ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Josh Henson (2015), Josh Heupel (2016-17), Derek Dooley (2018), Rich Scangarello (2019) and Pat Shurmur (2020).
Those are the five different offensive coordinators Drew Lock has had in the past six seasons. Throw in his senior season of high school and Lock has had six different offensive coordinators in the past seven years.
Since 2014, only once has the 24-year-old quarterback had the same offensive coordinator for two years in a row.
He doesn’t want that streak to continue in 2021.
On Wednesday, Lock stated it would be “awesome” to have his current offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur and quarterback coach Mike Shula back next year.
“It’ll be my first comforting feeling since my sophomore year of college to be able to have Josh Heupel back to back years,” Lock stated, thinking back to 2017. “He’s one of the more inspirational guys to me in my football career and it’s probably because I ended up having him more than one year in my life.”
Heupel’s inspiration certainly translated on the field for Lock. As a junior, in his second-consecutive year working with Heupel’s offense at Missouri, Lock had the best year of his football career as he tossed 44 touchdowns to only 13 interceptions and nearly topped 4,000 yards through the air.
Continuity with the offensive scheme worked well for Drew.
“It’s nice to have somebody that you’re familiar with, that you feel like you have continuity with, and that you know he knows you and you know in your heart that you know him as a play-caller,” Lock said, expanding on why it would be “awesome” to have Shurmur back another year. “You know how they’re going to coach. You know what they expect, and it’ll just make me feel comfortable.”
The Broncos themselves could use some continuity at the offensive coordinator position as well.
Since 2016, the year after Denver won Super Bowl 50, the Broncos have had five different coordinators in the past five years, including two in 2017. Going back even further, since 2012, Denver has had seven different offensive coordinators in those nine seasons.
“I think it’ll make everybody feel comfortable, not only myself,” Lock said about having Shurmur back in 2021. “It’s obviously important for the quarterback to feel comfortable, but as a quarterback you want everyone else around you to feel comfortable and I feel like having the same play-caller in this organization for more than one year would be huge for us.”
“Huge for us.” Another endorsement for Shurmur from his young signal-caller.
If the Broncos moved on from Shurmur after the season, their streak of a new offensive coordinator every year would extend to six years. But that doesn’t appear to be in the plans.
“There’s no doubt about it that continuity, especially as it relates to a quarterback, can have a tremendous positive effect,” Vic Fangio stated on Wednesday about how a consistent offensive system can benefit a quarterback. “You see it all around the league with a lot of the successful quarterbacks both young and older.”
“I mean, Drew Brees has been with New Orleans for forever it seems, Tom Brady’s run at New England, Peyton’s [Manning] run at the Colts, this is [Patrick] Mahomes’ fourth year with the Chiefs,” Fangio continued, citing examples. “You just see it time and time again where the continuity ends up paying off and players develop better—particularly the quarterback—and hopefully we’ll be able to get that done with Drew here.”
Look no further than the Broncos’ next opponent to find another example. In Josh Allen’s three years in the NFL, he has gotten better every single year. As a rookie, the former first-round pick threw 10 touchdowns to 12 interceptions on a 52.8 completion percentage. In 2020, as a third-year quarterback, he’s tossed 28 touchdowns to only nine interceptions with a 68.6 completion percentage.
For all three years, Allen’s had one offensive coordinator—Brian Daboll.
“I feel like it’s patience with him,” Lock said about Allen’s improved play over his career. “Obviously, he struggled a little bit when he got into the league as far as completion percentage goes but he figured it out. He learned, kept growing, kept realizing what looks he wanted for certain plays, and now he has the experience.
“He’s played in it, he’s struggled in it, and when you struggle in it you end up learning, you end up thriving. That’s why he’s playing extremely good ball right now,” Lock continued. “It’s football that I want to end up eventually getting to and playing like. There was a little sign of it last week, but it’s all about making progress, keep making small steps forward.”
On Sunday, Lock took a big step forward as he tossed four touchdowns to no interceptions for a 149.5 passer rating against the Panthers. Lock hopes to continue that progress with Shurmur as his offensive coordinator not only this Saturday against the Bills but in 2021 as well.
