Broncos ‘jolt’ o-line, upgrade nastiness with Round 1 pick Bolles

Off the field, newest Denver Broncos left tackle Garett Bolles, at least according to John Elway, has a great sense of humor.

The man charged with filling a glaring hole as the Broncos’ blindside protector is known for his nasty demeanor on the field

But off the field, it’s a different story for the University of Utah product — and Denver’s first-round pick in 2017.

“I love football, and when I’m off the field I love you all. You’re all my family,” Bolles told members of the media at UCHealth Training Center on Thursday night via phone.

“But when you’re in a different color jersey, I’m coming after you after you to help my team win.”

Elway described Bolles as “enthusiastic and high-energy,” qualities that had the Broncos general manager and new head coach, Vance Joseph, feeling good about grabbing him at No. 20.

“I think he brings a great mentality to that offensive line that needed a jolt. He’s a perfect fit for what we’ve done in free agency and what we’ve brought in,” Elway said.

“If Garett turns out to be what we think he is, he solves a big problem for us for a long time, and that’s that left tackle.”

Bolles joins a tackle competition featuring former second-round pick Ty Sambrailo, 2016 free agent acquisition Donald Stephenson, and 2017 free agent acquisition Menelik Watson, among others.

But the 6-foot-5, 297-pound, soon-to-be-25-year-old said his expectations are to “start as soon as possible.”

“They drafted me with a high draft pick, so they have a lot of expected of me and they expect me to come in and work hard. That’s what I’m going to do,” Bolles said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but you can count on me to come in and work my butt off.”

Said Elway: “I think it’s going to be a great competition. I think what make players better is competition.”

Bolles has already survived one round of competition Thursday night, beating out not only Ryan Ramczyk, the Wisconsin tackle often mentioned as a left tackle possibility for Denver, but also a number of players at different positions falling down the draft board, including Alabama tight end O.J. Howard.

“Obviously, there were a lot of good players that got pushed down and they were jumping off the board. There was no question that we had discussions about the different options that we felt like we were going to have,” Elway said. “We still felt Garett was going to be that guy.

“When we looked at his ability and we look at our needs, we feel like he’ll be a good fit. We still believe that he was the best guy on the board and the best guy for us.”

Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.