It’s Drew Lock time for the Denver Broncos vs. Chargers

The Denver Broncos are likely ushering in the Drew Lock era on Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers. Will he be the future?

For the Denver Broncos, four years of ineptitude at the quarterback position paired with more losing than winning feels more like an eternity.

It hasn’t even been four years since the Broncos hoisted the Lombardi Trophy as Super Bowl 50 champions (seriously) but for fans of the team, it feels like it’s been a lifetime.

The Broncos have trotted out a number of quarterbacks since Peyton Manning retired in 2016:

• Trevor Siemian
• Brock Osweiler
• Paxton Lynch
• Case Keenum
• Joe Flacco
• Brandon Allen

None of those quarterbacks has proven to be the future of the franchise despite the lofty draft status and pay grade for a number of names on that list.

Osweiler was a mid-second round pick who sat for the majority of four years. He didn’t work out, but he did help the Broncos on their Super Bowl 50 quest.

Lynch was a first-round pick, and despite his immense physical talent, he didn’t have what it takes to make it at the NFL level either.

Case Keenum’s 2017 season with Minnesota proved to be an exception rather than the rule.

Joe Flacco was not in his prime like John Elway thought.

Incidentally, the best quarterback on this list for the Broncos was probably Trevor Siemian, who had a pretty good season as the team’s starter in 2016 with great circumstances around him and Gary Kubiak as head coach.

But when Kubiak had to step down for health reasons, things went off the rails for the Broncos as they tried finding the right combination at quarterback, head coach, and offensive coordinator. Now, on the doorstep of a third-straight top 10 draft choice, the Broncos may finally have the right combination.

Rookie Drew Lock is expected to make his first start of the 2019 season after spending nearly three months on injured reserve.

Lock, a second-round pick out of MIssouri, was widely expected to be a first-round pick last April before the Broncos scooped him up at 42nd overall. He surprisingly sat through the first day of the 2019 NFL Draft without hearing his name called despite a stellar career at Missouri, a great competitive drive, solid athleticism, and a cannon of an arm.

Whatever scouts didn’t care for with Lock, the Broncos really liked him and tried trading back into the first round to get him before trading up for him in the early portion of the second round.

Lock has had a strong few weeks of practice after injuring his hand in preseason play, which was really the last time we saw him doing anything. He had been progressing through preseason and training camp and had locked down the Broncos’ backup QB job behind Joe Flacco to start the season before injuring his thumb.

The Broncos had hoped to essentially redshirt Lock this season, getting him prepared for the 2020 campaign but Joe Flacco’s neck injury changed things for this team.

Lock will now likely get the last five games of 2019 before the Broncos press forward in the 2020 offseason, and there’s reason to believe the Broncos’ search for their quarterback of the future is over without seeing Lock play a single snap.

Lock has all of the physical tools, arm talent, mental toughness, and intangibles you look for at the position. He needs to master the offense and get comfortable with offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello, but all of the pieces are in place for the Broncos to really develop this prospect and put him in position to lead this team for years to come.

With a talented quarterback class and a top 10 pick on deck for this team, the pressure is on Lock to show he belongs in these five games.

The Broncos know that Lock needs time and patience, but the NFL is a tough business. He has to show this team something over the course of the next month-plus to prove he’s ‘the guy’ for the Broncos going forward.

It’s not a stretch to say that Lock is the most talented quarterback to be drafted by the Broncos since Jay Cutler in 2006. Cutler would have been the future of the Broncos were it not for a clash with then-head coach Josh McDaniels, who traded him to the Chicago Bears.

Lock has some similarities to Cutler as a player, including their reckless-at-times gunslinger mentality, sneaky athleticism, big arm, and physical fit for the Shanahan/Kubiak version of the West Coast offense.

Lock is a lot different from Cutler personality-wise, and that could perhaps give him yet another edge for the Broncos.

2019 has been the year of the QB shuffle around the NFL, and the Broncos are no different. Lock will be their third starting QB this season, but has a chance to be their last major switch for a long time.