The Denver Broncos are one of the strongest teams in football up front, and they continued their trend of placing offensive linemen in top ten lists as offensive tackle Garrett Bolles landed at tenth in the latest positional list written by Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.

It’s Bolles first appearance on this kind of list, but it’s definitely well-earned. He had some struggles early in his career, but Bolles slowly built himself into an above-average player, and last season he made the surprising rise to an All-Pro berth at the age of 34.

Bolles stats are excellent, but they also reflect his ranking in this list. He allowed five sacks on 630 pass-blocking reps, according to Fowler, and Bolles also posted a 94 percent pass block win rate, which was ninth among all tackles.

There was some criticism, however. Some voters say he doesn't belong in the top 10, Fowler added, because he's limited compared with other high-end talents on this list. And his run-game impact was an issue last season that will be emphasized this season, as Bolles had a block win rate of 77.7 percent.

But Bolles has definitely benefitted from the Broncos’ transition to head coach Sean Payton, as Payton has emphasized building out the line and the tackles has responded positively when given a chance to develop.

The difference between his run and pass blocking was duly noted by one of the anonymous sources Fowler used as part of his survey.

"Pass protection, he's one of the most consistent," an NFL coordinator said. "He can handle his own without help. He was a big part of the Broncos' success on offense last year."

Bolles is also one of the Broncos biggest character guys. He was an Eagle scout growing up, and he’s continued with that work in the Denver area. He’s also developed a reputation as one of the Broncos hardest workers, and he credits the encouragement from quarterback Bo Nix and his own work on the mental side of the game for his success.

“Doing the little things, by watching film, knowing where my hand placements are, doing a lot of hand drills, but mostly just a mental thing,” he told ESPN early in his career when he was struggling. “I spent a lot of time on the mental aspect. I had the physical, the tools, to take care of the techniques, [but] it was all mental. If your mind is not right you can't play this game.