It's crap-or-get-off-the-pot time for Garett Bolles.

No excuses. No rationalizations. No buts.

The Denver Broncos' left tackle has been remarkably inconsistent since entering the league in 2017 as a first-round draft pick. There are instances when he looks every bit the franchise protector Denver thought they were getting, but it's never maintained on a snap-to-snap basis.

Enter Mike Munchak, the NFL's premier offensive line guru and the Broncos' new position coach. If he can't stabilize Bolles, nobody can, and the older-than-average Utah product would join 2016 first-rounder Paxton Lynch among the team's biggest busts.

Good thing, though, Munchak is confident — in himself and Bolles — that salvation is a season away.

"I hope so. He’s going into his third year. And for an offensive lineman obviously a lot is expected of a first-round draft choice," he recently told 9News' Mike Klis. “But the thing is he’s had a couple – I’ll be his three O-line coach in three years. People don’t realize how hard that is on the development of a player. So hopefully I can stay with him for a while and we can develop something.

"But he has obviously great skills. He’s a great athlete, can do a lot of things for ya. He’ll fit really well in this offense. So I’m enjoying our relationship. Getting to know each other. Getting to know what he does well, how I can help him going forward. Because there’s really nothing he can’t do."

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Although Bolles finished 2018 as Pro Football Focus' No. 35 OT out of No. 80 qualifiers, he continued his propensity to struggle with technique and penalties. He allowed three sacks and was called for holding seven times, as well as three false-starts. This, after pacing the league as a rookie with a whopping 8.5 sacks surrendered.

Bolles' struggles came to light amid Denver's 30-23 loss to the Chiefs last October; he was called for holding and gave up a sack ... on the same play.

After that game, then-coach Vance Joseph strongly hinted that Bolles would be benched if he couldn't perform consistently.

“It’s all technique. He has to play better technique," Joseph said. "As guys get healthy, we have some options to give him a rest from time to time—that’s definitely an option. Sometimes you don’t have any options, but as we get healthy, we have that option. He’s got to play better technique."

Joseph never sat Bolles, but the latter didn't exactly inspire confidence within the fan base, some of whom have rued his selection since Day 1. He entered this offseason with unsolved questions and untapped potential, bordering on the dreaded B-word.

Bolles received a major break in the form of Munchak, who opted to keep him stationed on starting quarterback Joe Flacco's blindside rather than kick over right tackle Ja'Wuan James, who signed a $52 million contract in free agency. The former longtime Titans assistant and head coach fancies himself a "teacher" as opposed to a coach, molded by experience — success and failure alike.

"I understand the game. I’ve played it, I’ve coached it. I’ve been around a long time," he told Klis. Learned a lot of lessons by winning and losing, unfortunately. So I hope I can pass this along to this group of guys.

"And coming in, it’s fun. I get to come in and help develop a whole new offense together as a group, a new staff of coaches, get to know the players and then fit what’s best for them."

It's for this reason that Munchak's scheme is easily digestible to players. And should be particularly palatable for Bolles, whose pre-draft scouting reports warned of his acclimation to the pros, and who is a mainstay among an OL that includes three new starters (James, Dalton Risner, Connor McGovern).

The Broncos, footing Bolles' education bill, no doubt prefer their pet project become the teacher's pet. Or else ...