Making Sense of Broncos Duo's Placement on PFF's List of Top 32 OTs

The Denver Broncos have a good pair of offensive tackles. Conspicuously, only one of them was recognized in Pro Football Focus' top 32 offensive tackles of 2025.

PFF's Zoltan Buday listed only left tackle Garett Bolles (at No. 11), with right tackle Mike McGlinchey being snubbed. Bolles was ranked fairly, but McGlinchey's snub is questionable. Let's examine Buday's analysis on Bolles' ranking.

“While he is not among the best run-blocking offensive tackles in the league, Denver’s left tackle more than makes up for that with his work on pass plays. Bolles’ 88.2 PFF pass-blocking grade in 2024 ranked sixth among all offensive tackles," Buday wrote. "Over the past five seasons, he boasts an 89.2 PFF pass-blocking grade, which ranks fifth among 54 qualifying offensive tackles. He has allowed only 11 sacks and a 4.4% pressure rate in that span.”

When it comes to his run blocking, Bolles isn’t the best, but his PFF run-blocking grade ranks 20th-highest out of 48 qualifying tackles and three spots ahead of McGlinchey. Only one of the 10 ahead of Bolles had a worse run-blocking grade, with two others not having enough snaps to qualify. 

However, pass protection is what landed Bolles at No. 11, as his pass-blocking grade ranks sixth-highest. The five tackles with the higher grades are all in the top 10 of PFF's top 32 rankings. So, considering Bolles’ run-blocking and pass-blocking grade, compared to the others, he landed in a fair spot at No. 11.

As for McGlinchey not making the top 32, it raises some questions about the quality of this list because there's a straightforward argument for him being better than multiple players in the bottom 10 in PFF's rankings. Again, McGlinchey ranked 23rd in run-blocking, and his pass-blocking grade ranked 30th among the qualifying tackles. To qualify, a tackle had to have at least 300 run-blocking snaps and at least 400 pass-blocking snaps. 

Braxton Jones was 25th in the rankings, and while he was significantly higher in pass-blocking grade, he was credited with giving up two more sacks and three more pressures while not qualifying in run-blocking. That's the first player that McGlinchey should be ranked above.

Jones' counterpart, Darnell Wright, ranked 26th and somehow higher than McGlinchey in pass-blocking grade despite relinquishing twice as many sacks and seven more pressures. Kaleb McGary, who was one of the worst pass-blocking tackles in the NFL last year, is on the list at 30th, over McGlinchey. McGary wasn’t that much better as a run blocker to justify making the list over McGlinchey.

Rasheed Walker, at 31, was the opposite of McGary, who was one of the worst run blockers, but his pass protection wasn’t significantly better than McGlinchey's to justify making the list over him. McGlinchey was more consistent in both aspects than either of these tackles. 

The true insult to McGlinchey comes with Walker Little, who played 508 total snaps last year, being the final tackle ranked on the list. McGlinchey and Little were similarly graded, though the Bronco played nearly 400 more snaps than the Jaguar. 

The Takeaway

Again, Bolles coming in at No. 11 is fair and deserved, but McGlinchey's omission, especially with Little ranking above him, is a farce. There are 64 starting tackles in the NFL. If McGlinchey isn’t a top-32 tackle, PFF has to do a better job of rationalizing why and how certain players were listed instead.

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