I need to give credit where credit is due. Drew Lock looked like an NFL QB today and it felt great to see that. However I’m still very far off from crowning him. I definitely worry that the Texans game last year really skewed my perception of him. The performance today was surprising to me and I’m happy about it no doubt, BUT as bad as he has been, I feel like I need to see him consistently playing at this high level to undo all the bad already done. Im not ready after one geat game to say “oh ya he’s for sure the guy moving forward.”Lets celebrate the win and great performance but lets remember this is against a 4-8 Panthers team with a bad defense. Lets see how Lock finishes here to close the season, should be a fun one!

Let me vent, let me vent. First off it was a Rough weekend as a gators fan. I carried a pessimistic/realistic (depends who you ask) mindset Into Sunday. I was really hoping Lock would ball out and we would lose (the best scenario) but it seems as if I’ve gotten the next big thing, lock balls/plays smart and my Broncos get a DUB. Well take all the wins we can get despite the negative impact it has on draft positioning, if we can keep this up, the momentum will be more valuable than draft positioning heading into next season. There’s about 3 generational talents in this years class, so IMO if you aren’t top 5 it’s going to be a toss up anyway. This is a big win for Drew’s confidence, he’s a guy who’s play usually directly mirrors his current state of confidence or lack thereof.

Last week I was just thinking man we haven’t seen that one big splash play from KJ. And I’ve been waiting to see it, an explosive play where he takes the top off. After all that’s what we all envisioned draft night and I’ve been feigning for a taste.. AND boy did we ever get one! Shout out to KJ that was refreshing to see and I’m sure that helps his confidence as a rookie as well.

2 questions guys:
1. What did you all think of Bausby’s performance this weekend?
2. Muti looked good IMO, especially considering that was his professional debut! Does he have potential to be our best IOL? And what happens logistically (concerning Glasgow) if broncos bass decides he has to see the field or start.

Happy victory Monday!

That was a heck of a game with 3 backup O-linemen, Fant going out early, and mostly backup defensive backs. I feel like Will Parks played a nice game, Hamler had a day, and Drew came up big. If he can string a couple/few more games like this before the season ends, that will make me more comfortable about our QB situation going into next year. Hopefully this game wasn’t a flash in the pan for Drew. I have to give Shurmur credit too. It feels like the offensive game plan has been coming together the last 2-3 games, and I have confidence the Jeudy catches will come too.

Speaking of the offense, what’s up with Phil? I liked the couple passes his way, but are the plays being called for him not utilizing him in the ideal way or has he lost his vision for the holes? (I doubt the latter)

Stay safe and stay healthy,

Jonny G.

I’m not trying to say he has no responsibility for his struggles this year, he absolutely does, but his effectiveness last year and again this year since they moved to a more balanced offense gives me hope.

I can’t remember the exact stats but during the chiefs game it was stated he had the fewest passes attempted behind the line, longest avg yards per attempt, and (I think) highest percent of deep balls attempted. That’s not so much asking more of him as telling him to hit a home run on every play.

How much do you think that game plan was hurting his accuracy and propensity for mistakes in light of his improvement since more runs, screens, and easy passes were incorporated?

Today’s performance by Drew Lock is exactly what I have been saying is going to happen if we just have a little patience and give the guy a chance to develop. With everyone ready to desert the ranch, I’m sure it was tough on Drew. But he’s got a heart like a horse too! To play like he did today and show all his critics….well that has got to warm the horse cockles of Drew’s horse heart. ???

Will Shat Purmur ever figure out how not to use phil ? This is driving me nuts.

Also, would you rather have a team of studs and a garbage coaching staff or a team of duds and a staff of masterminds ?

Love
The Count

Hey guys! Great game by Drew Lock today. I keep waffling between Benjamin Albright’s optimism for Drew’s ascension and Mase’s grounded realism. Yesterday was a huge step in the right direction, but it’s unrealistic to think he’ll do that every game for the rest of the year. I have a feeling he’s going to tease us in these final few games, while also playing just poor enough to question his legitimacy as “the guy.” Plus, he’ll be playing against poor defenses in the final few games which isnt going to help with his evaluation. What do you think about a strategy of Denver rolling with Drew next year and then stockpiling picks for the 2022 draft by trading back in the 1st and 2nd rounds of this upcoming draft? This would give Drew another year to grow under Shurmur’s offense with a full offseason and preseason games while hedging towards a replacement if he doesn’t work out. The extra picks would help them move up in 2022 if Lock doesn’t show growth next year. Btw, how does the QB class in 2 years look? Please don’t tell me it’s like the 2019 class.

