Drew Lock doesn’t have any broken ribs, and for the him and the Broncos, that will elicit sighs of relief.
But that doesn’t mean he should play Sunday against the Miami Dolphins. Not if he runs the risk of exacerbating the rib-muscle strain that he suffered in Sunday’s loss to the Las Vegas Raiders.
At this moment, Lock is “day-to-day.” His availability for Wednesday’s practice at UCHealth Training Center is considered to be “questionable,” as Vic Fangio noted during a Zoom conference with Denver-area media Monday.
But Fangio also indicated that the advantage of an unconstrained week of preparation would “definitely enter into the equation” of the decision to play him in Week 11.
“We definitely want Drew to have a good week of preparation, so he’s ready to play the game,” Fangio said. “That could enter into the equation as we go through the week.”
Everything specific to Sunday’s game is a micro consideration for the Broncos. The far more vital issues are in the macro of Lock’s development and the need to give him as many repetitions as possible in the next seven games.
As Fangio noted, sitting and watching does Lock no favors.
“I just think he’s at the point now where he’s watched a lot. Last year he was out 10 weeks, 11 weeks, and did a good bit of watching then,” the second-year head coach said Monday. “[He] got to finish the season last year, he missed three games this year, got to do a lot of watching then.
“I think he’s at the point where he’s got to play to get through this little funk that our entire team is going through — not just offense — and for him to improve and for him to grow.”
Every word of that is true. Lock doesn’t improve from the bench, and the Broncos do not get a better grasp on his potential by having him sit there.
But they must ask themselves this question: If he plays Sunday and aggravates the strain, how much time could he miss?
If day-to-day becomes week-to-week, then the Broncos run the risk of losing Lock for a time frame that would ensure that they don’t even have a full 16 games of sample size on which to evaluate him from last December through Week 17 of this campaign.
Should Lock be able to play without risk of making his injury worse, he should start.
But if it’s a question of one game while recovering from an injury against the potential of playing six games to close the season at full health, the Broncos need to choose the greater sample size.
