If I ask you which QBs had the 10 best seasons 2016-2025, you will get a lot of consensus. This is also true for RBs, WRs and TEs, because most fans tend to pay attention to the stats that these ball carriers put up. Unfortunately, it is much harder for the rest of the players on the offense, i.e. the offensive line.
SISdatahub.com has ten seasons worth of individual performance data for offensive linemen which I have now compiled/scrubbed into my own spreadsheet. I did this for both passing snaps and running snaps which they split out.
To review these are starters (min 250 pass blocking snaps).
For the best individual performances, you have to split out the centers since they give up significantly fewer sacks than guards and tackles. In terms of blown block percentage for starters, there are only two non-centers in the top 10. For sack percentage allowed, there are only centers in the top 10.
Terron Armstead was absolutely elite when he was in his prime. He is the model of what Sean Payton likes in his tackles: light, quick, strong and smart. TJ Lang was a surprise since he was good, but never great (2x Pro Bowl). The best PBB performance by a Bronco was Matt Paradis in 2018 who had one on 297 pass blocks (0.34%). That’s 15th best. Luke Wattenberg’s 2024 season is the next best Bronco - 0.62% - and that is 64th.
Looking at guards and tackles other than Armstead and Lang, we get the table below.
The immediate thing that jumped out to me was how the last one of these was in 2021. It’s either getting harder to pass block in the NFL, or the current generation of starters is not as good as these players, many of whom have retired. Kevin Dotson and Joe Thuney are the only ones still playing. Thuney is elite. Dotson has never received much credit for his performance as he has never ever been named to the (joke now called) Pro Bowl. This is a result of Dotson never playing as well in a season as he did 2021 which was his second NFL season (with the Steelers at that point).
In terms of sack rate, well have to parse this differently since so many centers have had full seasons without allowing a sack (76 instances, plenty of guys did it more than once). The other four OL spots have 73 total, despite being four positions instead of one - meaning that it’s about four times easier to go a full season as a starting center without giving up a sack relative to the other OL positions.
So here are the best center seasons, all allowed zero sacks; they are sorted by lowest blown pass block % and also holding percentage. The most recent was Corey Linsley for the Chargers in 2022. Matt Paradis in 2018 is the best Bronco center season. He didn’t allow a sack that season in 297 PB snaps.
We see two players from 2025 on this list - Peter Skoronski with the Titans and Ben Bredeson with the Buccaneers. What we don’t see on this list is any OTs. The first tackle on the list is Armstead’s 2023 season with the Dolphins when he had a PBB% of 1.01% while allowing zero sacks in 296 PB snaps. The best Bronco on the list is Ronald Leary’s 2019 season (18th ranked). Garrett Bolles is the second OT on the list after Armstead with his 2020 season during which he did not allow a sack, and was only called for holding three times on passing plays. Showing up on this list as a LT is an amazing feat. The top 20 LTs on the list reads like a who’s who of elite LTs over the past decade (guys on the list multiple times means that they had multiple elite seasons in sack% allowed over the past decade):
* Terron Armstead
* Garrett Bolles
* Duane Brown
* **Trent Williams**
* **Trent Williams**
* Garrett Bolles
* Duane Brown
* Laremy Tunsil
* Tristan Wirfs
* Andrew Whitworth
* Alaric Jackson
* **Trent Williams**
* Laremy Tunsil
* Cordy Glenn
* Andrew Thomas
* Terron Armstead
* D.J. Humphries
* Jared Veldheer
* **Trent Williams**
* Alejandro Villanueva
Trent Williams with four of the top 20 is a big reason why he will be in the Hall of Fame and he is probably the best LT of this era. I was surprised to Veldheer on here (2016 season), but he was an elite LT in his prime (which didn’t last long). Bolles two seasons are the 2020 and the 2025 season. He was second team AllPro in 2020 and first team AllPro in 2025.
While it’s easier to pass block as a center, it’s more difficult to run block. There is no center in the top 10 of the RBB% or STFF% lists. Jason Kelce, who was a generational center, had the best run blocking season for a center over the past decade (in 2018). The only centers with a season in the top 50 are Ryan Kelly (2016), Maurkice Pouncey (2018), Austin Reiter (2020) and Ben Jones (2016). Kelce’s 2022 also shows up in the top 50.
Current Bronco OL coach Zach Streif’s 2016 in on the list, but similar to the PBB list earlier, all of these seasons happened prior to 2021. In fact you have to get to Darrell Wright’s 2024 season (16th) to find a recent season. The best OL performance from last season comes in a 49th (Orlando Brown). He had a RBB% of 0.56% and was stuffed only once on 359 run block snaps. Current Bronco Ben Powers’ 2020 season with the Ravens is on here.
Since there are 103 instances of an OL guy NOT getting stuffed, we are going to have to sort by RBB% for the. I was surprised to see that the best 10 for STFF% are these same 10 player-seasons. The other 93 guys had at least one blown run block.
The best Bronco on the season was Russell Okung’s 2016 season. He did not get stuffed and only had two blown run blocks 371 run block snaps. Interestingly enough, the Broncos had one of the worst rushing attacks in the NFL in 2016 despite Okung’s apparent prowess. The team averaged 3.6 YPC and finished the season with only eleven rushing TDs. A starting QB that caused more laughter than fear among opposing defensive coordinators didn’t help this. The backfield of CJ Anderson, Devontae (ay?, e?, yay?) Booker, Justin Forsett and Kapri Bibbs also was not scaring opposing defenders.
I don’t want to throw too much shade on the RBs for the 2016 Broncos, because outside of Okung, that OL was not good at run blocking. Donald Stephenson and Ty Sambrailo combined for 10 blown run blocks at RT. Matt Paradis had six at center. Max Garcia had 9 at LG and Michael Schofield had 5 at RG. With 21 total stuffs, the Bronco OL was the 4th worst in the NFL that season. Only the Vikings (29), Packers (26), Bucs (26), and Eagles (23) had more.
The 2017 Vikings were the worst run blocking OL in the study allowing a total of 41 stuffs with 105 blown run blocks. The only OL with more blown un blocks was the 2025 Texans with 110. To put that in perspective, the 2016 Colts and the 2018 Falcons had 13 as a group for the entire regular season.
Thinking back, that 2016 offense was just terrible. They couldn’t run the ball or throw the ball. **What a waste of a generational defense.** The only thing that offense did well was keep from turning the ball over. What’s all the more amazing is that Riley Dixon’s 89 punts that season was only the 5th most in the NFL. The 49ers, Rams, Giants and Dolphins all had more punts.
See More:
* [Denver Broncos Analysis](/denver-broncos-analysis)
* [Denver Broncos Draft](/denver-broncos-draft)