My boys! Happy Victory Monday, man what a game!
I want to start off by saying that I love how RK and Zac have been going after the puns. I think on Fridays show you guys made 10 puns. I was hoping one of them would make me laugh but no pun in ten did.
Anyways what a game by Drew and the broncos! I would have loved to see Jeudy more involved in some of the short passes that went to the TEs but drew was feeling it. Not going to lie though I was somewhat hoping the panthers would come away with the W so we would get best of both worlds of drew lookin great and a better draft pick but I’m glad Drew’s great game didn’t get overshadowed by a loss. Can’t wait for Buffalo. Thanks for the pod as always guys

Lock was dealing yesterday. Pat Shurmur and Lock looked real good in the scangarello offense.The last three games lock has averaged 233 yards, a 2-1 td-int ratio, and a 63.8 completion percentage. If in the final 3 games he post similar numbers I think he will be the quarterback for next year. Do you guys agree?

hey guys!

first of all shoutout calvin anderson for filling in for bolles last night ?

second, i haven’t seen many people mention jacoby brissett as a hedge qb for next offseason.

he’s still young enough where he can fit in with the youth movement on offense, has starter experience, a similar skillset to lock so the offense won’t have to change drastically if he has to play and he’s been a starter in the not so distant past so he’s motivated enough to push lock but also understands how to handle a backup role. also he’s a UFA so we’re not talking about giving up draft picks for him. what do y’all think?

Yesss!!! Victory Monday. Finally an all around game. Drew took what they gave him all day and wow, it was great. It’s one game, but he needed to do this against a poor Panthers defense.

Muti, welcome to cult hero status. Very nice. Drew’s sack fumble was a poor shift by the line. Line shifted left and pressure came from right.

Back it up Drew. If we are competitive in the last 3 games. I’ll hope that he is the guy, but needs more than 1 game.

Hey guys,

I thought Lock was outstanding yesterday, and credit is due. However, I agree with Mase. We really need to see him play like this in the final three games of the season before I’m even close to being sold on him.

What do you think Vic and John need to see before they’re sold that he will be the starting QB next season? One more good performance? Two? Three?

Cheers

Charlie

I got to give props to the O-line! Especially after verbally wailing on them for weeks. Well done big guys. This is exactly what we need. Drew benefited from extremely clean pockets. I would prefer we don’t move Risner to tackle but if Calvin Anderson keeps grinding is there any logic to moving him over to right tackle and then having a strong rotation at guard with Glasgow, Mutti, and Risner so you always have healthy legs pulling. Because damn when we pull the guards…. it’s hot.

Also congrats to RK on nailing his 58 yard field goal! Nice kick. Let’s have a good week fellas.

Well damn!!! I did NOT see that coming, but I’m definitely OK with it. Shout out to Coach Shurmur and Drew for the light bulbs finally coming on, or maybe Shurmur ran out of ideas and secretly used his ouija board to channel the spirit of Coach Scangs, or maybe Scangs felt bad for drew and used his Shurmur voodoo doll to alter the gameplan and give Lock a fighting chance…..the world may never know. Just keep it up.

And I think you guys forgot a helmet sticker, for RK!! His 85 yard field goal, yes 85, i comped McMoney and extra 27 yards to cheer him since as McManus said about McManus after the game “Brandon McManus sucked today.” But RK as long as your predictions keep coming true bring em on. And in the words of that Brent Osweiller fella after a win, “let’s keep this train rollin!”

Danimal

I really wish we had the Saints game to add to this sample size, because these last three Lock/Shurmur games have had phenomenal game plans for Drew Lock.

I agree that I think he’ll be back, but I think these last three games will be incredibly telling for him.

Also, how do we go about giving Munchak a lifetime coaching contract? If he can figure out how to help us get 2 yards on a 3rd and 1 situation, then we might have the potential to be a scary offense next year

Hey Fellas,

I’ll be honest, I really don’t want to like Drew Lock, for a number of reasons. I don’t like the back foot throws, I don’t like the poor decision making, and most of all I don’t like the post touchdown celebrations, Call me old school, that’s just me.

But something dawned on me last night. I dug a bit into his stats, specifically his numbers in all games he’s played start to finish EXCEPT against Kansas City. In these games the Broncos are 8-4, and Drew has a completion percentage of 64%, with an 18/11 TD/INT ratio and the team has averaged 21.5 ppg in these games. Not bad. I’d like to see the teams ppg higher than that, but a lot goes into that number beyond just the QB.

Now, in the 3 games Drew has played against KC his numbers are: 3 losses (including 2 blowouts), 52% completions, 2/5 TD/INT ratio and the team has averaged just north of 11.5 ppg. Not good.

