Sean Payton set out to build the Broncos from the line of scrimmage out.
As Denver transitions from a 14-3 regular season to what it hopes is a long postseason run, the trenches are being recognized in a major way.
The Broncos have four first-team Associated Press All-Pro selections, the AP announced Saturday morning. Three of them play up front.
They are left tackle Garett Bolles, right guard Quinn Meinerz and defensive tackle Zach Allen. That trio is joined by special teams ace Devon Key.
Cornerback Pat Surtain II and safety Talanoa Hufanga are second-team honorees.
Bolles, Allen and Key are first-time first-teamers, while Meinerz earned top honors for the second straight season.
The AP All-Pro team is among the highest recognition that NFL players can receive. The teams are voted on by a panel of reporters from around the country.
Bolles, a 2020 second-teamer, is having a banner season at age 33. The ninth-year pro made the Pro Bowl as a starter for the first time, is in the mix for the NFL’s new protector of the year award and is the team’s nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year award for the second time in three seasons.
According to Next Gen Stats, Bolles entered the final week of the regular season allowing quarterback pressures on just 5.5% of his pass protection snaps this season. That was the fifth-lowest mark in the NFL. Bolles was also one of just five tackles (minimum 200 snaps) to allow one or fewer sacks.
“This place is special to me,” Bolles said after the Broncos’ top seed-clinching win over the Los Angeles Chargers last weekend. “This team, this organization — my family grew up here, I grew up here, I became a man here. So to be able to give back to this city and this community to where it belongs and get the Broncos organization back to where it needs to be, it’s a special moment for sure.”
Meinerz is a first-team selection for the second straight season, cementing his place as one of the best interior offensive linemen in football. He is the first Broncos offensive lineman in franchise history to make first-team All-Pro in consecutive seasons.
Meinerz making back-to-back first-team is also lucrative. The contract extension he signed in the summer of 2024 includes escalators for making first-team AP All-Pro that combine to bump his 2026 salary by $2 million, a source with knowledge of the deal told The Post. He had escalators of $500,000 each for 2024 and 2025 and got an extra million if he made first-team All-Pro both years.
Bolles and Meinerz anchored one of the best offensive lines in football. Denver finished eighth in pass block win rate and fourth in run block win rate according to ESPN’s metrics, making them one of six teams in the NFL to finish in the top 10 in both marks. They are the first pair of Broncos offensive linemen in team history to be named first-team All-Pro in the same year.
Allen led the NFL in quarterback hits (47) by a whopping eight over Cleveland’s Myles Garrett, who set the single-season sack record with 23. He, like Bolles, is a first-time Pro Bowler in his seventh season.
The defensive tackle logged seven sacks, down from his 2024 career high of 8.5, but was as disruptive as any interior defensive lineman in football. He didn’t make the Pro Bowl after the 2024 season, but was a second-team All-Pro.
Each of those three players has signed an extension since July 2024 and is under contract through at least 2028.
Key is one of the better stories on the Broncos roster. He led the NFL and set a franchise record with 26 special teams tackles.
“When you’re at Denver and you say, ‘In the history of,’ well, that means something,” Payton said of Key on Friday, before the AP teams were unveiled. “This place has played a lot of good football for a long time, and he’s tackled more people in the kicking game than anyone in the history of. I think there’ll be a lot of former special teamers, former defensive players that would be like, ‘Wow. That’s something.’
“There’s a grit to that and a toughness to that. … Remember, it’s not like the opponent doesn’t recognize who they have to double-team. So, that’s what’s impressive.”
Surtain, the 2024 defensive player of the year, earned first-team honors in 2024 and 2022. He missed 3.5 games due to a calf injury this year, the most time he’s lost to a single injury in his football career.
“I felt like when I got back in, I didn’t lose a step that much,” Surtain said Friday. “Obviously, there were some mishaps here and there, but that happens. It’s football. I felt like I got back out there playing my style of game and playing to my standard. (All Pro) is a prestigious honor and huge honor in that regard.”
Hufanga had a season this fall like Allen in 2024. He was clearly deserving of a Pro Bowl nod, got snubbed but was recognized by the AP. The spring free agent addition immediately became a leader and one of the best players on one of the NFL’s best defenses. Hufanga allowed the sixth-lowest completion percentage as the nearest defender among safeties, according to Next Gen Stats. He accomplished that while also entering Week 18 already having set a career high with 56 tackles against the run.
Hufanga, 26, set a career high with six tackles for loss. He was a first-team All-Pro in 2022 with San Fancisco but had been injured frequently over the past two seasons.
Denver’s four first-team selections are tied for the most in franchise history (1977 and 1996) and paced the NFL this year.
Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.