The Broncos are to blame for the Garett Bolles fiasco

“Here it comes!” my brother said to me as the referee was ready to announce, for a fourth time, “Holding, offense, number 72”. We both burst out laughing because at this point, Garett Bolles and his inability to not be flagged has become a punch line. Twitter was full of them.

While I love good jokes, there is actually a major problem here and the problem isn’t Bolles himself. The problem is a front office and coaching staff that is lying to themselves about Bolles ability.

This past offseason and training camp, there should have been a left tackle directly challenging Bolles for the starting job. There wasn’t. Everybody just acted like everything was fine despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

In regards to Bolles, it is what it looks like and he is who he is. Don’t be mad at Bolles for going out and doing the exact same thing he’s been doing for two years.

This isn’t on him anymore. He’s not forcing the coaching staff and the front office to start him. They tell him to go play and he does. It’s not like Bolles is going to step up and say, “Hey guys, I really suck at this. We should probably play somebody else.”

Every time Bolles’ role as a starter comes into question, Vic Fangio can’t help but make a statement that Bolles absolutely remains in the lineup. If I’m Bolles, I’m feeling pretty good. I just played like total trash and the head coach is still telling everybody that I’m still the man.

At this point, it feels like Bolles could turn around and sack Joe Flacco himself and the Broncos would march him out as the starter the following week like nothing happened. It’s become that ridiculous.

Since Fangio was unwilling to do it, the responsibility of being openly critical of Bolles somehow ended up in the lap of Emmanuel Sanders. This is weird, as I don’t remember getting weekly updates from Rod Smith on how he thought Gary Zimmerman was playing. But the wide receiver was very honest with his opinion of Bolles play and he let us know the team sees it like we do.

My question is simple: Why Sanders?

Why did the media have to keep asking the question until somebody would say what we all thought? We ended up in this spot because the higher ups refused to act like there was a problem.

John Elway is just now being openly critical of Bolles play, but he really has no choice. We all have eyes. Saying anything positive at this point would be insulting to everyone’s intelligence. It’s too little too late to act like you’re just now seeing what has been on display since 2017.

For now, due to depth issues, Bolles will start against a very good Packers defense. However, once Ja’Waun James returns from injury, the Broncos should move Elijah Wilkinson to left tackle. That means benching Bolles and putting an end to this ridiculous nonsense.

Garett Bolles isn’t a bad guy and he should no longer shoulder the blame. The insults coming at him are rough and would be hard on anyone. Every week the Broncos put him out there, they’re subjecting him to boos and postgame beatdowns from fans and media.

Enough already.