These numbers tell me a couple things: 1) if you’re hoping the Broncos pick up Matt Stafford, good news! You already have Matt Stafford Light. A QB who can beat the teams he’s supposed to beat, but won’t win you the big game. The obvious difference being that Drew is still essentially a rookie with a lot of learning and developing to do if given the chance, and one who costs you exponentially less financial and draft capital to employ. In my opinion, It would make next to zero sense for the Broncos to swap Lock for Stafford at this point in their careers.

The most important thing the above stats had me realize is there is 1 simple question the Broncos must ask themselves in regards to the future of Drew Lock: how long are you willing to wait to find out if Drew Lock can consistently beat the Chiefs?

I think if you gave him 10 years as the franchise QB you could at the very least expect a few wins vs KC here and there, but what’s more important for purposes of actually competing for championships again one day is CONSISTENTLY beating the KC and asserting yourself as a legit threat to them every year. This could happen, but how long will it take? And will it be worth it to wait for this to start happening, or should the Broncos move on and find someone to expedite the process?

With 15 more years of Patrick Mahomes staring us in the face I truly believe this is the only question that matters, not just in terms of Drew Lock’s future, but really for the franchise’s future.

I agree with Mase and several of the above commenters, Drew’s gotta show up in every game for the rest of the season to be firmly in the mix headed into the offseason. He’s gotta start by having another big game at home against a good Buffalo team. Yesterday was great and was fun to watch, but in the grand scheme no one is going to care about that game next season when they’re losing by 3 scores at halftime to the Chiefs in week 2.

Thanks for baring with me on the long comment, have a great week dudes.

Great win yesterday! So happy for Drew and the entire team. Man I sure hope this was the lightbulb moment for Drew in his development.

My biggest takeaway isn’t about Drew but WTF took so long COACHES!! This was entirely different and it wasn’t just Drew. The scheme was better and he was clearly coached on it better.

You guys have a chance to review that deep throw to jeudy? It might be one of the best of the game. If you watch closely the safety was coming down and so drew threw it to the other shoulder towards the sideline. If he had kept it inside and didn’t reroute jeudy a bit, safety would have likely made a play or at least lit jeudy up. Was a great adjustment from jeudy and lock throwing on the move a bit.

Hey Guys ! First of all …… I just wanna point out we ran 2 screen plays yesterday one went for 29 yards to fumagali the other went for 20+ yards to Melvin WHY ARE WE JUST NOW USING THE SCREEN GAME SHURMUR LOL …….first of all …seriously Mase ?? We went the whole recap without hearing u say ” MU- TI ” … especially after anouncers butchering it all game lol …..look I’m more impressed with this team then I was drew yesterday there’s no quit I stand by that …. this is a superbowl team healthy if we can have a qb who doesn’t turn the ball over and is good on third downs because ??? Phil and Melvin can do the rest ! This oline makes me wanna cry what have the broncos done to have finally seem to have resolved their offensive line woes ….. Drew was awesome involved so many wrs … But after watching Netane MUTI play ? I’m so geeked about the untapped potential of this team once we figure out qb ….. What are we gonna get out of a healthy justin strnad next year ???? Do we bring back aj and casey ???? What is this wr core with courtland back what can this te combo do with albert o back …… Is kareem back next year ? What will von and chubb do completely healthy ….and dremont jones becoming a bonafide beast ? Do we finally pay Shelby what he deserves ? ……?? PLEASE DREW PLEASE FIGURE IT OUT U HAVE a deep roster with 9 or so draft picks to throw at the secondary please drew u gotta work out we can’t start over again man ??

MY BOYS! What a great game from Drew and the whole team! Definitely the best game Drew has played thus far in his career. His decision making looked great in taking what the defense gave him and hitting the short throws when it wasn’t there deep and that along with the balanced run game opened up the deep ball for him and made those throws look pretty easy cause they weren’t forced into double and triple coverage. Those 2 touchdowns to KJ Hamler were dimes! Seems like Drew and Pat Shurmur have started to find something to build on. And finally a punt return TD!

First off, so happy for Drew for having a game like this, happy for Hamler for breaking out like this, and all the other parts of the team that played well.

But I don’t think we can say yet that this was one of the best case scenarios for how this game could have played out. Similar to Mase, I’ll say that unless Drew’s last 3 games all look like this and Houston, you still need to bring in a serious hedge, someone you’d be happy with starting. To oversimplify it, you basically want 4 good/great games or 4 bad games from Drew to avoid the purgatory of bitter uncertainty at QB.

So if Drew balls out the next 3 games, this was a great result. If Drew’s next game is only average or bad (like 2 TD, 1 Int, 55% completion and he looks average), then this is a bad result and raises the chance of keeping Drew as our most likely option at QB when many, maybe most, can’t feel comfortable not having another serious contender for the job like a first round prospect.

