5 days ago
2
There were 1287 sacks in the NFL last season and the Denver Broncos offensive line only allowed 9 according to SISdatahub.com. Ben Powers and Luke Wattenberg allowed no sacks. Garett Bolles, Alex Forsyth, and Alex Palczewski allowed one sack. Quinn Meinerz allowed two sacks and Mike McGlinchey allowed four sacks. The other four offensive lineman who played a snap on offense did not allow a sack.
The team allowed 23, so 14 of the sacks were blamed on a player who does not play offensive line (QB, RB, or TE). FWIW Frank Crum is listed as a TE since he played more snaps on offense as the sixth offensive lineman than he did as the fifth offensive lineman. All of the 15 OL guys that SIS has listed as TEs were primarily 6th OL guys for their team with the exception of Blake Fisher who started 10 games at tackle for the Texans. The NFL snap data doesn’t handle 6 OL very well so it assigns them as a TE since they have to report as eligible before the play.
The 23 sacks allowed by the Broncos were the fewest in the NFL. The Bronco OL also had one of the lowest percentage of sacks allowed – only 39.1% of the sacks taken by Bo Nix were the fault of the OL. The Bronco OL was also only called for six accepted holding penalties this season on passing plays. There were seasons where Bolles was called for six over the course of three games. There were 11 accepted holding penalties on the Bronco OL with no OL guy getting hit more than twice. The Broncos flagged for offensive holding the most this season were JL Skinner and Trent Sherfield. Foreknowledge of that could have won you some serious scratch if you are into prop bets.
Advertisement
Centers – passing snaps
Sorted by blown block percentage Luke Wattenberg was above average as a pass blocker in 2025. Creed Humphrey of the Chiefs was the best center in the NFL this season (this is evident when you also look at run blocking). The center for the Jets, Josh Myers, allowed seven sacks, or almost as many as the entire Bronco offensive line. Aaron Brewer, the center for the Dolphins, had as many holding calls on passing snaps as the entire Bronco OL.
Guards – passing snaps
I sorted the guards by sack percentage instead of pass blown blocking percentage (BPB%). Ben Powers had one of the better BPB% among starting guards in the NFL at 1.5%. Quinn Meinerz 1.8% was also good. AP’s 2.6% was about average. Powers was one of the few starting guards who did not allow a sack this season – admittedly in many fewer PB snaps relative to the the elite guards at the top of this table. I haven’t done the run blocking analysis yet, but I am curious to see how SIS graded out our guards in that aspect.
Advertisement
Tackles – passing snaps
Garrett Bolles was one of the better starting tackles in the NFL at pass blocking when you look at BPB% and sack%. Trent Williams, who was just wrongly named, pass protector of the year in the NFL, had a BPB% of 3.9% which was a little above average. Only Warren McClendon and Lane Johnson were below 2%. Williams sack rate of 0.53% was also good, but not great. He allowed 3 sacks on 563 passing snaps. Jawaan Taylor of the Chiefs allowed zero sacks (according to SIS and PFF) on 473 passing snaps. Taylor was also called for 13 penalties which was the second (tied) penalties in the league. Only JC Latham and Jermaine Eluemunor were called for more with 14. Riley Moss with 10 was the second most penalized DB in the league. Keisean Nixon of the Giants was called for 13 penalties to be the most penalized defender in the NFL in 2025.
Penalty data
To look at the 20 most penalized players in the NFL and NOT see a Bronco OL guy does my heart good.
Pat Surtain was penalized 9 times, so as much flack as we gave Riley Moss this year, PS2 was only called one fewer time. For Moss it was Defensive Pass Interference (10), Illegal Contact (1), Face Mask (1) while for PS2 it was Defensive Pass Interference (5), Illegal Contact (2), Defensive Offside (1), Defensive Holding (1). I don’t remember PS2 getting called for being offsides, because I missed most of that game. It was in the first quarter against the Giants.
Advertisement
Below is a table of all of the penalties called on the Broncos this season.
