ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Quinn Meinerz is accustomed to being a leader on a football team, just not in the stereotypical Joe Captain way.
The Broncos’ starting right guard since midway through his rookie season of 2021, Meinerz has been challenged to leave his comfort zone this year after teammates voted him as one of their six captains.
“I’ve always had a harder time being a vocal captain,’’ Meinerz said for the Broncos Huddle show this week on 9NEWS. “That’s not really been me, from high school to college to now — being a vocal captain is not necessarily my strength. I’m more of a leader-by-example kind of a person."
“This is another challenge of mine of stepping into this role of being a captain and having to use a little bit more of my voice and I think I’ve earned the right to say that. I’ve played enough games. I’ve been around a little bit now so it’s going to be a work in progress.”
One characteristic of leadership is holding yourself accountable, never mind others. Meinerz was critical of his performance from the Broncos’ season opener last week in Seattle. Offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi said Meinerz is a mauler-type blocker who, when amped up, can get over-aggressive and lose proper blocking technique.
“It was a wake-up call for myself,’’ Meinerz said. “I didn’t put a lot of great things on tape. I was a little bit sloppy with my technique, a little bit sloppy with my footwork. The film shows it so I’m going to be upfront about it. It was really good wake-up call. Unfortunate it happened in a real game. So I’m going to improve this week and put more of my type of tape on Sunday.”
It would have been natural if Meinerz tried a little too hard to immediately prove he was worth his new four-year contract extension at $18 million a year that made him the league’s seventh highest-paid guard. For a 25-year-old from the small Midwest town of Hartford, Wisconsin (population 14,000 in 2010), who played his college ball at Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater, who even after experiencing NFL success married his high school sweetheart, a contract that all-but-guarantees him to make $39.37 million over the next three years is life-changing.
“Yeah, it changed my life a lot,’’ Meinerz said. “I know there’s a lot of security in the back of my mind when it comes to injury or life after football. I really put all my eggs in one basket. I didn’t graduate from college so I was really all in on this thing, the football thing. It was an insane process to get [the contract extension] done early and put a little bit more pressure on me to perform.’’
Hence, his performance in the opener, where he may have pressed. It didn’t help that head coach and play-caller Sean Payton had to reluctantly abandon the run game as the Broncos’ top two running backs, Javonte Williams and Jaleel McLaughlin, gained just 50 yards off 18 carries, a meager 2.77 yards per attempt.
Against a Steelers’ defense that has a terrific edge-rush duo of T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith, and one of the league’s best defensive tackles in Cam Heyward, and Broncos’ rookie quarterback Bo Nix adjusting to the speed of NFL defenses, running the ball with respectability will be a must.
“One hundred percent,’’ Meinerz said. “It’s on myself and the rest of the offensive line to put our young quarterback in a good position and that definitely starts with the run game. And giving him the opportunity to set up in the pocket, get more comfortable, get into the flow of the game."
“Yeah, that’s a big responsibility of the offensive line to start the game early with some good runs and continuing throughout the game. That way everything is easier once you establish the run game.”
Nix was impressive in his two preseason performances, but he learned last week against the Seahawks that the speed of a regular season shifts up a few gears. Meinerz was asked if the speed of a regular-season game was faster than he thought as he played during his rookie 2021 season.
“Yes and no,’’ he said. “I played a lot in the preseason my rookie year, which was really cool. I was playing right guard, left guard, center. I was doing a lot, so I was able to get a little bit sense of the game as a rookie playing a lot in the preseason."
“But there’s a difference playing in a regular-season game. I mean, I won’t forget my first start, playing left guard rookie year, at home, luckily. It was against Baltimore and Baltimore at the time had a defense that was putting all kinds of different looks and testing my mental strength when it came to the game. So it was definitely a lot faster and it really starts to slow down with reps over time.”
