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Jeff Legwold, ESPN Senior WriterDec 12, 2024, 01:37 PM ET
- Jeff Legwold is a senior writer who covers the Denver Broncos and the NFL at ESPN. Jeff has covered the Broncos for more than 20 years, joining ESPN in 2013. He also assists with NFL draft coverage, including his annual top 100 prospects. Jeff has been a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Board of Selectors since 1999. He has attended every scouting combine since 1987.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Denver Broncos have given their longest-tenured player what he had hoped to receive — the opportunity to stay with the team that drafted him.
Left tackle Garett Bolles, the Broncos’ first-round pick in the 2017 draft, has agreed to a four-year extension to remain in Denver, multiple sources said Thursday morning. Bolles himself then confirmed a deal has been finished in a social media post Thursday morning.
Complete terms of the extension were not yet available, but sources told ESPN that Bolles’ deal was worth as much as $82 million overall with just over $40 million in guarantees.
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In a post on X, Bolles offered: “It’s been a great 8 years! Thanks for everything! And … I’m not leaving. The show goes on! GB.” Bolles also added a short video that included game highlights and workout video.
Bolles, who was the No. 20 pick in the 2017 draft, was the first tackle the Broncos had selected in the first round since Ryan Clady in 2008. The team has also not used any draft pick to select a tackle since Bolles was picked.
Bolles had signed a four-year, $68 million extension in 2020 and was poised to be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end. The 32-year-old has been one of the team’s most durable players throughout his career, rarely missing practice, and has started all 13 games this season.
Bolles, who is the seventh-ranked tackle in the league in pass block win rate (93.2%), has started at least 16 games in a season in four previous years and has missed more than three games in a season only in 2022 when he suffered a fractured leg in the fifth game of the year.
Even Bolles himself had expressed some uncertainty about his future in Denver earlier this season. He was in the final year of his contract while the team had completed extensions with guard Quinn Meinerz, cornerback Pat Surtain II and linebacker Jonathon Cooper well before they reached free agency, and the Broncos also signed tackle Mike McGlinchey and guard Ben Powers to high-end free agency deals in 2023.
Throughout his playing career, Bolles has consistently said that he hopes to be a “Bronco for life” and that his family wants to stay in Denver.
