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David J. Phillip/Associated Press

The Broncos have to fix their offensive line. There could be as many as three spots up for grabs this year in the trenches for the Broncos. They’re set at left tackle with Ryan Clady and at right guard with Louis Vasquez, but they still need to locate a center, left guard and right tackle before the start of the season.

Free agency is going to come into play here. If the Broncos address guard in free agency with a guy like Mike Iupati (San Francisco 49ers), then perhaps they’ll go for a right tackle with their first-round pick.

The best option for them could be Ereck Flowers from the University of Miami.

Flowers is a mountain of a man, measuring in at 6’6”, 324 pounds. Even though he’s huge, Flowers has the athleticism to move well in space. He does a good job of firing off the snap, and Flowers has the lateral agility to angle block with ease. Flowers can also be relied on to get to the second level and hit a moving target right away.

He does lack polish in pass protection, and Flowers did struggle on film at times against elite pass-rushers. This is why his best fit in the pros might be as a right tackle. On that side, he wouldn’t face the type of rushers like Clady does on the left. Flowers would be able to give Peyton Manning enough time to throw, and he could gain valuable experience quickly as a rookie starter.

The Broncos are going to utilize a zone-blocking scheme under new head coach Gary Kubiak. The players on the line must be athletic enough to move well laterally at the snap, plus they need to be “sticky” blockers when asked to attack linebackers at the second level of the defense.

At the scouting combine, I asked Flowers how he felt about playing in a zone-blocking system as an NFL player.

“We run the zone block in Miami, we run man, that’s what Miami does, and I think that’s why Miami’s been successful in the NFL. Our coaches do a good job emulating the stuff they’re doing in the NFL and college so we ran man, zone so I’ll be fine wherever I go.”

Flowers is a great fit for what Denver wants to do, and it would not be surprising to see him be the man the Broncos snare in the first round.