Denver Broncos: Will they re-sign Will Montgomery?

The Denver Broncos offensive line has some serious issues headed into the 2015 season. They lost guard Orlando Franklin to the San Diego Chargers via free agency, they have some question marks in terms of performance when it comes to their 2014 season starter at center in Manny Ramirez, and they have a natural guard playing right tackle in Louis Vasquez. For a team that relies heavily on their offensive line to protect their biggest asset in Peyton Manning, the Broncos need to come up with some solutions before training camp starts.

One of those solutions that could alleviate some of their line problems is to re-sign Will Montgomery to a reasonable contract as their starting center. Montgomery was signed last season to a one year, low-cost deal and took over as the starting center for the Broncos near the mid-season point. As the center for the Broncos he was rated 15th best in the league by Pro Football Focus, not bad for a guy being paid just over $1 million for the year. In case you were wondering, Vazquez was ranked 28th overall and received a negative grade by Pro Football Focus.

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As the Broncos need to shuffle their line anyway due to the loss of Franklin, why not bring Montgomery back at center while moving Vazquez or Ramirez to guard, or both. Then they could look at drafting a guy to play right tackle with one of their early round picks, maybe someone like Cameron Erving, a player who is a do-it-all workhorse and is someone that should be available towards the end of the first round. That configuration would on the surface look much better than the one the Broncos marched out in front of Manning at the start of the season last year.

While it’s true that Montgomery is 32 years old, he has been reliable in terms of injury avoidance most of his career. He didn’t miss a game last year and over his career has shown a toughness that most teams covet in their utility linemen. After he was put in at center for the Broncos in Week 10, the team had six of their best rushing performances in terms of total rushing yards for the regular season according to Pro Football Reference, including their Top 3. As the center routinely pulls during running plays, there is likely a direct correlation to their enhanced success in the run game and Montgomery at center.

What about the passing game? ProFootballFocus gave Montgomery the second best pass blocking score in the league among centers last year, behind only top rated overall center Nick Mangold of the Jets. Again, paying what is essentially peanuts for a guy that can give you both this kind of production and durability seems like a no-brainer for the Broncos.

Whatever Denver decides to do with their line issues on offense, one thing is certain: Peyton Manning does not have a lot of years left in his body, if any at all after 2015. If they want to actually see him not only make it the whole season but also play for a championship, they better start improving their line sooner rather than later.

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