Report: Elijah Wilkinson will compete with Garrett Bolles for starting left tackle spot

On Broncos Country Tonight on KOA Radio, Benjamin Allbright just dropped some really interesting news regarding Denver’s situation at left tackle.

We all know the struggles of Garrett Bolles the position and while most of us assumed that meant Denver would look to draft an offensive tackle in the early rounds next week, Allbright says that is very unlikely.

“The people who want a tackle in the first round are about to be severely severely disappointed. It’s not happening,” Allbright said. “They are not taking a tackle, and they’re probably not going to take a tackle early.”

If true, that’s big news in itself. Joe Rowles and I have talked repeatedly on Cover 2 Broncos how if Denver doesn’t go wide receiver in the first round, the next position that makes he most sense is offensive tackle; but apparently this indicates that Denver truly is all-in on a receiver in the first round.

However, what came next was an even bigger bombshell, when Allbright stated that Elijah Wilkinson has been told he is going to compete with Garrett Bolles for the left tackle job, and Ju’Wan James is locked in at right tackle.

There’s several implications for this, but the first one is a great point that Ryan Edwards brought up on the show; that this is the first time it seems like Denver is holding Garrett Bolles accountable for his poor play.

Edwards talked about how he has been handed the starting job year after year with zero competition, despite his terrible play and that goes against everything about the NFL roster, the idea that if you don’t perform, someone is waiting to take your job.

It seems as if Denver is done insulating Bolles and he’ll actually get some competition in camp. You have to wonder if this is the influence of Mike Munchak, as this is his first full offseason getting to run things his way.

Regardless of the impetus, I like the move in principle. However, I do worry about what would happen if Wilkinson wins the job. Wilkinson played worse than Bolles for the much of the season on the right side, stepping in for an injured Ju’Wan James, so I don’t have a lot of confidence that he will win the job, or that if he does Denver will be much better off.

Which brings me to Allbright’s comments that Denver won’t pursue a tackle early. He has great info and has been spot on numerous times so I don’t doubt his statement, but logically it seems that if Denver was going to choose now to challenge Bolles, adding a rookie OT would be the ideal person to do that.

The only reason I shied away from putting left tackle as the top need is the idea that Denver wanted to give Bolles one more shot and seemed locked in with him as the starter, so the rookie would need to sit a year. But if the position is truly up for grabs and this isn’t just some tough love tactic they’re trying on Bolles, it seems like OT would shoot to the top of the list for the Broncos. That’s just me, though.

I trust Munchak, and maybe he’ll be able to continue to bring Wilkinson along, but I almost worry about our tackle position even more after this news.

One other domino this affects is it looks like Graham Glasgow is sharpied in at the right guard slot; which also means Denver doesn’t have a starting center as of right now.

Buckle up, because the draft is officially one week away and everything will be much clearer then.

What are your thoughts Broncos Country?