Denver Broncos: Drew Lock can still become “the guy”
The Denver Broncos didn’t draft a quarterback in 2021. They only added Teddy Bridgewater to the mix. Can Drew Lock still be the guy?
Is it too late for Drew Lock to become “the guy” for the Denver Broncos at the quarterback position? That seems to be a prevailing thought among many who have watched Lock struggle in his first couple of years of regular season NFL action.
After setting a (then) SEC record with 44 touchdown passes in the 2017 season as a junior, Lock played out his senior season with Missouri and wound up a projected first-round pick who fell out of the first round completely.
The NFL was apparently not as high on Lock as everyone in the media perceived because there were very few scenarios anyone envisioned leading up to the 2019 NFL Draft that included Lock dropping to the 42nd overall pick like he ultimately did.
In his rookie season with the Denver Broncos, Lock was battling in camp with veteran Joe Flacco in Vic Fangio’s first year on the job as an NFL head coach. The plan was for Flacco to play well enough to keep Lock on ice for a year, but he was ultimately forced to go on ice due to a thumb injury suffered in the preseason.
Lock started the final five games of the 2019 season for the Denver Broncos and helped lead them to a 4-1 finish, 7-9 overall and second place in the AFC West. The Broncos went out in the 2020 offseason and brought in as much help for Lock as was humanly possible.
They added a high-priced free agent on the offensive line in Graham Glasgow. They drafted two receivers (Jerry Jeudy, KJ Hamler) back-to-back to open up the 2020 NFL Draft. They signed Melvin Gordon in free agency.
The Denver Broncos were a fun team to watch in the 2020 offseason with Lock’s intriguing five-game sample combined with the big-time talent the team brought in to surround him.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go according to plan. At all.
Lock struggled to open the season and barely played with star receiver Courtland Sutton at all. Sutton was hurt for the Broncos’ season-opener against Tennessee and then went down with a season-ending knee injury against the Steelers, the same game that Lock went down with a shoulder injury.
After his return from the shoulder injury, Lock struggled badly for a stretch of games and the offense in Denver looked like one big struggling rookie as a result.
A new system under Pat Shurmur with a pandemic-affected offseason and no veteran holdovers to be on-field coaches for Shurmur obviously hurt Lock significantly, as did the lack of offseason activities to build chemistry with his receivers.
Heading into his third NFL season, it feels like Lock is coming off of his rookie year even though he isn’t. He’s still just 24 years old and some feel like the best is yet to come for him, but why?
To his credit, Lock did play pretty well for the majority of the five games he started as a rookie. He also closed the final six games of the 2020 season strong after some really bad play coming off of his shoulder injury.
Courtland Sutton returns to the receiver room for Denver, Jerry Jeudy and KJ Hamler have a year under their belts, Noah Fant is establishing himself as one of the best young tight ends in the game, and the offensive line has made strides.
Not to mention, the Denver Broncos added the player many considered RB1 in the 2021 NFL Draft, North Carolina’s Javonte Williams.
Expectations have certainly been tempered for Lock from any national media people who were projecting a 2020 breakout, and they’ve also been tempered among the Denver Broncos faithful. No one quite knows what to make of Lock’s first 17 full NFL starts other than he was not consistent and his low points lasted too long to consider him a franchise QB at this point.
The Denver Broncos’ 2021 offseason, though, is telling.
New general manager George Paton came in with some fresh eyes on Lock after John Elway stepped down from that role with the team. Paton came from the Minnesota Vikings and was under no mandate (not that any of us know about) to either keep Lock as the starting QB, not draft someone, or anything else.
Paton looked into the Matthew Stafford trade market and the Denver Broncos have been at the center of Aaron Rodgers and Deshaun Watson trade rumors. With that being said, the only move Paton made at the QB position was a modest deal for former first-round pick Teddy Bridgewater the day before the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft.
The Broncos had a chance to take Justin Fields (or Mac Jones) and passed on that chance.
They didn’t overpay to trade for Matthew Stafford. They didn’t try to trade for former third overall pick Sam Darnold. They didn’t make any moves at the QB position other than bringing in Teddy Bridgewater but why?
The answer can only be that George Paton came in with fresh eyes and thought that there might still be something there with Lock. He saw Lock coming in every day to work over the offseason and while he did go check out some big-name QB pro days and made it seem like that was the direction the Denver Broncos were going, he ultimately stuck with Lock and passed on a big-time prospect in the process.
How will that gamble pay off? Paton was far from the only GM in the NFL to pass on Justin Fields, but he was one of the few with a QB need that stared him directly in the face and not only didn’t take him but passed on QBs altogether.
Time will tell if that was the right call by Paton, but for the time being, it’s a huge vote of confidence for Drew Lock and while Lock still has to win a training camp battle with Bridgewater, it’s clear that the Denver Broncos still believe he can become “the guy”.