So much for the notion that John Elway can’t draft Pro Bowlers.
Two of Elway’s draft picks, outside linebacker Bradley Chubb and safety Justin Simmons, are first-time Pro Bowlers — and starters, to boot. They join 2018 second-round pick Courtland Sutton, an AFC Pro Bowl representative last year, as prominent examples which put that tired narrative to bed once and for all.
But they should have been joined by left tackle Garett Bolles.
Start with this: The next sack Bolles allows will be his first of the season. In thirteen games, he has yet to surrender a sack, according to the data compiled by Pro Football Focus.
Consider this: Bolles is one of three tackles in the NFL to have played at least 300 snaps at right or left tackle without allowing a sack and with pressures allowed on fewer than 3.0 percent of his snaps. One is Andrew Whitworth of the Los Angeles Rams, who was not selected after being limited to nine games due to a knee injury. The other was Green Bay’s David Bakhtiari, who was selected as an NFC starter.
No sacks, few pressures and dominant work in the run game, all while Bolles trimmed his penalty rate to the lowest of his career. This should have been a Pro Bowl equation for Bolles, and the validation of the Broncos’ investment and work in developing him.
Maligned in past years, Bolles’ turnaround has been the feel-good story of an otherwise frustrating Broncos season. His performance at a core position was the Broncos’ best work at left tackle since the salad days of Ryan Clady, an All-Pro who might still have been manning the position if his career had not been cut short by a series of significant injuries that began in the 2010 offseason, before his third NFL campaign.
The problem for Bolles is the same as the one faced by Simmons last year: They play positions that do not have broadly accepted statistical metrics. This leads to delayed gratification in receiving Pro Bowl plaudits.
For edge rushers and defensive linemen, you have sacks. For wide receivers and tight ends, you have a passel of receiving numbers from which to choose. Safeties and offensive linemen do not have these benefits.
And while interceptions provide some easy illumination, they are far from the best measurement of a safety’s impact. An elite safety with range from the line of scrimmage to 40 yards downfield changes how opposing quarterbacks attempt to attack the middle of the field. Outlets such as Pro Football Focus provide some illumination, but a great safety demonstrates his value by how he forces the opponent to alter its tactics.
In this regard, Hall of Famer Steve Atwater and Ring of Famer John Lynch provide excellent examples from recent decades with which Broncos fans are familiar.
Atwater was an All-Rookie selection in 1989 and was clearly among the game’s finest safeties that year, but the Pro Bowl nod came the following season. Lynch exploded in 1996 with the Bucs in his fourth NFL season and his first under then-coach Tony Dungy — who, along with then-assistant Herm Edwards, showed Lynch clips of early-to-mid-1990s Atwater to demonstrate what they believed he could become. But the Pro Bowl recognition came a year later.
Nearly a quarter-century later, Simmons had the same delayed honor. In 2008 and 2009, Clady experienced the same thing.
Do not be surprised, therefore, if Bolles is celebrating his first Pro Bowl selection in 12 months — and if the Broncos are adding another recent draft choice or two to their collection of Pro Bowlers.
It’s what you expect from a team that has produced at least one Pro Bowler for 40 consecutive seasons. Great Broncos — eventually — get their just due from fans, coaches and their fellow players.
Bolles’ time will come.
But it should have come Monday.
