Broncos offensive line grades: Lloyd Cushenberry III

The Denver Broncos’ center stepped up big-time in his contract year

The last time the Denver Broncos had a dependable center, in my opinion, was in 2018 when Matt Paradis played his last season in Denver, and even he wasn’t at the level of a great lineman during his last season or two with the team. Though recency bias might be in effect, I think Lloyd Cushenberry III put together the most consistent season at the center position in over seven years.

Let’s get into the specifics and see if it is worth attempting to sign him to a new contract this offseason.

Preseason expectations

I didn’t have high expectations for Cushenberry heading into the preseason. His previous three seasons were teetering around the “mediocre” level but he was close to being “good”. It also didn’t help that after playing the first eight games of the 2022 season, Cushenberry was placed on IR with a groin strain, which he would not be activated off of due to his position on the depth chart. The latter part of that sentence was pretty damning to his future.

But, after watching him during his two preseason games, I was actually confused. His performance made me rethink everything that I thought I knew about him. He looked more than competent. He looked like a new player. He looked like he was going to be one of the better centers in the AFC. He looked so much better than he did previously that I thought that I was the only one seeing this and was giving him too much credit. Looking back, I can now know that I wasn’t.

Regular season reaction

Last year’s injury was history, and so were his performances of old. What he did during the preseason carried over to what he did throughout all 17 games that he started, in which he rarely missed a snap. He played in 99.72% of all snaps, which is a great improvement compared to last season, and more of the trend that he had over his first two seasons.

He improved in each blocking category, but his biggest improvement wasn’t in anything specific, but rather just in his overall presence up front. He looked more in control of the game. He read defenses better and was able to take care of managing blocking assignments. It looked like the rest of the line was more confident in his decision-making as well. And while it is hard to quantify these statements, this is what my eyes were telling me.

These new skills transferred over into how well Cushenberry worked with his two guards in the running game. As a center, he was almost always double-teaming with one of his guards, or he was downblocking to cover for the pulling guard. I enjoyed his double-teams with Meinerz the most. They served as a wrecking ball of a tandem, consistently taking care of both their first and second-level assignments. He was clean and didn’t get beat off of the line of scrimmage often.

Another result of Cushenberry’s improved ability to command the line was a bolstering of his work with working with his guards in pass protection.

Here is an example of that from their game against the Dolphins.

To most people, this doesn’t look like anything impressive. And while this isn’t necessarily the hardest block to make as an offensive lineman, this play serves as a textbook example of how to properly overtake a pass rusher. He gets hip-to-hip and then follows his feet with his hands while avoiding getting overextended on the block. This is good.

And while he did get driven back further in the next clip, I actually like it more.

Not only does Cushenberry manage to execute a great take-over of the pass rusher, but he also handles the ensuing bull rush well. After feeling the initial push and seeing that the defender is committing to the bull rush, Cushenberry perfectly gets his feet behind him, plants off of his in-steps, and then gets his hips underneath him and nearly lifts the defender off of his feet. This is really good stuff.

Final grade

Lloyd Cushenberry III was clearly the most improved player on the team in 2023, and PFF backs up my claims of that. He went from a grade of 56.2 in 2022 to a grade of 73.3 in 2023. He even finished an eight-week stretch where he only gave up five pressures and zero sacks. And through the first twelve weeks of the season, he was one of the highest-rated centers in the passing game according to PFF, reaching an efficiency score of 99.1 at the peak.

He is a solid center, but we’ll see if the Broncos are willing to pay the price that he is now worth.

Pass blocking: A-

Run blocking: B

Overall grade: B+