ESPN Forecasts What Broncos' FA Maneuvers Mean for Russell Wilson
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NFL free agency didn't officially open until Wednesday, March 15, but by then, the Denver Broncos had already paid massively to help fortify their offensive line. By signing right tackle Mike McGlinchey to a five-year, $87.5 million contract and offensive guard Ben Powers to a four-year, $52 million deal, the 2023 Broncos are likely to field one of the most expensive offensive lines in the NFL under head coach Sean Payton.
Having emphasized and used premium resources to build his offensive line during his tenure in New Orleans, Payton is now backed by the richest owners in the NFL to help Denver pursue big-ticket free agents going forward. The salary cap does exist, but with available cash on hand, the Broncos can skirt around it and out-compete other NFL teams.
The early opinions on the Broncos' individual signings of McGlinchey and Powers are mixed. The Broncos did not strike either to a bargain deal, paying both lucrative contracts for their respective positions.
There's always risk in paying big money contracts with large guarantees to free agents in a game as violent as football, which means it's possible that these deals don’t work out for Denver, but there does appear to be some consensus that those around the league like the vision the team is attempting to execute. Namely, building a vastly improved offensive line in front of Russell Wilson and dominating up front in the ground game.
On a recent NFL Live segment, ESPN hosts Dan Orlovsky and Marcus Spears both lauded the Broncos for going out and attacking the offensive line as thoroughly as they did on Monday. During the segment, Orlovsky, a former NFL quarterback, stated that “everyone in the NFL should take a book from the Broncos on this.”
"That is the beauty of this situation," Orlovsky said. "Sean Payton came in and said 'We have to address the offensive line. We got to get a right tackle that we feel can protect him and run the football. We got to get a guard.' We know how important the interior is for one, Sean Payton’s offense, and for two, Russell Wilson. I think this signals in Denver that we are going to run the football and then after that we are going to be committed to running the football. And then we are going to take those big, long, play-action shots which is what Sean Payton loves to do and what Russell Wilson thrives at."
Responding to Orlovsky, Spears admitted annoyance toward his co-host for stealing his point about the idealized path of maximizing Wilson and rebuilding the offensive line in Denver. Emphasizing McGlinchey and Powers' offensive identities with their former teams as reasons for optimism that the duo can help Denver’s offensive line get meaner and much better on the ground game, Spears urged Payton to return to what Wilson has done best in his career.
“Obviously we know Russ plays well out of play-action," Spears said, "we have seen him do his best work and the reason he’s been in the Hall of Fame conversation.”
Spears also indicated that bringing in McGlinchey and Powers was as “as good of a signing” in this cycle and compared it to how the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals were able to improve their offensive lines drastically over a single season,. Spears believes that could be the case for the Broncos this year.
Broncos Country has suffered watching a porous offensive line that has struggled to generate movement at the point of attack in the run game, as well as a franchise that currently doesn’t know what it has at quarterback in Wilson. Adding mass to the O-line up front and leaning heavily into the run game is a sound strategy.
These two signings could serve as a harbinger of the Broncos' offense in 2023.
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