are few for Denver, and none of them are good — unless Elway were to pursue a trade. It appears, at least for now, that the Broncos are going to continue to show patience in Bolles, risking not only his lapses on the field potentially derailing the offense at any given moment, but also rolling the dice on the locker room becoming disillusioned with new head coach Vic Fangio and his ‘death by inches’ message.

If there’s no accountability for Bolles, players absolutely pick up on the double-standard. Every game that goes by that Fangio allows Bolles to torpedo the team, the greater risk he runs for a locker room mutiny.

But maybe we’re jumping the gun here. It’s possible Bolles’ teammates still have his back and want him as the starter at left tackle. Let’s go through and take a quick look at every public statement made by a Broncos’ coach or player on the topic of Garett Bolles since his five-penalty-laden Week 2 face-palm of a performance and analyze the implications.

Vic Fangio | 9/15: “We have the best offensive line coach in the business here (Mike Munchak), and Garett’s going to learn from this game. They have some good players and he’s going to learn from it. He’ll move on, but he’s our left tackle and he’s going to be our left tackle and he needs to play without holding.”

Analysis: This was the raw reaction from Fangio, immediately following the tough loss to Chicago. Pointing out how good the opponent was only gives Bolles an excuse. However, I like that Fangio made no bones about Bolles needing to “play without holding”.

Joe Flacco | 9/15: “There are just things you have to overcome. When you’re going against a tough defense and you’re not having four-play touchdown drives, you’re going to have these long drives if you want to score the ball. You have to make sure that you can stay within yourself and not make mistakes if you’re having a 12-play drive, and we’re just not there yet. That’s part of it. The beautiful thing about football is it is a team sport. It’s the ultimate team sport. There’s no blame on one guy and there’s no credit on one guy. We are in this together. We’re going to pick him up and support him. I think he fought hard that entire game and went against some pretty good pass-rushers and did a pretty good job. You have to think about it in that way. If it’s your family, your son or your brother or your sister or your daughter, your wife. You make mistakes. You help them, you don’t push them to the side and leave them out to dry, so that’s all part of it.”

Analysis: Yes, people make mistakes. But Bolles is a repeat offender. He’s led the league in holds in year one and year two. Now just two games into year three, there he is again as the most-penalized guy in the league and only this time, he’s on pace to shatter his career-high in holding calls, which is 12. Flacco is playing the politics of being a leader here.

Royce Freeman | 9/15: “You never, as a team, want to cause penalties at all. Today, the penalties ended up happening in crucial situations, but I think when those things happen, it’s up to us [the players] to make a play and overcome those things.”

Analysis: No excuses, nor shade, from Freeman. It’s true. Four of Bolles’ holding penalties came in the first half. The Broncos had their chances to overcome those setbacks in the fourth quarter but one of those long drives Flacco mentioned ended with a red zone interception.

Ron Leary | 9/15: “We’re behind him 100 percent. Y’all be trying to crucify him and that ain’t right. O-line, we’re behind 100 percent, this team is behind him 100 percent and that’s what it is.”

Analysis: Leary ain’t about to hear any shade getting thrown at GB. Leary has been one of Bolles’ mentors, as they both arrived in Denver the same year. I can imagine Leary’s heart goes out to Bolles, and that's admirable, but at the end of the day, if your left tackle compadre is costing you wins, it’s bad for everyone, including the bank accounts.

Derek Wolfe | 9/15: “I’ve never been a part of something like that.”

Analysis: Very few pro players have been a part of that level of incompetence before. Five holding penalties in one game is like the Unicorn of football.

Vic Fangio | 9/16: “The unusual part of those is when you hear one guy got called for four holdings, you’re immediate thought is passing. Three of the four were on running plays. He’s just got to be a little bit more technique-sound. I think he suffers from him thinking he’s in good position sometimes and dumps the guy at the end where he thinks it’s a legal block. We have to do a better job of explaining that to him. He’s got to do a better job of listening to the explaining, but I think he can.”

Analysis: Fans have been hoping Bolles would take to coaching. But it’s going on three years of this consistent behavior now. Let’s face it. Bolles’ bad habits of pancake-tackling opponents and not showing discipline are ingrained. It’s not going to change and if it does, Mike Munchak is a miracle worker.

