Rich Scangarello and Drew Lock have a very-important project in front of them this offseason

Lamar Jackson.

Patrick Mahomes.

Carson Wentz.

Jared Goff.

What do all of these guys have in common?

All of them played as rookies. All of them were officially deemed “The Guy” by their first offseason. All of them absolutely went off in their sophomore season.

In the case of Jackson and Mahomes, they had MVP seasons in their second year. As for Wentz, he was on his way to an MVP season before tearing his ACL. And Goff made a drastic leap, going from 54 percent completions, five touchdowns and seven interceptions in seven starts to 62 percent completions, 28 touchdowns and seven interceptions in 15 starts. Oh, and Goff also went from 0-7 as a starter to 11-4.

So, what else do they have in common? What, other than being extremely talented players, allowed them all to have so much success in their second year?

Each one of these players had a coaching staff that, once they knew they had their guy, built an offense around the strengths they displayed in their first year.

While we don’t have time to get into exactly what each staff did, Doug Pederson and Wentz were at the forefront of the RPO revolution. Andy Reid, who finally had himself a quarterback with an arm, designed an absurd downfield passing attack for Mahomes. Sean McVay took over with Jared Goff and installed an extremely quarterback friendly system. And the Ravens, behind offensive coordinator Greg Roman, well, invented the Lamar Jackson offense.

Now, this is not to say that you should expect Drew Lock to be the NFL MVP next season, but it is to highlight the incredible opportunity that Rich Scangarello and the Broncos have in front of them.

With a five-game sample, and plenty of practice to go along with it, Scangarello and Co. should have a really good idea of what Drew Lock likes and doesn’t like, what he’s best at and what he struggles with. And, of course, they’ll be consulting with Lock himself on all of this.

The offensive staff now has an entire offseason to design the Lock offense. And while it will, of course, be rooted in the west-coast scheme, Scangarello has shown encouraging signs during Lock’s first five games that he is willing to go out of the box for the betterment of the team, a very important quality that not all coordinators have.

When they do get to work, a few things that I think they key in on is that Lock is very comfortable playing out of the shotgun, especially in the red zone. They’ll like that their pistol looks are a nice happy medium and do a good job of keeping the defense guessing. They’ll see that they could have been more aggressive going downfield. They’ll want to use even more play-action and—among many other things, I’m sure–they’ll see that Lock’s legs can be a weapon, even on the script.

What we know is that if this is done right, Broncos fans will be in for a real treat, and although he has been the target of a lot of criticism this year, I think Scangarello is the right guy for the job. It’s important to keep in mind that his most attractive quality as a candidate was his ability to develop and connect with young quarterbacks. He’s done that, and there’s no question that he is a very bright football mind.

Oh, and let’s not forget that he’ll have Mike Shanahan’s ear when he needs it, all while Lock has John Elway and Peyton Manning on speed dial. Not bad, eh?

Rich Scangarello has just about seven months to put together the offense that could make Drew Lock a superstar.

Ready. Set. Go.