The Denver Broncos will need a new starting center in 2024.
The Tennessee Titans are expected to sign Broncos pending free agent center Lloyd Cushenberry after the NFL’s new league year begins on Wednesday. Cushenberry had the best season of his career last year in Denver.
All four of the team’s other starting offensive linemen — Garett Bolles, Ben Powers, Quinn Meinerz and Mike McGlinchey — are set to return in 2024, but the Broncos will now need to find a replacement in the middle.
Denver has two in-house candidates in Luke Wattenberg and Alex Forsyth. The Broncos could also consider moving Meinerz to center and then starting a different guard, but that seems unlikely.
Wattenberg (6-4, 300 pounds) is a 26-year-old lineman who was drafted by Denver in the fifth round of the 2022 NFL draft. He has dressed for 23 games over the last two seasons as a backup swing guard/center, starting one game (at guard) in 2022.
Forsyth (6-4, 312 pounds) is a 25-year-old lineman who was picked by the Broncos in the seventh round of last year’s draft. He was inactive for all 17 games as a rookie last season, but Forsyth was highly touted coming out of college. Earlier this year, general manager George Paton said the team views Forsyth as a starter in the NFL.
Based on that remark from Paton and Wattenberg’s history at guard, Forsyth might be the early in-house favorite to replace Cushenberry. Denver might still bring in more competition, but at the moment, Forsyth are Wattenberg appear set to compete for the starting center job in 2024.
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