ENGLEWOOD – Quinn Meinerz is rated as the No. 1 guard in the NFL by Pro Football Focus, but that means little to him.

Pro Football Focus is an analytics website that has gained in popularity over the years, especially with rankings of NFL players at each position. But it is not popular with the Broncos’ stalwart.

“First and foremost, I really don’t care what PFF has to say,’’ Meinerz told The Denver Gazette after Thursday’s practice at Broncos Park. “PFF is grading us when they have no idea what our scheme is or our plays are. I’ll take the recognition. I’m having a decent season, but there’s still a ton I need to improve on.”

Some analytics, including player rankings, are made available by Pro Football Focus to fans with a subscription. For even deeper material and for customized data, all NFL teams subscribe.

“What matters to me is what I think of myself, what this building thinks of me, not what PFF says about me,’’ Meinerz said. “I need to know what my general manager, head coach, offensive coordinator and offensive line coach think about me. So PFF does not hold space in my brain.”

Pro Football Focus’ majority owner is former NFL star receiver and longtime Sunday Night Football analyst Cris Collinsworth. For that reason, NBC on “Sunday Night Football” games introduces starting lineups while showing Pro Football Focus rankings of players.

“It’s crazy because then all these people think they know who or what these players are because PFF might say this is the best defensive lineman,’’ said Meinerz, in his fifth. “But if you ask offensive lines around the league, it will be a completely different answer. They’re trying to grade things without knowing what our responsibilities are.”

Regardless of what Meinerz thinks of Pro Football Focus, teammates consider him the NFL’s top guard.

“It’s no shock to me that he’s number one at PFF because I look at him every day and think he’s the best guard in the world,’’ said right tackle Mike McGlinchey, an eight-year veteran in his third season of playing alongside the right guard. “Playing next to Quinn is some of the most fun I’ve had in football.”

Center Luke Wattenberg said Meinerz is having “a great season” and he expects him to be “a perennial All-Pro for the next how many years.”

Meinerz was named first-team All-Pro last season and is a good bet this season to repeat that honor in voting done by a 50-member media panel. However, he is just sixth so far among guards in fan voting for the Pro Bowl, including fourth in the AFC.

With Pro Bowl voting done by fans, players and coaches, Meinerz wasn’t one of the top three AFC guards initially selected last season. He eventually was extended an invitation but declined it because he didn’t want to go to the Pro Bowl as an alternate.

“I’m definitely not going if I’m an alternate (this season),’’ Meinerz reiterated Thursday.

If Denver (12-2) makes the Super Bowl, Meinerz won’t be at the Pro Bowl regardless. Entering Sunday’s game against Jacksonville at Empower Field at Mile High, the Broncos have an 11-game winning streak and are closing in on having the No. 1 playoff seed in the AFC.

Meinerz has been a key part of their success, even if he says there are things he must do better.

“I think I still can be cleaner in protection,’’ he said. “That’s my main focus here. I can clean up my protection in keeping more space away from (Broncos quarterback) Bo (Nix).”

Meinerz told The Denver Gazette last month he was playing with an illness that hadn’t been diagnosed and resulted in him missing much of the second half of a 10-7 win over Las Vegas on Nov. 6. He said then that “some days I feel great, some days I don’t.”

Meinerz on Thursday declined to discuss his health other than to say he’s “doing all right.”

Meinerz said defenders have been coming up with different ways to go against him this season, but he has added new tactics.

“I can fake people out with my eyes and use more things like that,’’ he said.

Meinerz has cleared up one issue that really bothered him earlier this season. He said after Denver’s 13-11 win over the New York Jets on Oct. 12 in London that defenders had too often committed penalties against him that weren’t called.

“It was illegal rushes with the head down, a bull rush,’’ he said. “You can’t lead with the crown of the helmet into someone’s chest, and that’s what they were doing to me. I tried to talk to the refs, but the refs said they didn’t see it.

Meinerz continued: “I probably had about four or five of them. It’s a copycat league and people were starting to do the same rush move and I would call them out in the middle of the game and say, ‘Oh, you saw those plays from last week, didn’t you?’ They would start laughing and I’d start laughing.”

Lately, Meinerz has had the last laugh.

“I’ve found a good counter to that and it has since stopped,’’ Meinerz said.

Meinerz declined Thursday to give specifics about what he has done to stop those moves. But he had plenty to say about Pro Football Focus, even though he holds a No. 1 ranking.