Did Lloyd Cushenberry live up to expectations his first year with the Broncos?

In Lloyd Cushenberry’s first game in 2020 he was the starting center for the LSU Tigers, snapping to Joe Burrow and winning a national championship.

Half a year later, Cushenberry was competing for the Denver Broncos’ starting center job with Austin Schlottman and Patrick Morris.

Although it took a couple of weeks in training camp for the battle to end, Cushenberry, unsurprisingly, ran away with the job. But was the rookie able to live up to expectations his first year in the NFL?

Expectations entering the season: Starting center for 16 games

Actual output in 2020: Starting center for 16 games

Did he live up to expectations? Sure did

The expectations for Cushenberry entering his rookie season were simple: Become the Broncos’ starting center by Week 1 and keep the job for the entire year.

The third-round pick did that. Mission accomplished.

Now it certainly wasn’t a season full of sunshine and rainbows. Much like the Broncos, Cushenberry struggled, specifically early. Cushenberry’s four sacks allowed were the third-most in the NFL among centers.

However, as the center, and thus having the second-most responsibility on offense only behind the quarterback, he was expected to struggle as a rookie.

But despite the struggles, the Broncos stuck by Cushenberry for all 16 games.

What Vic Fangio, Pat Shurmur and Mike Munchak hoped to see was continued improvement as the season went on. They got just that from their third-round pick.

At the end of the year, when asked to identify a player that took the biggest step forward throughout the entire season, the head coach pointed straight to his rookie center.

“I think of Cushenberry III at center,” Fangio quickly responded. “He was a guy that constantly got better inch by inch. He never made a big jump one week to the next, but he just kept getting better in small increments and by the end of the season was playing his best football. I think after this offseason and he gets to watch himself in cut ups and getting coached by Mike [Munchak] and ‘Kupe’ [Chris Kuper], that he’ll come back a better player. I expect him to flourish next year even more so.”

Cushenberry will need to continue to improve in order to flourish and hang on the the starting job for the long haul. Near the end of the season, Fangio admitted that Graham Glasgow, currently Denver’s right guard, is prepared to slide over and play center in the future if the team needs him to do so. But Fangio and the Broncos hope they don’t have to call on Glasgow to make that move inside.

With the incredibly difficult task of playing center in the NFL as a rookie, the bar was set low for Cushenberry in 2020. Cushenberry lived up to the expectations.