ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Is Drew Lock the guy?
That’s been the million-dollar question over the past year. With two games left in Lock’s second season in the NFL, it remains the biggest question in Broncos Country.
“The quarterback is the most important position on the field. You know, everyone wants to talk about it. Everyone thinks they can play it better than what they are seeing on the TV. So it’s an easy position for people to talk about and gossip about. It is what it is when you play this position,” Lock stated on Wednesday about the most popular topic when it comes to the Broncos.
“I’m looking forward to going out and making another claim this weekend that I should be the guy here and keep trying to win these last two and then just show what I can do,” the 24-year old continued. “The decision is the decision.”
Well, Drew, are you the Broncos’ quarterback of the future?
“I do believe I am the guy here,” Lock stated. “With progressing over time with this offense, if we get another year in the same offense, the sky’s the limit for us as a young team. We learned a lot this year and we’re going to keep learning and keep making plays and hopefully win these last two and look forward to going into the next season.”
In his first 16 starts in the NFL, the former second-round pick has certainly shown flashes of being the guy for the Broncos.
In Week 14 of the 2019 season, Lock tossed three touchdowns and 309 yards to go along with a 136 passer rating. A year later, in Week 14 of the 2020 season, the 6-foot-4, 228-pound quarterback topped that performance as he dropped four touchdowns and a 149.5 passer rating.
“He makes a lot of good plays,” Vic Fangio said on Wednesday, on what gives him confidence about Lock moving forward. “Good throws, makes good plays with his feet, he’s athletic, can avoid the pressure, can scramble and make plays. We just need to see more of it, keep improving in all of the little things that Drew can improve on. Nobody works harder than him to do that. He has a great want-to and a great drive to be a great quarterback. And we just hope to see constant improvement from him.”
Lock’s ceiling in a single game isn’t in question. He’s proven how high it can be. But his ability to be consistent with those types of performances has still yet to be seen. That’s why on Wednesday Lock stated stacking good games in a row would be “huge” in his progression as an NFL quarterback.
“Just to be able to—here’s a win, here’s a win, here’s a good game, here’s a good game, here’s a good game in a row and that’s the kind of rhythm that you want to get into during a season,” Lock said.
In his first 16 starts, Lock has 21 passing touchdowns, 16 interceptions, 3,350 passing yards, 59.7 completion percentage and a 79.8 passer rating.
“One of the best things about my game, and it ends up sometimes getting me, but one of the best things is being able to turn a bad play into a good one,” Lock stated. “Being able to extend drives with my feet and making some throws that I wouldn’t say that maybe the average person can make, but sometimes when I try to make those throws my timing, and maybe in the moment to try and make that throw wouldn’t be the best.”
“I’m figuring out how to be able to balance both of those to be able to help us extend drives,” Lock said about what he’s trying to improve on to prove to the Broncos he should be their quarterback in 2021. “Make the plays that I know I can make to help us keep moving the ball forward, but it’s about knowing the timing, when to do it and really realizing if that play is actually there. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been getting more comfortable with this offense and being able to make plays that in earlier weeks I wouldn’t have made.”
To Lock’s point, over the past two games, he hasn’t thrown an interception. In Week 16 and Week 17 of his rookie year, Lock didn’t throw a pick. He also didn’t in Week 1 and Week 2 this season, although he didn’t even play a full quarter in Week 2 due to an injury. Outside of those six games, however, he’s had at least one interception in the rest of his 10 starts.
While Lock knows he needs to limit his mistakes—as John Elway, Vic Fangio and Pat Shurmur have preached—he believes the best way he can show the organization that he should be their quarterback of the future is to just win.
“The biggest thing in this league is winning games. It’s going to be about me going out there and my play representing winning play from a quarterback,” Lock stated confidently. “The ball’s in my hands every single snap. It’s about me taking care of it and helping us move that ball down the field to be able to score points and win a game. In my mind, that’s all I want to do. I want to win these last two and whatever it takes—whether that’s me handing the ball off 50 times or that’s me throwing the ball 50 times. Whatever it’s going to take for us to win this game, it’s my job to play my best football and help us go do that.”
After rattling off a 4-1 record to close out the 2019 season, Lock has gone 4-7 as a starter in 2020 to bring his record to an even 8-8. On Wednesday, Lock attributed some of the offensive struggles in 2020, including his own, to the virtual offseason and lack of preseason games.
“We all wish we had more reps at the beginning. We all wish we had the preseason to be able to go out on the field against another team and kind of get this thing rolling a little bit,” Lock stated. “We do realize that some of the mistakes and growing pains had to come in actual games this year. It’s an understanding it is what it is, but like Justin [Simmons] said, there are no excuses. It was about us learning from those mistakes and trying to not make them down the road. I think the mistakes have limited themselves as the year has gone on as we’ve gotten more familiar with our offense and our identity as an offense.”
Because of that, Lock believes a more normal offseason in 2021 would help take him, his offense and his starting record to new heights.
“It would mean everything for us, including myself,” Lock stated about having a normal offseason next year. “Not only would you get to do Phase 1 and Phase 2 and meet with the coaches and talk over the offensive plan again, rehash some of the things that we might have had to skip over at the beginning of this year just to be able to get into bigger picture things to be able to go out and run an offense and put an offense on the field… That would be huge for this team and huge for everybody on this offense.”
In Lock’s first seven starts this year, he threw seven touchdowns, 10 interceptions, 214 yards per game on 55 percent completion and a 66.5 passer rating.
In the previous four games, however, Lock has shown signs of hope as he’s thrown seven touchdowns, three interceptions, 209 yards per game on 63 percent completion and a 93.7 passer rating.
“Truthfully, in my mind, I feel like [the offense] can keep skyrocketing and go somewhere where the people that we’ve talked about—the future and whatnot—can enjoy watching us,” Lock stated. “They can enjoy watching us play, score a lot of points and win a lot of games.”
In the final two games of this season, Lock can help continue to build his case on the field as to why John Elway should roll with him as the guy at quarterback for the Denver Broncos moving forward.
