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It’s time to acknowledge that the Broncos' offensive line is not good

The Broncos offensive line put up one of their worst performances of the season against the Raiders. And it’s been a steady decline since week one...

Las Vegas Raiders vs the Denver Broncos Photo by RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images

It seems like the Denver Broncos' offensive line has had a knack for coming under fire, huh? This has been a nagging issue for far too long, right? Was the last somewhat solid offensive line around when Manning was around? Yikes.

For the first few weeks of the season, the Broncos offensive line was somewhat looped into the general team complaint about penalties and poor play. But after the Broncos’ week 4 performance against the Raiders, it could be argued that the offensive line was one of the worst-performing units. The pocket around Wilson crumbled entirely too fast, and the run game never took off.

It should be mentioned that Russell Wilson’s style of play gets him sacked far more than the average quarterback. But a quarterback does need some time to go through his progressions and decide where to put the ball. The key word there is some. And it seemed like Wilson was often getting no time this past Sunday.

Now the Raiders do have some pretty solid pass rushers in Maxx Crosby and Chandler Jones. But outside of that, their defense isn’t necessarily insane. They were, after all, 0-3 heading into this game. But holy cow did the Raiders' defense work over the Broncos' offensive line.

The Broncos' o-line was called for multiple drive-killing holding penalties. Wilson was also sacked two times and was found panic-scrambling when defenders got into his face quickly.

Yes, the Broncos' offensive line is pretty banged up right now. Billy Turner is not fully healthy, Tom Compton has been on the PUP list, and the Broncos' best lineman Quinn Meinerz has also been dealing with some injuries. When Meinerz isn’t on the line, the offensive line visibly struggles.

Dalton Risner has not been looking good as of late and is probably playing his last season in a Broncos uniform. Cam Fleming has been OK, but certainly not great. Lloyd Cushenberry, like Fleming, has also been just okay. And Garett Bolles has been significantly regressing, to put things lightly.

And to make matters worse, Wilson is now dealing with a shoulder injury.

The Broncos need to prioritize keeping Wilson upright, and fix the offensive line woes sooner rather than later. Is an offensive line shake-up in order?