Broncos' Center Lloyd Cushenberry III 'Dominating' at OTAs?

The Denver Broncos have a big decision to make at center. Should the incumbent starter of the past two seasons — Lloyd Cushenberry III — continue to man the offensive line's pivot or is there an upgrade on the roster? 

Heading into the 2022 offseason, it would have been fair to wager that the Broncos were actively seeking an upgrade over Cushenberry. After all, as reliable as he's been (only missing one start), his play overall has left much to be desired. 

Still, Cushenberry is no joke and won't be easy to dethrone for the Broncos' starting center job because he's got that big football brain. Head coach Nathaniel Hackett, who has a keen interest in seeing how the center competition plays out, has already been impressed by Cushenberry's intellectual rigor and football smarts. 

“It’s funny. We do a lot of different testing with the guys during meetings," Hackett said on Tuesday. "We have these fun ‘Kahoot!’ tests that we like to do, and he wins every one of them when the whole group is in there. That’s a challenge to all of the offensive guys because we’re trying to figure out how to find someone to beat him, but he’s doing a great job. His knowledge of the system [and] his understanding of it gets better every day.”

Cushenberry is being asked to not only assimilate a new playbook and nomenclature but he also has to learn to thrive in Hackett's zone-blocking scheme. In the Broncos' previous blocking iterations, Cushenberry's lack of power created vulnerabilities upfront — both in the running game and in pass protection. 

However, this new scheme prioritizes the football IQ and the short-area athleticism to burst off the ball and run. We know that Cushenberry doesn't lack in the brains department but the jury is still out on whether he's light enough on his feet to excel as a zone-blocking center like a titan of old did for so many years — Tom Nalen. Even Matt Paradis thrived as a center in the zone scheme for Denver, though he was no Nalen. 

Hackett said that Cushenberry "dominates" the Kahoot tests but does he have the physical skill-set to thrive in the new scheme? 

“He’s great. He’s a guy that you can do downhill stuff with like they have done in the past—the inside zone—but he can run off the ball," Hackett said. "That’s something that you want to take advantage of. He can reach his shade, which he has shown consistently up to this point, and I can’t wait to get pads on so I can see even more.”

There's the rub. Everyone looks like they can run off the ball sans the weight of pads and the conflict of true contact. 

Once the pads go on in training camp, the cream will rise to the surface and the Broncos will no what's what upfront. For now, though, it seems that Cushenberry has done a good job of making a strong first impression on his new coaches and perhaps just enough to fend off the competition. 

But Hackett wants to "see even more" once the pads go on. When that day comes, veterans like Graham Glasgow and rookie sixth-rounder Luke Wattenburg will have something to say about how the center competition ultimately shakes out.