According to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, the Denver Broncos have agreed to terms on a four-year, $80 million dollar extension with guard Quinn Meinerz. With this deal, he is now tied for the third-highest annual salary by all guards currently in the NFL at $20 million dollars.
The Broncos selected Meinerz with their 98th overall selection in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft out of Wisconsin-Whitewater. With his senior year of college canceled because of COVID, he worked out in the woods by knocking trees over and doing whatever he could to workout and stay in shape. With Alabama lineman Landon Dickerson suffering an injury, he received an invite to the Reese’s Senior Bowl where he quickly became one of the standouts of that week. He used that week to vault himself into a third-round selection by the Broncos a few months later in the draft.
Since then, “The Belly” has quickly become one of the better guards in the entire NFL and has anchored the Denver Broncos offensive line. He is a mauler in the run game and keeps defenders off the quarterback. During his career with the Broncos thus far, he has played in 45 games which have included 39 starts including all 17 games this past season. Now, he will stay with the Broncos for the foreseeable future where he will continue to be one of the better guards in the entire NFL.
This deal always seemed inevitable with Sean Payton in control of this team. During his time with the Saints, he always prioritized his offensive lines and we saw that during his first offseason with the team where they signed tackle Mike McGlinchey and guard Ben Powers to big deals. So it always made sense that they would lock up their best lineman in Meinerz before he would hit the free agent market.
The Broncos now have an expensive offensive line where they are paying big bucks to left tackle Garett Bolles, left guard Ben Powers, right tackle Mike McGlinchey, and now right guard, Quinn Meinerz. They will need this unit to dominate this upcoming season to help their run game and protect likely starting quarterback, rookie Bo Nix. The team has spent a lot of money on their offensive line so hopefully we see some results from them this upcoming season.
