Emmanuel Sanders gets candid about Garett Bolles

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — After the worst game of his career on Sunday afternoon, Garett Bolles was greeted with hugs from his teammates to mend the wounds.

“They all know what I’m going through. They all know this hurts bad,” Bolles said minutes after the game. “They know I hurt.”

After being called for four holding penalties—the most by a player in a single game since 2014—his teammates had his back.

“Y’all be trying to crucify him. That ain’t right,” Ron Leary preached from his locker, feet away from Bolles. “O-line, we behind him 100 percent. This team behind him 100 percent.”

With no legitimate depth options to turn to, Vic Fangio also announced the Broncos are standing behind Bolles as their starting left tackle.

But despite all of that, it doesn’t mean Garett Bolles’ performance is acceptable.

Emmanuel Sanders made that crystal clear on Tuesday.

“At the end of the day we’re all a band of brothers,” he said, starting out with the same type of dialogue as the rest of the team before sending a message. “Obviously, I’m going to keep trying to talk to Bolles and see if we can get him right and understanding what he’s doing wrong because obviously to say ‘Oh, he’ll be alright’ is not okay.”

Talk won’t do it for Sanders anymore. At 32-years old and playing in a contract year, Sanders doesn’t want to hear any more lip service from the former first-round pick.

“He obviously needs to understand that he is doing something wrong because they keep throwing flags on him and he keeps holding,” Sanders said composed, but clearly frustrated.

Since entering the league in 2017, Bolles has led the NFL in offensive holdings with 24 flags called against him—although not all were accepted—in 34 games.

“I’m going to talk to him and hopefully we keep breaking down the film and just see him make that jump and get that off his back because it’s been happening for like two or three years,” Sanders said.

The problem, and justified frustration from his teammates such as Sanders, is the penalties have gotten worse, not better, as he’s been in the league. During his rookie season, the 6-foot-5, 300-pound tackle had nine holding penalties called on him. Last year, during his sophomore campaign, Bolles topped that number, racking up 10.

This year, through only two games, he’s been called for five—that’s half of what he had last year when he led the entire league. Albeit it’s a small sample size, but he’s on pace for a whopping 40 holding penalties.

“I’ve talked him. I’ve talked to him. Everybody’s trying to talk to him,” Sanders said. “So we’ll see.”