Denver Broncos: How Ryan Clady injury hurts

For the second time in just three seasons, Denver Broncos left tackle Ryan Clady, who was once regarded as one of the top five players at the position, has suffered a season-ending injury, as ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported yesterday that the 28-year-old Boise State product tore his ACL. Any major offseason injury is filled with a firestorm about how big of a blow the loss is, and we’ve seen plenty of that in the aftermath of Clady’s injury, especially since Peyton Manning needs better line play more than ever before.

When Clady went down with a season-ending injury after playing just two games in the 2013 season, there was a similar type of reaction. Then, Chris Clark went out and surprised us and played some high-level football as one of the league’s better left tackles that season. The Broncos had the NFL’s highest-scoring offense of all-time that season, and they managed to make it all the way to the Super Bowl.

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With Manning, Demaryius Thomas, C.J. Anderson, Emmanuel Sanders, and an even better defense than the 2013 version, the 2015 Broncos are still Super Bowl contenders even without Clady. It’s also important to remember that Clady wasn’t anywhere close to being an elite tackle in the 2014 season, as his Pass Blocking Efficiency rating (11 total QB hits allowed as well) from Pro Football Focus was only moderately above the league average.

Clady is no longer the elite force he used to be, and yet I am in complete agreement with the barrage of tweets proclaiming that this is a massive blow for the Broncos. “Massive blow” doesn’t equate to an inability to survive the injury, of course, but Clady’s injury puts a huge amount of stress on a young offensive tackle to produce a Clark-esque season, which is no small task.

Rookie tackle Ty Sambrailo will get the first crack at taking over for Clady on the left side, and it’s never easy to ask a first-year player from a smaller program like Colorado State to succeed as a rookie blindside protectors. We’ve obviously seen top picks from touted programs like Luke Joeckel and Jake Matthews struggle badly in their first seasons, so Sambrailo will have his work cut out for him. The Broncos could move promising second-year tackle Michael Schofield to the left, but I usually like to avoid asking players to switch sides on the line, as Schofield is more comfortable at right tackle.

If neither young tackle is able to protect Manning adequately, then the Broncos can always go with Ryan Harris, whom they reunited with yesterday after signing him to a one-year deal. Harris used to be a very good tackle back in his first stint with Denver, but injuries and age have turned him into a ho-hum- but somewhat popular- stopgap/backup option, though he’s significantly better off on the right side than on the left. That said, Harris is a decent option, and signing him was a rather obvious move, especially since he also worked with Kubiak briefly as a member of the Houston Texans.

And his chances of succeeding could be even lower than Clark’s, because the rest of the offensive line around him doesn’t look as good. Outside of veteran Louis Vasquez, who didn’t even play well last season with four sacks allowed, it’s hard to feel good about any of the team’s starters on the offensive line. They lost two of their best 2014 linemen this offseason, as neither Orlando Franklin (bigger loss than Clady) and Will Montgomery are elsewhere and replaced by Shelley Smith and Gino Gradkowski, who was acquired in a trade.

You might think, “Wow, Gradkowski must be pretty good if the Broncos went out of their way to trade for him,” but, unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be correct. Perhaps Kubiak saw something he liked in Gradkowski after his days as the Ravens offensive coordinator last season, but, then again, Gradkowski played just ten snaps after the team acquired Jeremy Zuttah in the 2014 offseason to replace Gradkowski.

Wait, why did they replace Gradkowski? Oh yeah, because he might have been the worst center in the entire NFL when he was an every-down starter in 2013. This is a guy who was wildly inconsistent and managed to surrender more pressure than every other player at the position except for New England Patriots center Ryan Wendell, who was a much better run blocker than Gradkowski. What makes him a possible diamond-in-the-rough, though, is the fact that he did show some flashes of quality center plays at times, but those merely served as oases in a year of terrible play.

Smith slots in as the team’s left guard, and while he is theoretically a quality starter, he’s coming off of a poor 2014 season and has been known for his run blocking, rather than his pass pro. In his lone season with the Miami Dolphins, Smith was a free-agent flop who under-perfomed, and while he should bounce back, it’s unrealistic to see him as a “plus” pass blocker for the Denver Broncos organization.

When Ryan Clady went down with an injury in the 2013 season, the Broncos had Clark and Franklin at tackle, Zane Beadles and Vasquez at guard, and Manny Ramirez at center. That list of names looks more impressive when you remember just how good Vasquez and, especially, Ramirez were that season, though the latter was more known for his run blocking.

Still, run blocking is important for the Broncos, as they’ll have to transition into an offense that features the ground game more often in order to take pressure off of the aging Manning. Anderson has emerged as a legitimate talent at the position, and it’s not like his backups are bad either.

The problem is that the Broncos backup offensive linemen are either unproven or below-average, and this is a team that is putting a lot of faith in young guys like Sambrailo. They had to know Clady is an injury-prone player, and yet they didn’t find any real contingency plan at the position this offseason. But in my opinion, John Elway, who is easily one of the best front office men in the entire league, has made his biggest errors when building the interior.

Jan 11, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Denver Broncos offensive tackle Ryan Clady (78) against the Indianapolis Colts in the 2014 AFC Divisional playoff football game at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. The Colts defeated the Broncos 24-13. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Elway and the Broncos have taken Manning’s ability to get the ball out quickly for granted, because they have the best quarterback in the league at releasing the ball quickly and avoiding the pass rush.

However, he needs the line to work for him now more than ever before, and the line also needs to be there for that running game. Manning and the Broncos will still be successful, but Clady’s injury is so huge because it makes things so risky.

It puts pressure on players who are unknown commodities, and that’s not something you want at key positions. Throw in an interior that isn’t up-to-par with what Manning had in 2012 and 2013, and you get a line that looks like the Broncos clear weakness in 2015.

I mean, it’s not like they played well in 2014 either, and you can’t ignore the fact that this team also lost Franklin in addition to Clady.

The Broncos have so much talent that they should be able to weather this injury, but they could have a very exploitable weakness up front if certain players don’t step up.

A second injury on the offensive line could even be devastating, but it’s hard to use strong words when you have a guy like Manning at the helm, even if we have to tone down our expectations of him now (it’s unfair to assume invincibility).

But they’re still one of the best teams in the NFL, and they’re still my top team in the AFC; you can’t gloss over that defense or their non-OLs on offense.

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