Sean Payton didn’t exactly hide his frustration with the Broncos’ blocking when he went on The Herd on Wednesday during Denver’s bye. He made it clear the offensive line is not getting the job done, and that personnel changes could be coming.
That doesn’t automatically mean left guard Ben Powers is the man headed for the bench, even if he’s taking plenty of heat. The Broncos’ line has been bad enough to warrant a shakeup, especially with the team still sitting in the bottom 10 in rushing, but Powers is not the biggest problem in the group.
The real trouble spots have been right tackle Mike McGlinchey and center Luke Wattenberg. Powers has been part of the issue, sure, but he’s not the main reason the front five has struggled to open lanes or protect the quarterback.
There’s also a practical reason Powers could be the one to sit: his contract. He’s the only one of the three under consideration who is in the final year of his deal. That makes him easier to move out of the lineup than McGlinchey or Wattenberg, especially with Denver’s cap situation and long-term commitments in mind.
Behind Powers, the Broncos have Kage Casey, a fourth-round pick from April who was drafted to be the starting left guard in 2027. The team was pleased with how he developed in practice this summer, and there’s at least a path to letting him play now and finding out whether he can handle the job. The downside is obvious: Denver is trying to win now, and a trial run that goes sideways could create more problems than it solves.
Alex Palczewski is another option, but he comes with his own issues. He filled in at left guard for much of last season when Powers was hurt, and fans liked what they saw, but his production was far worse than the public perception.
He finished among the bottom 10 worst guards in nearly every offensive-line metric. He’s also been better on the right side than on the left, and moving him into the starting lineup would mean changing two spots in the team’s top six because he currently occupies the sixth offensive-line role.
If Denver were willing to swallow the contract and move on from McGlinchey, Palczewski at right tackle would make more sense. It would be an upgrade over Matt Peart or Frank Crum if Crum comes off injured reserve. The Broncos could even consider Casey at right tackle, though that would be highly unlikely.
Wattenberg is a different kind of problem. Denver just gave him a four-year, $48 million extension a year ago, which makes him hard to dislodge. The Broncos could view Alex Forsyth as a better run blocker, but his pass protection has been a major step down whenever he’s been asked to play.
The numbers back up the idea that Powers is getting more blame than he deserves. He has allowed a 2.7% blown-block rate with 14 blown blocks. McGlinchey has 18 blown blocks and a 3.5% blown-block rate, while Wattenberg has eight blown blocks and a 1.6% blown-block rate, though Wattenberg has faced nearly 1/8th of the one-on-one blocks that Powers and McGlinchey have seen.
In the run game specifically, Powers has four blown blocks, the same number as McGlinchey, while Wattenberg has five. Powers has 10 blown blocks in pass protection, compared with 14 for McGlinchey and three for Wattenberg, with the important caveat that Wattenberg is rarely put in true one-on-one situations.
Powers also grades out better in several run-game measures. In yards before contact with each player as the lead blocker, and in forced bounces allowed, he ranks among the top 20 guards in the league in both categories. Wattenberg is in the bottom six in both, and McGlinchey is in the bottom eight in both.
Even after adjusting for the quality of defensive linemen faced, Powers comes out better than he does in the raw numbers. McGlinchey stays about the same, and Wattenberg actually looks worse.
There’s also the injury piece. Powers is still working back from a Lisfranc injury suffered against the Jacksonville Jaguars last season, and he had offseason surgery in February or March. For offensive linemen, getting back to normal play can take about 11 months, and that timeline matters here even if he hasn’t been getting much sympathy.
So if the question is whether Powers deserves to be benched, the answer is no. But if the question is who is most likely to lose his job, Powers may be the safest move for the Broncos because of the contract situations around McGlinchey and Wattenberg and the lack of dependable depth elsewhere.
There are real risks to making that kind of change. Offensive line chemistry and communication matter. Still, Denver’s starting five has not been good enough, and changes could be coming whether they feel fair to the player or not.
After this season, the Broncos need to seriously think about finding three new starters and upgrading the depth behind them, too.
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