ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Drew Lock didn’t cut it on Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs. There’s no other way around it.
But the Denver Broncos’ issues in the passing game are much bigger than just their second-year quarterback.
“I think as a team we just need to fix our entire passing game,” Vic Fangio said on Monday, extending blame far past Lock. “We just haven’t thrown it very efficiently the last two weeks. That’s an 11-man operation, that’s us as coaches—we’re all in it together and we have to go to work on that. It has to improve, no doubt about it.”
In nearly every major statistical category, the Broncos’ passing attack is among the worst in the league. Pat Shurmur’s offense has the second-worst completion percentage (57.8), the fourth-fewest touchdowns through the air (6), the second-most interceptions (10), the seventh-fewest passing yards per game (209.2) and the third-worst passer rating (68.1).
A few of the teams that the Broncos share similar rankings in the passing game include the New York Jets and New York Giants — not exactly ideal company for Shurmur’s squad to be surrounded by.
“As the quarterback, [Lock’s] the main focus as always, but I think we all need to keep in mind that it is an 11-man operation and us as coaches are involved too,” Fangio continued. “We have to make improvements there, there are no two ways about that.”
Of course, the issues are bigger than Lock as he has only played in 51.7 percent of the team’s offensive snaps this season due to missing nearly three games to a bad bruise on his throwing shoulder.
When Drew has played, it hasn’t all been his fault either.
Against the New England Patriots in Week 6, the Broncos’ receiving weapons consistently let Lock down in the first three quarters. There wasn’t just one potential touchdown pass that bounced off a receiver — there were four.
However, from the fourth quarter against the Patriots through Sunday’s game against the Chiefs, Lock struggled mightily. In those five quarters, Lock went 25-of-45 for 262 yards with no passing touchdowns and four interceptions.
“He might be pressing. I don’t know, you’d have to ask him. I’m sure he is to a certain degree,” Fangio said on Monday after Lock admitted on Sunday night that he was, in fact, pressing. ” When things don’t go well, you press, particularly when you’re a young quarterback and you don’t have a lot of reps to fall back on how to get through some negative plays or a stretch in the game where it’s not going good in the passing game. So, he probably is, but that’s probably natural too.”
With Lock pressing — i.e. trying to carry more than his share of the load — he often ditches his third and fourth reads, an aspect he admitted to after the loss to the Chiefs, in an effort to make a bigger play.
“I think many times his first look in there — I think his natural reaction sometimes is to flush out of the pocket. Sometimes he needs to stay with the progression of going to two or three a little more than he has possibly,” Fangio stated. “The only thing we’re doing to try and correct that is continuing to work on it in practice. He does a better job in practice for the most part but obviously, games are different than practice. That’s an area that he can improve on.”
Among the 32-qualified starting quarterbacks in the NFL, Lock has the worst passer rating (63.3), the worst completion percent (55.9) and the second-worst QBR (30.9). Despite that, however, Drew’s not going anywhere.
“He’s got to get through these games. The only way he’s going to improve is to play, there’s no other way to improve,” Fangio stated firmly. “Like I said earlier, it’s an 11-man operation as far as the players go. We as coaches are involved with that. We have to do our job better, but Drew is going to have to play better and eliminate the negative plays. We need to complete some more balls, obviously. The only way you do all of that is to play.”
There’s plenty of blame to go around for the Broncos’ struggles in the passing game. But don’t just point the finger at Drew Lock.
