ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — On Thursday, for a second straight day, Drew Lock was throwing a football during a Denver Broncos practice.

The sight of No. 3 slinging the ball around at practice was unquestionably a positive sign for his potential availability against the New England Patriots.

But Lock being able to throw a football without pain will only be part of the equation on whether or not the Broncos will have their starting quarterback return after suffering a badly bruised shoulder in Week 2.

“Besides just the throwing, which is the obvious evaluator to whether he’s able to play or not, you also have to know whether he’s capable both physically and mentally to take a hit or go to the ground. That’s how he got hurt initially — going to the ground, his shoulder into the ground,” Vic Fangio stated on Thursday. “The throwing is one thing, but can his shoulder take another hit — whether it be a direct hit from a player or going to the ground when he’s getting hit. So that’s part of the equation too.”

Finding out if Lock can take a hit would break — in fact, shatter — the golden rule in football of never ever touching the quarterback during practice.

“You don’t simulate that during practice,” Pat Shurmur stated firmly, regarding how he determines if Lock will be capable of taking a hit during a game. “So you just got to go out there and play and we’ll see how he responds.”

During Lock’s first practice back on Wednesday, the former second-round pick “did the things that quarterbacks do,” Shurmur said, not giving the most detailed account of how Drew looked in practice. That included running around and, in fact, throwing the ball.

“He’s coming back from injury so it’s a process,” the offensive coordinator said. “We’ll just see how far he goes today and tomorrow and so on.”

In order for him to play against New England, Lock will need to continue to progress each day. Fangio didn’t lock Drew into having to be a full participant in a practice in order to play. That’s welcoming news for those that want to see Lock play as he was only listed as a limited participant in practice on Wednesday and Thursday.

“He’s got to be more of a participant than he was yesterday,” Fangio stated. “[On Wednesday] he did some individual drills, did some throwing on the side. We’re going to try to get him to do more today and then we’ll keep judging it day to day.”

With the continued uncertainty surrounding Lock’s availability, Fangio and Shurmur have the difficult challenge of attempting to get two quarterbacks ready to start. If Lock isn’t able to play, Brett Rypien will get his second career NFL start. But since the team doesn’t know who their starter will be now, Fangio is balancing the first-team reps the best way he sees fit.

“We’ll monitor Drew as we go through practice and if he’s looking better and better, we’ll get him some more reps,” Fangio stated. “If he’s looking about the same, then we’ll let Brett get more reps. You just got to handle it by feel and what you’re seeing out there on the practice field leading up to those team periods.”

With multiple Patriot players testing positive for COVID-19, the NFL moved the game from Sunday to Monday at 3:05 p.m. MDT. Fangio, however, stated that if the game is pushed back, which it was, that additional time wouldn’t give Lock a better chance to start than if the game stayed on Sunday.

“I don’t think 24 hours will make much of a difference in that case,” Fangio said.

There’s no doubt Drew Lock is making positive strides to play against the Patriots. But there’s still more he needs to do to convince the organization he’s ready to play.