Broncos guards Quinn Meinerz, Ben Powers bond over field goal stance

When Quinn Meinerz heard the Broncos were signing Ben Powers to a lucrative multi-year contract this spring in free agency, he knew immediately he had a new running mate at guard.

Meinerz, on the right side, had plenty of reason to be excited about Denver plugging in Powers on the left side.

But when they actually met during OTAs, Meinerz figured run blocking technique, pass sets and Denver’s best places to grab a big meal could wait.

He had a more pressing question on his mind.

“How do you do that field goal stance?”

Powers, who spent the first four years of his NFL career in Baltimore, was happy to teach.

An offseason of work later, you can see them in games, flanking Denver long-snapper Mitch Fraboni, each lining up before the snap with their inside knee planted on the ground.

It’s visually striking. Powers says it’s the only foolproof way to handle an opposing rush. And Meinerz has converted from a skeptic to a believer.

“I think it’s the best way to protect yourself, especially having low leverage,” Meinerz told The Post. “I’m a pretty mobile person, so I can get into that stance and do what I’ve got to do.

“It’s been successful since I’ve been using it.”

Powers typically answers questions in a straightforward, one-sentence kind of manner. Ask him in the Broncos’ locker room about field goal stances, though, and he lights up.

Then he demonstrates.

“Well, your inside knee is on the ground,” he said, assuming the position in his socks in front of his locker. “And you kick it out on the snap. They preach in football that the low man wins. So, you’re starting low.”

Yeah, but knee on the ground? Really? Doesn’t that put you at a disadvantage?

“At first, you’re like, ‘this is weird,’” Powers acknowledges. “Knee on the ground for a field goal, you don’t think it will, but it works. I told Quinn, ‘You should really try this. I like it a lot.’”

That’s because then the inside foot extends back and hits the ground, he explains, it works essentially like a shock absorber to the rusher.

The mentee takes it from here.

“And then as the weight comes into you and as you get rushed, your foot will naturally plant further into the ground,” Meinerz said. “In practice you’re just on your tippy toe and that’s not a strong position, but as you get the rush, it naturally brings your foot back down to get more cleat in the ground. …

“It’s all about if you can stay firm for 1.25 seconds.”

That’s the whole game. Don’t get knocked off your spot. Don’t fall backward and definitely don’t fall forward.

“Forward is horrible,” Powers said. “You see a lot of guys on film, the (defender) is definitely bringing power on field goal block, so when they leave the gap and the blocker falls forward, that’s because the (blocker) is leaning forward, anticipating that contact. The way we do it, we don’t even move. We don’t step forward, we don’t lean forward.

“So there’s no way to fall forward and expose that gap.”

This is how Powers learned in Baltimore.

His teacher there? Longtime special teams guru Jerry Rosburg. Rosburg, of course, retired but then was hired as a game management coach for then-Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett in Week 3 last year. His input on special teams wasn’t welcomed by coordinator Dwayne Stukes, but when Hackett got fired after Week 15 and Rosburg was named the interim coach, Stukes was dismissed, too.

Rosburg tried to teach the stance to Meinerz even with just two games left in the season.

“I was not sold on that at all,” Meinerz said. “I was like, ‘How am I going to change what I’ve done my entire career?’ I’ve never done anything like this before. So I just needed some more practice and not just, ‘Hey, let’s try this against the Chiefs.’”

Even still, he was actually in search of a better way.

Meinerz injured his hamstring Week 1 against Seattle last year blocking on the field goal unit when his foot slipped as the rush came over the top of him and he found himself, “in this weird, like, splits position.”

“Someone jumped through the ‘B’ gap and kind of pushed me. So I was in a variation of doing the splits. I felt it pop right away.”

Meinerz missed four weeks with the injury and it was still on his mind months later when he met Powers.

“He said, ‘I’m never letting that happen again,’” Powers recalled.

Denver’s special teams coaches Ben Kotwica and Mike Westhoff don’t teach the stance, but they understood Powers’ belief in it enough to allow he and Meinerz to stick with it. In Baltimore, the tackles use a similar stance, though not with their knee fully on the ground.

“They’re just very low,” Powers said. “It really only works inside.”

Meinerz, reluctant to change on the fly late last year, is now a true believer in the Baltimore field goal stance. He’s never going back. And he plans on spreading the good word.

“That’s going to be my field goal stance forever,” he said. “And I’m going to teach it to the young bucks.”

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