Denver Broncos right guard Quinn Meinerz is entering a contract year. A 2021 third-round pick out of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Meinerz earned a starting job in Year 2, starting 13 games.
However, Meinerz had a break-out 2023 campaign, and while he was ultimately snubbed from Pro Bowl and All-Pro honors, he received plenty of votes for both all-star teams, and finished as one of the highest-graded offensive linemen per Pro Football Focus.
Suffice it to say, Meinerz is firmly locked on PFF's radar now, which is why Thomas Valentine is urging the Broncos to get their starting right guard locked up contractually before the 2024 season starts. In an around-the-NFL type of article, Valentine listed the one move each team should make before training camp.
Denver Broncos: Extend Quinn Meinerz
-Thomas Valentine
"The Broncos' offensive line underwent significant changes in 2023, but the key to the improved unit was Quinn Meinerz at left guard. The former third-round pick has molded himself into one of the best guards in the NFL, earning an 83.7 overall grade in 2023 to rank third at the position.
"Meinerz is heading into the final year of his four-year rookie contract and will be a free agent in 2025. Finding quality guards in the NFL is a tough task, so when one falls into a team's lap, they should do everything they can to retain them. Locking up Meinerz to a long-term extension should be a priority in Denver," Valentine wrote.
No doubt, Meinerz's pending free agency is a priority for the Broncos, but in the wake of swallowing an NFL-record $85 million dead-cap hit by releasing Russell Wilson this past spring, the team is a little low on salary-cap space. However, the Broncos now have the wealthiest owners in the NFL, so there's little doubt that cash on hand won't be a problem for the Walton/Penners.
There's also the order of priorities to consider when it comes to handing out extensions. Meinerz's fellow 2021 draft classmate — cornerback Patrick Surtain II — is also about due for a new deal.
However, the Meinerz situation has to take precedence, as the Broncos exercised Surtain's fith-year option, which keeps him under contract through the 2025 season. Meinerz, on the other hand, will be an unrestricted free agent following the 2024 campaign if the Broncos don't find a way to get him re-signed.
Meinerz is expected to command at least $21.5 million/year. That's a lot of money to pay an offensive guard, but it's the going rate for a true blue-chipper. And as Valentine writes, those aren't easy to find, let alone develop.
The Broncos invested not only a draft pick in Meinerz, but also three-plus years in developing him. It would be a shame to see him cash in elsewhere, and take his prodigious talents elsewhere.
However, the punitive consequences of swinging and missing so ingloriously on Wilson might preclude the Broncos from being as amorous with their homegrown players as they'd like to. Complicating matters is the pending free agency of veteran left tackle Garett Bolles, who's also entering a contract year.
In the NFL, though, where there's a will, there's a way. Every team has a financial wizard whose purview it is to conjure up some salary-cap voodoo. Eventually, though, the Wilson chickens have to come home to roost.
Perhaps the worst of those unwelcome fowls was the release of Justin Simmons, the Jerry Jeudy trade, and the Broncos' inability to compete for the services of Josey Jewell and Lloyd Cushenberry III in free agency this year. The worst of the tough financial decisions brought on by the albatross Wilson contract could be in the rear-view mirror for Denver, but how Meinerz's future resolves will be a good indication of how true that is.
If Meinerz gets out to a solid start and stays healthy, it would be a shock if the Broncos don't extend him in-season. An extension before training camp would be awesome, though. Bolles — a 2017 first-round pick — is the last drafted-and-developed offensive lineman to garner an extension from the Broncos.
It would signal to the rest of the Broncos locker room that Sean Payton and George Paton will take care of the homegrown players who really go above and beyond. It would also convey that the Wilson contract didn't completely leave Walton/Penners and the front office bereft of the resources to compete.
Again, where there's a will, there's a way in the NFL — even for the cap-strapped Broncos.
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