The Denver Broncos had one of the best offensive lines in the NFL in 2024 as they helped keep Bo Nix as clean as possible throughout his rookie campaign. The group of Quinn Meinerz, Garett Bolles, Mike McGlinchey, Ben Powers and Luke Wattenberg took the league by storm with their performance, and let everyone know that they’re here to stay.
Denver allowed just 1.4 sacks per game in 2024, the fourth-best mark in the league. Part of that is thanks to Nix’s athleticism and craftiness to escape the pocket, but a lot of the credit is to the line.
Side note, the offensive line looks a lot better when the quarterback isn’t running around like a chicken with its head cut off when he sees that his first read isn’t open.
Meinerz was the top dog on the offensive line a season ago, as he was nominated to the All-Pro First-team. The Broncos took a big swing on the young guard out of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater by signing him to a 4-year, $80 million contract before the season, and the bet paid off instantly. Heading into 2025, he’s getting his respect as one of the best guards in the league.
Pro Football Focus (PFF) recently dropped its top-32 guards across the NFL heading into the season, and Meinerz slotted in at No. 3 overall, right behind Atlanta’s Chris Lindstrom and Chicago’s (formerly Kansas City’s) Joe Thuney.
Ranking the Top 10 guards in the league today 🛡️ pic.twitter.com/blqh6BslLe
— PFF (@PFF) June 6, 2025
Meinerz had an overall PFF grade of 88.2 in 2024 (third overall), with an 87.2 run blocking grade (third) and an 80.3 pass blocking grade (sixth). He was the only guard in the entire league to have at least an 80 in both run blocking and pass blocking grade, and only allowed one sack in his 1,089 snaps at right guard (he didn’t play a single snap at any of the other four spots on the line).
For the rest of the AFC West, the next-highest ranked guard was Kansas City’s Trey Smith, who came in at No. 7 overall on the list. Las Vegas’s Dylan Parham slotted in at No. 26 and Los Angeles’s Mekhi Becton rounded out the division rankings at No. 27.
Meinerz has quickly turned into one of the highest-value draft picks made by George Paton and the Broncos organization recently, as he came out of nowhere from his DIII college to become one of the NFL’s top lineman. When he was selected with the 98th overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, not a lot of fans knew his name. Now, everyone knows who’s sporting the belly and keeping his quarterback clean.
PFF recently ranked the Broncos’ roster as a top-10 unit in the entire league, but also gave Nix a ranking that’s a little lower than some fans like to see.