Broncos Film Room: Breaking down Garett Bolles, left tackle of the future

The wait is over as the Denver Broncos have made their first pick of the 2017 NFL Draft and they didn’t trade up or take a playmaker who dropped, rather sticking to the book and finding their future left tackle.

Garett Bolles has risen drastically in his one season in major college football coming to Utah after his turbulent past took him several different places including junior college. In that one year with the Utes, he was impressive showing flashes of elite talent at times but also demonstrating some raw skill set in his first season in the FBS.

Here’s his scouting report and what you should expect from the almost 25-year-old tackle as he joins the team and tries to compete for the team’s starting left tackle job.

Strengths

• Bolles is one of the most athletic tackle prospects we’ve seen in the last decade. He ran a sub five-second 40-yard dash, had a great three-cone drill demonstrating an elite change of directions skills and a super broad jump, a sign of elite explosiveness.
• That shows on tape as Bolles is very nimble in pass protection and when put in motion.
• He’s a dominant blocker at the second level and fits perfectly in a zone heavy scheme when used in movement. The Broncos haven’t had an athlete of his caliber since Ryan Clady playing tackle.
• He plays with a nasty edge and will finish blocks laying defenders on the ground. A tone setter type blocker.
• He isn’t just an athletic pass blocker but is also very talented in holding up at the point of attack and also re-anchoring, showing great balance.
• He’s also tall and uses his length well.

Weaknesses

• Bolles’ biggest drawback is his age as he’ll turn 25-years-old before his first NFL regular season.
• For an older prospect, he’s still raw technique wise, as he needs to be better preventing defenders from slipping under his pads. Knee bend is a big thing for him.
• He’s also light in the lower body and will need to put in work in an NFL weight facility.
• He can sometimes get lost on plays not picking up oncoming blitzers. Awareness needs to be better.
• At times Bolles struggled with size against the run as bigger lineman in three man fronts gave him trouble at the point of attack. Particularly against the run.
• He needs to play with better leverage as he can be too upright at times and that will affect his ability to create push at the line of scrimmage.

How he fits

Bolles is a particularly interesting fit in the Broncos new offense as his skill set is ideally suited for a zone blocking scheme which the team used under Gary Kubiak. Mike McCoy has used similar concepts in the past and having someone like Bolles becomes a very interesting option in being able to put him in motion on screens or used on pulls against the run.

His age is concerning as he’ll be 30-years-old by the end of his rookie contract and he’s also fairly raw despite being an older prospect. Strength and conditioning coaches will have to work hard with him to add weight in his lower body allowing him to play with better power at the point of attack. An area in which he could struggle and in turn the Broncos run game could continue to struggle in short yardage situations because of his issues. However, he’ll be a huge upgrade in the run game when used on pulls or simply put in motion at the second level where he can be dominant and flashes absolutely elite skills.

Most importantly he plays with a nasty edge and is a tone setting type of player. Similar to Denver’s two other new additions to the offensive line Ronald Leary and Menelik Watson.