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Emmanuel Sanders | 9/17: “At the end of the day, we’re all band of brothers. Obviously, I’m going to keep trying to talk to Bolles and see if we can get him right and understanding what he’s doing wrong because obviously to say that he’ll be alright is not OK. He needs to understand that he is doing something wrong because they keep throwing the flags on him and he keeps holding. I’m going to talk to him and hopefully we keep breaking down the film and just see him make that jump and get that debt off his back because it’s been happening for like two or three years.”

Analysis: Bolles does need to understand he’s doing something wrong, instead of standing up at his locker after a game and complaining that he disagrees with the calls the refs made. Bolles has developed a reputation among the officials and among his opponents. That’s what makes this whole situation a tinder box waiting to explode at any given moment, like a torpedo sinking a battleship. The problem is, the Broncos have allowed Bolles to continue to believe he’s doing nothing wrong.

John Elway | 9/18: “He’s got to understand why. And I think that’s the most important thing. That’s the thing that we discussed is for him to understand exactly why. You’ve got to get yourself in better position and play better technique, so you don’t hold.”

Analysis: Elway’s message is similar to Sanders’. Bolles has to understand why this keeps happening, take responsibility for fixing it and accept accountability. Until that happens, it’ll be more of the same. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior after all. That doesn’t mean people can’t change it just means most of the time, they don’t.

Von Miller | 9/19: “He's just got to keep playing. I don't think you can get a better coach than Munchak. He has all the answers that you can possibly have as an offensive lineman. He's had answers for me as well as a rusher, so I would just double down with coach. That's been my message with him. Of course I give him my thoughts on everything, but I feel like coach Munchak—his opinion weighs more than anybody's opinion. He's a great coach and he'll get it figured out.”

Analysis: The Broncos’ brass put a lot of faith in Munchak fixing Bolles. The early proof is in the pudding and the indication is, if Munchak can’t fix him, no one can.

Vic Fangio | 9/19: “We talked to him extensively early in the week, [Offensive Line Coach] Mike [Munchak] did the bulk of it. I talked to him a little bit. I’m sure he’s heard everybody else’s comments indirectly. He knows what he’s up against and what he has to do.”

Analysis: I wonder what Bolles has been told he’s “up against”. Is he on notice? One more game with multiple penalties and you’re benched? I would hope so. That’s the message Fangio should be sending if he wants to maintain credibility in that locker room.

Fangio on how much patience he has with Bolles | 9/19: “A good amount.”

Analysis: With Elway as his boss, what else is Fangio going to say here? Riddle me that.

Rich Scangarello | 9/19: “I don't care who you are on offense and how prolific it looks like you're scoring, there are always things to work on. Right now, yeah, the penalties are killing us and those are things that need to be cleaned up. We understand, we're working on it and we're going to get it right.”

Analysis: Scangarello’s frustration was palpable at the podium on Thursday. He might not be ready to give up on Bolles, but he’s dang close. Scangs understands the risk the Broncos run every time they trot that offense out onto the field with Bolles in the lineup.

Scangarello on his message to Bolles | 9/19: “To be confident and not to lose that. Just go be a player and honestly, don't listen to the noise. Work on your craft, get better at the things that you have to get better at—and him and [Offensive Line Coach] Mike [Munchak] on that since day one. He's done a lot of good things, too. I've seen improvement in him as a player, but he played a really good player (Bears LB Khalil Mack). Sometimes he tries to finish and gets a little out of control and we have to rectify that. He knows that and we know that. That's our job to help him do that.”

Analysis: I would hope Bolles isn’t listening too much to the outside noise. He needs to focus in on and listen only to two voices: Mike Munchak and Chris Kuper. Anything more than that, even from his teammates (other than encouragement) and Bolles will get overwhelmed and get analysis paralysis. The coaches are still taking ownership of Bolles’ performance and conduct but at a certain point, the spirit of self-preservation — from both the individual and the team perspective — will take it’s natural course and mutiny will arise. From the coaches and the players. Here’s to hoping that doesn’t happen. 

Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.