I knew this was coming when he went on IR this year, but it is still sad. At the same time, can you imagine Nails playing for anyone else?

we have a hard enough time getting other deserving Broncos in…. HT to Nails and best wishes in retirement.

He was the rock to the offensive line and I wish him all the best.

Worthy of the Hall of Fame? Uhhhhh, Yeah. Boy that is a no brainer. Well, it is for us, the committe is a whole other issue.

Thanks for all your hard work Nalen and one final salute to you.

Last one left is Bates, really.

no doubt in my mind. slam dunk, despite the conspiracy. may take a little while, but he dominated his position for how long? pro bowls. team captain. the machinery of the zone-blocking scheme, protector of elway, and loudmouth. sadly, i knew he was done in the preseason when he couldn’t even practice, prompting shanny to respond it really must be serious. for now, wiegmann will do fine, until k-lich or someone steps in. i’m concerned with hamilton, too, we should probably draft a guard/c in the mid-rounds. for nails, it was one hell of a ride, and he led this successful line for a very long time. i wonder how many linemen he played with during his tenure? gotta be a lot. tom nalen for ol coach? hey, where’s rod smith? can he unretire and be our 3rd wr? can’t let go of these guys! seriously, another hall-of-famer/ring-of-famer retiring from the broncos. there has been quite a few, lately. i think we’re out of ’98 sb winners on the team, is it official? mike leach? wow. gonna miss nails.

Nails will be missed. First time I heard his name was a glowing review by Mel Kiper (I think) in a fantasy football magazine after the 94 draft, talking about what a perfect fit Nalen was for Denver and what a steal he was gonna be. I am a packrat so I think that magazine is in a box on a shelf in storage somewhere. I am gonna have to dig it out tomorrow to get the exact quote about Nalen.

He has been my favorite bronco since forever, mostly because I was an O-Lineman in high school.

Did anyone else see the 3 broncos O-Lineman appear on Conan O’Brien after SB XXXII? I know Mark Schlereth was there, but I don’t remember the other 2. I think one of them was Nalen.

Wait a minute… there is a head coaching job available in Denver,,,

Didn’t Tom anchor the O line for YEARS?

Well, I beleive that all we need for the Broncos right NOW is a really good anchor man!

Thank You Tom, for the many games with so many sore muscles, and increadible leadership that you silently supplied to our O line for so many years.

You are a leader that we will not soon forget.

he also had the ability to implement a new style of blocking. He helped build the plane called zone blocking as it was being flown, quite a feat. Thanks for the memories!

Couldn’t have asked for anything more. Best of luck to you in your future endeavors, Nails.

I voted yes by the way, but I doubt he will make it because of the ECB.

He was a great one. Better fill that hole with solid depth – Weigmann isn’t going to play forever.

It’s sad to see you go out this way. Wish you could have had one more trip to the promised land (SB)!

Here’s hoping you can overcome the bias of the hof voters and get in!

Here’s why, as much as we all know Nalen is one of the best centers to have played, and arguably the best true Bronco offensive lineman, the preception of Nalen by most of the press is a guy who wouldn’t talk to the media and a dirty player because of the cut-blocking. When you have media listening to D-lineman whine about how Denver offensive line is “dirty” then that is going to be a tough stigma to overcome from a national media who votes on this, especially since very few of them have ever spoken to or interviewed Nalen. I hope that they can actually do some research and look back at Nalen instead of just listening to someone else, but I give them little credit for ever doing their homework.

I know he was a “finalist” in 2007, but I can’t remember if he was on the list this year before the cut down to 17 or whatever.

If TD does make it, it would be an outright travesty for Nalen not to make it in. So far Zimmerman is the only OL from TD’s glory years to be in the hall, and those guys up front paved the way for his success.

But I wonder what the ratio of RB:OL is in the HoF, I should crunch the numbers on that…I bet it’s close to 1:1, when every one of those RBs probably played with more than 1 OL for the majority of their career who deserve a lot of the credit.

But hey, former offensive lineman here speaking, so I guess I’m biased :-).

Yes I think so. But he won’t get in.

Anchored a consistently dominating line for 14 years. A pioneer of zone-blocking. 7th round choice. 5 pro bowls. 2 rings.

East-Bias, lack of linemen in the Hall and his rep. as a cheap-shooter will keep him out.