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Quinn Meinerz will be blocking for Denver Broncos quarterbacks for years to come.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo reported Tuesday that the AFC West team and offensive guard agreed to a four-year, $80 million deal that features $45 million in guarantees. As a result, Meinerz will be one of the highest-paid guards in the league.
According to Over The Cap, the Broncos have $7.7 million in team cap space.
The 25-year-old was set to enter the final year of his contract prior to this development that will pay him like one of the best players at his position. At an average annual value of $20 million, only Landon Dickerson and Chris Lindstrom will be paid more on a per-year basis than Meinerz among all guards, per Spotrac.
There is a reason Meinerz earned this contract.
Denver selected him with a third-round pick in the 2021 NFL draft, and he quickly worked his way into the lineup while starting nine games as a rookie. He started 13 games in his second season and then started all 17 games last year.
Pro Football Focus awarded him with an impressive 83.7 overall player grade for his efforts last season. Only the Atlanta Falcons’ Chris Lindstrom (87.7) and the Los Angeles Rams’ Kevin Dotson (84.4) finished with higher overall grades at the position in 2023.
While he fell short of being named to his first career Pro Bowl despite the head-turning showing, his focus is elsewhere heading into the 2024 campaign.
“I definitely have personal goals, but right now it’s about keeping things small and not necessarily focusing on that,” Meinerz said in June, per Jon Heath of USA Today’s Broncos Wire. “I think I might have focused a little too much on being a Pro Bowl player and almost feeling let down in a sense [last year]. That’s not necessarily where I am focused at anymore.
“I think that is kind of an individual thing that will happen as a byproduct of playing well and being consistent. At the end of the day, the thing that really matters to me most is postseason football.”
The postseason would be a welcome turnaround for the Broncos after they missed the playoffs in each of the last eight years. It would also mean the winner of the expected quarterback battle between Bo Nix, Zach Wilson and Jarrett Stidham perhaps exceeded expectations.
Exceeding those expectations won’t be easy, but at least all the signal-callers know they will have one of the league’s best guards in Meinerz leading the way up front for the foreseeable future.
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