In the same week that he was named the Denver Broncos ‘unsung hero’ of 2023 by NFL.com, right guard Quinn Meinerz garnered some similar appreciation from Pro Football Focus. Thomas Valentine revealed each NFL team’s ‘secret superstar,’ tapping Meinerz as Denver’s.

The unsung heroes of NFL teams usually reside in the trenches. That much can be said for Broncos guard Quinn Meinerz, who has been one of the best offensive linemen in the NFL this season. His 83.8 PFF grade is third among all guards while his 88.8 PFF run-blocking grade is tied for first.

The Broncos running game averaged just four yards per carry in 2023, but Meinerz was nothing but a positive force for the team. It’s ugly work, but someone has to do it. Meinerz proved there aren’t many who can do it better.

While he received Pro Bowl votes, Meinerz was snubbed, despite being, as Valentine opines, one of the NFL’s most dominant interior linemen. Meinerz did finish as an alternate in the voting, but he didn’t garner enough to make the NFL’s All-Star team.

Meinerz also received votes for the A.P.’s All-Pro team this year, but not enough to beat out Dallas’ Zack Martin on the first team and Atlanta’s Chris Lindstrom on the second. Meinerz ultimately finished fourth in the All-Pro voting at right guard.

As Meinerz cleaned out his locker alongside teammates following the Broncos’ loss in the season finale, he shared his thoughts on not making the Pro Bowl.

“I think I played well enough to make the starting lineup, but I didn’t,’’ Meinerz said via The Denver Gazette’s Chris Tomasson. “And at the end of the day, I don’t play this game for individual awards and it’s still cool to be on the map.”

Coming out of his third season, there’s no doubt that Meinerz’s NFL profile has grown as a result of his work. It may be cold comfort to him, but to even receive Pro Bowl and All-Pro votes as an interior offensive lineman on a sub-.500 team is an accomplishment of sorts.

At the very least, it reveals that Meinerz’s trajectory is on the rise. There is some confidence in that. It’s definitely “cool.”

However, for too long now, the Broncos have had to console themselves with moral victories, both at the collective and individual level. That’s how it goes for a team that misses the playoffs for eight straight years and posts seven consecutive losing seasons along the way.

Meinerz now enters a contract year with some serious momentum. A 2021 third-round pick out of Wisconsin-Whitewater, he’ll turn 26 next fall.

Sometime between now and the end of the 2024 campaign, the Broncos will have to get serious about Meinerz’s future. If he produces another dominant season, perhaps those individual accolades will come, which is why it might behoove the Broncos to get him locked up sooner rather than later.

It’s too bad the Broncos are in salary-cap purgatory at the moment, eh? GM George Paton and head coach Sean Payton had better get back to Broncos HQ soon and get started on the slicing and dicing of the roster to start getting some fiscal clarity.

That starts with deciding Russell Wilson’s future. From there, expect to see the Broncos approach a key veteran or two with an extension offer to free up immediate cap space, make a trade, and/or outright release other tenured players making big money.

With starting center Lloyd Cushenberry III set to hit unrestricted free agency, the Broncos — knowing that a Meinerz extension is relatively imminent and having two recently drafted candidates to take over as the O-line’s pivot in the fold — aren’t expected to retain him. Denver simply doesn’t have the cap space to bring Cushenberry back, and in back-to-back years, the team drafted center prospects in Luke Wattenberg and Alex Forsyth.

It’s a safe bet that one of those two will be starting in between Meinerz and left guard Ben Powers in 2024. For now, tip your cap to the ‘secret superstar’ in Denver this year. Meinerz had one heck of a season.