R.Moss | DB | 10 | 0.588 | 203 | 2 | Defensive Pass Interference (10), Face Mask (1), Illegal Contact (1) | ||
P.Surtain | DB | 9 | 0.529 | 109 | 1 | Defensive Pass Interference (5), Illegal Contact (2), Defensive Holding (1), Defensive Offside (1) | ||
N.Bonitto | LB | 8 | 0.471 | 53 | 6 | Defensive Offside (4), Neutral Zone Infraction (2), Roughing the Passer (1), Unnecessary Roughness (1) | ||
Unnamed | 8 | 0.471 | 36 | 6 | 10 | Delay of Game (6), Illegal Formation (3), Unsportsmanlike Conduct (2), Illegal Contact (1), Defensive Too Many Men on Field (1), Illegal Shift (1) | ||
G.Bolles | OL | 6 | 0.353 | 44 | 1 | 3 | False Start (3), Offensive Holding (2), Face Mask (1), Ineligible Downfield Pass (1) | |
M.McGlinchey | OL | 6 | 0.353 | 40 | 4 | False Start (4), Offensive Holding (2) | ||
A.Trautman | TE | 5 | 0.294 | 50 | 1 | 1 | Offensive Holding (2), Offensive Pass Interference (2), Face Mask (1), Offensive Offside (1) | |
J.Franklin-Myers | DL | 5 | 0.294 | 40 | 1 | 1 | 3 | Defensive Offside (3), Defensive Holding (1), Roughing the Passer (1), Illegal Blindside Block (1), Unnecessary Roughness (1) |
J.Skinner | DB | 5 | 0.294 | 53 | Offensive Holding (3), Defensive Pass Interference (1), Player Out of Bounds on Kick (1) | |||
L.Wattenberg | OL | 5 | 0.294 | 35 | 2 | 2 | Ineligible Downfield Pass (3), Offensive Holding (2), False Start (2) | |
P.Bryant | WR | 5 | 0.294 | 42 | 1 | 2 | Offensive Pass Interference (2), Offensive Holding (2), Offensive Offside (1), False Start (1) | |
T.Hufanga | DB | 4 | 0.235 | 46 | Defensive Pass Interference (3), Unnecessary Roughness (1) | |||
B.Jones | DB | 3 | 0.176 | 21 | 1 | Defensive Holding (1), Unnecessary Roughness (1), Defensive Delay of Game (1) | ||
B.Powers | OL | 3 | 0.176 | 20 | 2 | False Start (2), Offensive Holding (1) | ||
M.Peart | OL | 3 | 0.176 | 25 | 1 | Offensive Holding (2), False Start (1) | ||
T.Franklin | WR | 3 | 0.176 | 25 | 1 | 1 | Offensive Pass Interference (3), False Start (1) | |
T.Sherfield | WR | 3 | 0.176 | 30 | Offensive Holding (3) | |||
A.Palczewski | OL | 2 | 0.118 | 25 | 1 | Illegal Blindside Block (1), Ineligible Downfield Pass (1), Offensive Holding (1) | ||
B.Nix | QB | 2 | 0.118 | 23 | 1 | Intentional Grounding (3) | ||
D.Tillman | LB | 2 | 0.118 | 25 | 1 | Leverage (1), Illegal Use of Hands (1), Offensive Holding (1) | ||
E.Engram | TE | 2 | 0.118 | 15 | 1 | False Start (1), Offensive Pass Interference (1) | ||
J.Barron | DB | 2 | 0.118 | 14 | 1 | Defensive Pass Interference (2), Illegal Contact (1) | ||
J.Cooper | LB | 2 | 0.118 | 10 | 3 | 4 | Defensive Offside (4), Illegal Contact (1) | |
J.McMillian | DB | 2 | 0.118 | 20 | Defensive Pass Interference (1), Defensive Holding (1) | |||
K.Abrams-Draine | DB | 2 | 0.118 | 20 | Offensive Holding (2) | |||
M.Fraboni | LS | 2 | 0.118 | 20 | 1 | Unnecessary Roughness (1), False Start (1) | ||
M.Lewis | TE | 2 | 0.118 | 15 | 1 | Offensive Holding (1), False Start (1) | ||
M.Roach | DL | 2 | 0.118 | 27 | Roughing the Passer (2) | |||
T.Badie | RB | 2 | 0.118 | 10 | 2 | Illegal Formation (1), False Start (1) | ||
W.Lutz | K | 2 | 0.118 | Kickoff Out of Bounds (2) | ||||
Z.Allen | DL | 2 | 0.118 | 20 | 1 | 1 | Defensive Holding (1), Defensive Offside (1), Roughing the Passer (1) | |
E.Uwazurike | DL | 1 | 0.059 | 1 | Defensive Offside (1) | |||
J.Dobbins | RB | 1 | 0.059 | 5 | 1 | Delay of Game (1) | ||
P.Locke | DB | 1 | 0.059 | 15 | Unnecessary Roughness (1) | |||
Q.Meinerz | OL | 1 | 0.059 | 3 | 2 | Ineligible Downfield Pass (2), Offensive Holding (1) | ||
Q.Robinson | LB | 1 | 0.059 | 10 | Offensive Holding (1) | |||
C.Sutton | WR | 1 | Offensive Pass Interference (1) | |||||
Totals | 124 | 7.29 | 1149 | 25 | 2 | 49 |
English (US) ·