Also, we cannot finish with 7 wins or even 6 and be outside the top 10 picks again. I’m begging the Broncos to get a top 10 pick, top 12 at worst. This consistent mediocrity is a big reason we’re in this position we’re in. Wins, even late, have benefits and help the players, but I believe overall it’s detrimental to the health and success of the franchise and awful for the fans. Just ask Lions fans lol.

In his past three starts, Lock’s QBR has ranked him at #9, #11, and #2 leaguewide. He is also #5 in the league in EPA per play in that stretch. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

Howdy Gents

I’ll keep it short and PG. very happy to see Lock and Shurmur work well together and execute some easy passes. Hopefully they keep it going!

Thanks fir the pod as always!

Hey gents, feels good to check in after one of these types of games!

There was one story that might have flown a little under the radar this week that I wanted to talk with y’all about. I found myself recently thinking about the fact that Phillip Lindsay STILL hasn’t fumbled in his young professional career, which is just remarkable, and it made me wonder what the record is for the most touches without a fumble to start an NFL career.

I checked out Pro Football Reference, and heading into the Panthers game, he had had 584 total touches without a fumble to begin his career. With 13 total touches in yesterday’s game, he is now up to 597 touches without a fumble. Apparently the previous record-holder for this stat was Benjarvus Green-Ellis, who had 589 touches before his first career fumble (https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/09/27/green-ellis-hopes-his-first-career-fumble-was-his-last/).

If I’m looking at all of the correct stats here, that would mean that Phil now holds this pretty amazing record. However, I haven’t seen anyone else talking about this, so I thought it’s possible I’m missing something obvious here. This felt like the kind of stats question that maybe Mase would be able to answer, so I wanted to put it to y’all to see whether I am right. I know Phil has had some down games lately, but he’s still an absolute stud.

Also, just wanted to share what I thought was a great comment from Joe Rowles on Twitter yesterday after the game: “If it wasn’t crystal clear to you after the Broncos almost knocked off Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs last week, it ought to be now. They may need more pieces and some time for all the young players to put it together, but this is a good coaching staff.”

Great article Zac it was everything I was going to comment about with Lock. Next question what’s your thoughts on Muti can he replace Glasgow and save us some cap space

MY BOYS! Happy Victory Monday. What a strange season it has been. Somehow, the Broncos finally take a punt return to the house, only to have their money kicker miss the PAT following the score, who would then go on to miss a second PAT in the game. 2020 gonna 2020. At least Brandon McManus had a great sense of humor about it. While the loss hurt the Broncos’ as far as draft position, it won’t matter if Drew Lock finishes out the season playing the way he did on Sunday. Obviously, I don’t expect him to throw four touchdowns every game, but if he can manage the game like he did on Sunday, there’s no reason why he can’t grow and be the quarterback we all hope he can be. I am just going to try my best to stay levelheaded for the next three games in evaluating Lock. Kudos must be given to Drew, however, for really stepping up in the face of adversity this week. At this point, there is no doubt that Vic Fangio is back next season, correct? I mean, does John Elway really want to pay Fangio the remainder of his head coach salary for him to end up as the defensive coordinator of the Raiders? In the parlance of Kevin McAllister from “Home Alone,” “I don’t think so.” Have a magical Monday. DNVRMY SALUTE!

My guys, can yall just take a moment to talk about what you saw from muti yesterday. Haven’t had a chsnce to rewatch the game.
Also zac, ill be waiting for a 2nd round pick for ertz when your ready 🙂

Sorry for double comment but great call by RK about trying The Pig Tosser out at RT some this season. Try to figure out what the best combo is in real game situations before next season for when Juwuan James inevitably gets dinged up.
And why wouldn’t Risner be up for it? Tackles get paid more than guards in the NFL. Go get that dough.

Happy victory Monday Broncos Country! What a breath of fresh air it was to see a complete game from Drew. For me, what was more than the 4 was seeing Drew play solidly consistently for 4 quarters and taking good care of the football. I don’t expect 4 touchdowns or a Broncos win against Buffalo but I still expect him to be efficient, productive, and take care of the ball, something around 200 yds, 60% completions, a passing TD (maybe a rushing one too) and no INTs is what I’m hoping for.

On a side note, there have been a lot of Josh Allen/Derek Carr comparisons for Drew, but I actually see a lot of Baker Mayfield in the way his career has gone. He steps in during his rookie season, is very productive, gives the team a huge boost with his confidence, and gives the franchise a lot of optimism going into the sophomore season. Then in year two, the team brings in a bunch of weapons and with the expectation of taking a massive jump off n year 2 they ask him to be the plane not the pilot and it proves to be too much to handle and causes a major statistical and on field regression. Then year three they remember he’s till a young quarterback so they lean on the run game, play action, simplified reads and playing the role of the pilot, which results in efficient play, his moxie returning and the development into the qb he was drafted to be.