Broncos Film Review: Mike McGlinchey in pass protection

After missing all of the preseason, one of the newest Bronco, Mike McGlinchey, finally suited up and got in his first real snaps of the season. His main opponent for his debut would be Maxx Crosby, a top-five pass rusher in the NFL.

While this would be a tough job for any offensive tackle in the league, it really doesn’t help when you have some rust to knock off, from both a recent injury and a whole offseason, as well.

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We know how many members of Broncos Country feel about how McGlinchey did on Sunday and how much of a pain they think Crosby was. But my question is if McGlinchey did better than most are giving him credit for.

Let’s take a look at the film and find out.

In this edition of Denver Broncos Film Review, we’ll specifically be looking at Mike McGlinchey’s performance in the passing game.

The big picture

Mike McGlinchey was in on pass protection for 41 plays (this number includes plays that were penalized), 30 of those plays were pure drop-back passes.

14 of these pass protection snaps featured a one-on-one block with Las Vegas Raiders DE Maxx Crosby. McGlinchy would give up one sack and one pressure over the course of the game to Crosby. Some may also give credit to McGlinchy for the other sack Vegas would have in this game, but after looking at the film, it was a very difficult situation for McGlinchy to be in and Russell Wilson had plenty of time in the pocket too.

Overall, McGlinchey had a solid game. In my grading system, he would have earned a 90%, as he did well on 37 out of these 41 snaps. While some may expect McGlinchey to perform better given the amount of his contract, I still think this was a good outing, especially when you take the circumstances into consideration.

Constants from the game

On around 80% of drop-backs, Maxx Crosby would be trying to work back to the inside against McGlinchey. There was not one time in the game that Crosby was able to pressure or sack Wilson when he did this.

Of course, McGlinchey did not make the cleanest blocks against these pass rushes. There were a handful of times when Crosby did manage to get past or mostly past McGlinchey’s face. But on the times that this happened McGlinchey either had a strong enough initial punch where Crosby would be hit off balance, or Wilson got the ball off quick enough and Crosby didn’t have a chance at getting to him.

While there were some times when Crosby was able to beat McGlinchey inside, the grand majority of plays saw McGlinchey absolutely shut the door on Crosby. This was due in part to a strong post-step that enabled McGlinchey to beat Crosby to the point with speed, and proper hand placement and hand replacement by Mike.

It was these plays where you saw the skill level and veteraness ( I’m making up the word for this purpose) that McGlinchy brings to this Broncos offensive line.

The negatives

While Mike McGlinchey has a beautiful kick step form, the farther out Crosby was aligned, the more McGlinchey would turn his shoulders to meet him. Not, this didn’t negatively affect McGlinchey’s pass pro for the majority of snaps, but this is a reason why he gave up that early sack to Crosby.

McGlinchey had a good initial set against Crosby here, you can see a nice punch delivered right on the chest, but then Crosby works a secondary pass rush to the inside. And since McGlinchey now has his shoulders turned to the sidelines, he is able to offer little resistance to the club and swim move that Crosby puts on him.

It is difficult for the body to remain balanced when that sort of lateral pressure is put on you.

Another reason why McGlinchey gets beat here is because he puts weight on his toes and starts to lean into Crosby right before Crosby works the secondary pass rush move. This is evidenced by the fact that McGlinchey falls face forward when this happens.

Bad feat and body positioning will lose you reps almost every time.

Final thoughts

While it wasn’t a perfect performance by Mike McGlinchey, this is probably the best game from a Broncos right tackle that we have seen in a while.

And just like I am with the rest of the team, I have plenty of optimism surrounding McGlinchey for the season. Just wait until he gets a few more weeks of in-game practice underneath his belt.