It was in the hours following the Broncos’ 23-20 loss Oct. 14 to the Los Angeles Rams when received confirmation. Starting left guard was lost for the season to an Achilles tear. Garcia, the next man up, now tasked with replacing a seven-year veteran and locker room leader.
Garcia found comfort in Leary’s words.
“I got his blessing that night. He said, ‘Max, itap your time and you’ve worked hard for it,’ ” Garcia said. “I hate that this happened, but I have 100 percent confidence. Thatap just from the support I’ve been getting from everybody around me that I’ll step in and there will be no drop off.”
Garcia passed the test at Arizona last week and he has reason to feel comfortable. He started at left guard in all 32 games over the previous two seasons, the same spot he played at the University of Florida. “Naturally, itap going to be the position I’m most comfortable playing,” Garcia said.
Garcia, a 6-foot-4, 309-pound, fourth-year pro out of Florida, was taken by Denver in the fourth round of the 2015 NFL draft. He got flagged for holding just once all of last season as a full-time starter.
“Max is aggressive and he never shies away from contact,” right tackle said. “He has a lot of experience there so itap not necessarily a drop off at that position. We’re very fortunate to have Max on our team.”
The combination of new starters at different offensive line positions in a loud and rowdy environment requires an emphasis on crisp communication in the trenches against Kansas City. That’s no easy task.
“We treat it like any other away game,” Garcia said. “You’ve just got to be on cue with the snap count. Communication pre-snap is always going to be critical, but itap going to be hard to do with all the crowd noise. We just have to know our assignments, study the tape and get as many practice reps as we can so we can go out there with full confidence and play with speed.”
