A look at John Elway's plan for Drew Lock to be the future of the Broncos

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — John Elway didn’t even consider drafting a quarterback in the first round on Thursday night.

Not when the team was sitting at pick No. 10 with Dwayne Haskins and Drew Lock on the board or at No. 20 when Lock was staring at them in the face.

“I said that yesterday? Oh. It changed overnight,” Elway said on Friday night with a big smile, followed by just as big of a chuckle.

“I didn’t totally lie,” he responded, after being reminded he only said that in regards to when he was on the clock with the No. 10 and No. 20 overall pick. “Okay, good.”

But stuff happened. And things changed.

The moment it all flipped was when the clock struck zero on the first round on Thursday night.

“Once the day is over, you start looking at it and looking at different opportunities before we left. It was late when we left,” Elway said, detailing the late-night change of plans. “Getting back in today, we started talking about different options and we kind of talked it through and thought that was our gameplay for today, and we’d do everything we could to make it happen. We were able to get that done.”

“And we’d do everything we could to make it happen.”

Elway “targeted” Lock.

Elway “really wanted” Lock.

“We were thrilled that [he] was still there,” Elway said, not holding anything back with his excitement for his new signal caller.

Drew was the Broncos’ No. 1 quarterback on the board.

“When he kept falling, we just kept an eye on it,” Elway said, taking the world through his night. “Then when he got into the second round, and where we were today, we thought that it was important for us with the extra ammo that we were able to pick up yesterday from Pittsburgh. It allowed us to move around a little bit and move up.”

With the No. 52 pick as ammunition, after just snagging offensive lineman Dalton Risner at No. 41, Elway pulled the trigger to jump up 10 spots to Lock up Drew.

The reason Elway believed that was the right call was because of two teams in that window he believed would take Lock: The Dolphins and, of course, the Raiders.

After the first round, Elway admitted the team didn’t have any first-round graded players left on their board. When pressed if he was “sandbagging” a little bit, Elway laughed and responded, “Let’s put it this way, we were very happy with all of the picks we got today. We feel like they are all very good football players and they’ll be able to help us.”

Regardless of the grade, the talent on the 6-foot-4, 228-pound gunslinger is undeniable.

“Drew has obviously got a lot of talent,” Elway said, evaluating his quarterback. “He’s got a lot of arm talent.”

“A future guy that we believe will hopefully be the future for the Broncos down the line—we felt we had to take advantage of that.”

The future.

Not the now. At least as of now.

“The bottom line is, he’s coming to compete as a backup. Joe’s the starter. When we look at it, we’re hoping that Drew is the future. Joe’s the starter and going to be the starter,” Elway emphasized multiple times on the night, making sure he made it perfectly clear that Joe Flacco’s the starting quarterback.

“We tend to look at it as the Brett Favre-Aaron Rodgers type situation. He’s going to have time to sit and watch Joe and take his time and learn and continue to get better. We feel we’re in a good situation there. Plus, we had guys compete for backup positions and he’ll be thrown in that bunch.”

Favre-Rodgers worked out nicely.

Alex Smith-Patrick Mahomes, anyone? That didn’t work out too shabby, either.

After Smith had a career year with the ultra-talented Mahomes on the bench, they flipped him for a second-round pick.

Then, Mahomes took the league by storm, throwing for 50 touchdowns on his way to being named MVP in his first year as a starter.

Much like both of those situations, there was no pressure or expectations for the young gunslinger, since there was no competition from the get-go.

“I’m hoping that it allows us to let him grow. The expectation is not as high as it would be with a top-10 pick. That’s what he needs,” Elway said, again tempering the initial expectations for the quarterback who will certainly steal the hearts of Broncos Country.

“He’s going to need that time and the patience and continue to work with it. He’s going to be able to watch Joe and how Joe works, and Joe has done it at a very high level for a very long time. He’s got a great guy to follow, watch, learn and see how it’s done.”

Although Lock was a four-year starter, and a captain for the final three years of his collegiate career, he’s been knocked for his accuracy and coming from a spread system.

“With what we’re going to do offensively, he’s going to have a lot of work to do,” Elway said, explaining why he needs time.

“I think technique is always a big thing. We talk about accuracy, accuracy a lot of times comes down to technique and throwing on rhythm. We believe he’s got a ton of talent, but we also believe that he’s got a lot to work on. But it’s nice to be able to have coaches work with his stable of abilities that he does have that I think Rich [Scangarello] is excited to work with.”

As for the starter, Joe, Elway hadn’t got around to calling him as of Friday night.

“We haven’t had a chance,” Elway stated. “We meant to talk to him today, but then we got going again.”

Since Peyton Manning hung ‘em up after the miraculous 2018 Super Bowl season, the Broncos’ quarterback position has been interesting for all of the wrong reasons.

Now, for the first time, there are two reasons for hope.

“We’re excited to have him because he does a nice job. He wants to be good. He is a competitor,” Elway said, complimenting his second-round quarterback. “The great thing too is that he knows the situation here and that is that Joe is the starter and he’s got a great opportunity to sit behind him and watch the guy and learn and get better.”

Joe’s the starter. For now.

Drew’s the future.