Will the Denver Broncos take a quarterback high in the 2021 NFL Draft?

Will the Denver Broncos take a quarterback high in the 2021 NFL Draft?

Are the Denver Broncos going to be in the quarterback market with their top pick in the 2021 NFL Draft?

There’s probably a short answer to that question, but let’s take the long road to it.

The Denver Broncos invested heavily during the 2020 offseason in 2019 second-round pick Drew Lock at the quarterback position.

First, they brought in offensive guard Graham Glasgow as their top free agent acquisition. Glasgow’s signing was closely followed by the Broncos luring Melvin Gordon out of Los Angeles to come and play for a division rival.

The Broncos then used their top two picks in the 2020 NFL Draft on wide receivers Jerry Jeudy and KJ Hamler. They drafted LSU center Lloyd Cushenberry III to solidify the interior offensive line and even brought in Lock’s best pal at Missouri, tight end Albert Okwuegbunam.

The Broncos’ young offensive lineup, at least on paper, looked like one of the best in the league going into the 2020 seasons.

Unfortunately for them, the COVID-19 pandemic and injuries to a number of key players (including Lock for a few weeks) prevented the offense from gaining any sort of continuity before it was too late. The Broncos have played some of their best games offensively here late in the season, but many NFL pundits aren’t sold on Drew Lock, who has been turnover prone and certainly not good enough this year to get the Broncos to the playoffs.

Entering a contract year himself in 2021, what is John Elway going to do?

Elway has recently confirmed the Broncos will be bringing back head coach Vic Fangio and offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur is also in the plans. With Shurmur coming back, is the Broncos’ best option to look to a rookie quarterback for their best chance at success?

The Broncos faithful are ready to get back to the playoffs. Fans are growing restless and missing the playoffs now for the fifth consecutive year since the team won Super Bowl 50 is not cutting it.

So, do the Broncos go after a free agent quarterback? Maybe, although right now the team’s budget is not set up for a $25 million per year investment at the quarterback position and no one is going to buy another Case Keenum or Joe Flacco type of bridge to another young player.

Publicly, the Broncos have been praiseworthy but also critical enough of Lock. The team understands that he has to cut down on turnovers and do things better, but they are also not going to just dump Lock because of the fact that he has struggled in his first full NFL season when players like Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert have been setting records and winning awards.

Lock’s development and progress has not been linear. There have been peaks and valleys, but the Broncos’ wisest move in 2021 might be to buy into the peaks and believe they can make the valleys much less frequent, at the very least.

Starting over in the 2021 NFL Draft with even someone like Zach Wilson (who is very comparable to Drew Lock in play style) or Justin Fields, Trey Lance, or really anyone else doesn’t make any sense for Denver right now.

Even though their flaws might be different than Lock’s they all have flaws as players and they don’t currently have a year of time on task in Pat Shurmur’s offense, nor do they have a year of building chemistry with these offensive playmakers.

Lock’s ceiling remains high. He was always a player that was going to require work, but John Elway put the team’s current thoughts about him this way:

Although anything can happen, the Broncos haven’t had the same opportunity to get feet on the ground to evaluate these young quarterback prospects as both people and players. They haven’t had the chance to send scouts to practices in 2020.

All of these little pieces of the equation add up and with so much risk involved in drafting quarterbacks anyway, the Denver Broncos stand to benefit very little from bringing in a player in the 2021 NFL Draft who won’t necessarily benefit the team immediately as an upgrade over Lock.

The Broncos’ best bet is still to believe in Lock’s progression. Offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur had this to say ahead of the team’s Week 17 matchup against the Raiders:

The Denver Broncos don’t sound very “down” on Drew Lock at this point in time, and the tape shows he’s making progression over the final month or so of the season, even if he does need to cut it out with the bad interceptions or turnovers in general.

If you’re writing up a mock draft, don’t put quarterback in the Denver Broncos’ top slot.