What I saw today from Drew was alarming. No pocket awareness, missing wide open throws by a lot, on almost every bad throw he did not have his feet set. It was bad. Time will tell what we have in Drew but how long does this go on for and IF he continues down this path? How long do you give it before you decide he isn’t the guy? Would you go for a proven vet? What is the solution to this QB void Peyton left us? I hope he proves me wrong because I’m starting to lean in the uh oh direction more than the excited direction. Hope he proves me wrong. Big next 2 games.

Hey guys. RK I loved you tweet about those giving up on Drew. I have not just yet. This game was a missed opportunity for Drew to show he has the tools to compete in this division. It was not a good indicator for the future but that does not mean all hope is lost. As Broncos fans it is too easy to become influenced by one game. Let’s re-group and hope he bounces back against the charges. If Drew has a performance similar to this then it is time to start intensifying the scouting reports on the Qb class coming up. Two final points. How fricking good was the Defence and Can we cut Melvin Gordon already?!

Stay safe

??????? Bronco

I won’t pile on Drew Lock, mostly because I’m not seeing anything that looks out of step with the player I saw in college. For me, this is who he’s been for awhile now.

My angst is with Pat Shurmur. We’re probably going to need to replace yet another OC, which does Lock zero favors going forward. Dude is just brutal.

Missed the game live and had to rewatch it on YouTube to see what all the Lock hate was about and man can he be frustrating to watch. In my eyes, he clearly can be a great quarterback. He makes all these great throws and reads defenses well most of the time, but he will just throw in some real dog shiz plays where he isn’t stepping into the throw and he can’t complete anything down the field. He’s so close…alas, it has only been 8 games. It’s still #inLockwetrust2020 ???

That was awful. Guess we have to put up with poor offense for two years before RK will say anything negatively about it. I like Lock but if you can’t play in snow, can’t play in Denver. Is weather going to be an excuse every year? I’m not saying get rid of him or that I’m done with him. I want him to succeed but come on RK. you can admit he played awful.

hey guys.

i haven’t completely given up on drew but it’s getting harder to believe in him. i think the thing that frustrates me the most is that this broncos team is talented enough to be competitive. how many qbs in the league would kill for skill position players like these? the o-line has been playing better since the ‘bye’ and the defense is good enough to keep the offense in it.

let me preface this by saying that i hope drew works out because things are a lot less complicated and messy if he does….. but if drew continues to struggle into this year and the broncos decide to move on, how would y’all rank these scenarios?

1) pay dak $35-40m year (assuming he hits the market)
2) trade a 2nd round pick for sam darnold
3) draft zach wilson or trey lance with their first round pick (say they’re picking 12th)
4) use significant draft capital to move up for lawrence/fields (at least two 1 future 1’s)
5) trade for a veteran qb- someone like stafford or cousins (?)

Brooooosss….it was a cold one out there so it’s time to open the vent: What did I just watch?!? Chiefs put up 43 points without even converting ONE 3rd down??? Was Pat Shurmur calling nothing but go routes the entire game? We need to get Jerry Juedy running the type of routes that we see in the offseason instead of running go routes the entire time. He is not even getting a chance to do what he does best. Im pretty sure Shurmur called the same play action pass every time we decided to run play action. We have Patrick, Juedy, Hamler, Alex O and Noah and we can’t get any open receivers? Why is Noah and Alex O not used exaactly like Gronk and Aaron Hernandez (minus his hobby of Murdering people)?? What plays are we running?? I won’t even put this game on Drew. Yea he had a few bad passes but he was set up to. We do need to see him make some better plays but today was just a bad game by him. I cannot say the same for others. 2 words come to mind when thinking of Melvin Gordon’s game: Glad and Hefty because he is TRASH. He can’t hit holes, he can’t hold onto the ball, he cannot throw basic flea flickers and he looks slow. But what more should we expect from a trash bag? His game is literally ASS. One more game like this from Melvin and we’ll be having conversations about what toilet paper brands best fit his game. And what happened to “player of the month” Mcmanus? Missing extra points and kicking returnable kickoffs? Just kick it through the endzone!! Our defense actually looked great. Pass rush looks good from Chubb and Reed. Shout out to Malik Reed stepping in for Von this season. I just can’t believe how badly we botched it on offense and special teams. At least next time we play the Chiefs we know to GIVE IT TO PHIL. One last thing before I leave: Why did we cut Bausby??? I know we didn’t need him much this game but he seems to be a playmaker. I just do not get it.

Appreciate ya’ll letting me vent. Forgive me if anything was in bad taste, stay blessed!

Hey, I listened to RK talk about not judging Drew on one game. What Mase is saying though is right, Drew was throwing off of his back foot and trying to run outside the pocket way too often. Was there really a reason for him to try to escape the pocket on most of his throwing plays? He looks uncomfortable just sitting in the pocket and never stepped up.

I just want to see some sustained drives. Right now I feel that I have seen more out of many of the other young QBs in the league over Lock. Is this a Pat Shurmur issue of not building a game plan to get Drew to get into a rhythm and complete some easy schemed throws?

Thanks as always

Man…. 43-8? Really?

Special teams TDs, your offense getting dominated, constant miscues. Absolutely annihilated.

Can’t get anything right.

If you didn’t gather yet, I’m describing super bowl 48.

Take a deep breath everyone, and then take half a bottle of chill pills. Or crush them and do lines. Maybe even for some of you, just shelf them. But for gods sake just calm down.

Melt downs happen. They’re a super young team, with very little experience together. They are not battle tested. They had a big task and the moment was too big for them. It showed. They need to get up and get on with it and get better. If a hall of fame QB and an all time great offense can shit the bed, I sure as hell think the 23 year old second round pick in his 8th start will probably also.

But I will say that I am with Zac on his sentiment RE: the glaring lack of scoring with Drew on the field. That trend needs to start correcting. You can pick a part why things do and don’t happen, but what matters is the points. You need to show evidence that your talent leads to production. Unfortunately; the story that is being written for Drew is that his over confidence and eagerness leads to poor decision making and poor technique. He either isn’t intelligent enough to make the reads and process the information, or he isn’t disciplined enough to play within the terms of probabilities of outcomes on the plays in front of him. He gets to change that – the book is not written yet, but we are starting to get a feel for the plot.

We all hope he is the guy. I think he probably is. But yes, there is reason for doubt to be brewing.

Let’s all just calm the *beep* down while we see where this story goes.

I know alot of people want to also blame Shurmur, but it seemed like we had alot of guys open at times but Lock got stuck on staring down his first read or just trying to bomb it into double coverage. Did you see this aswell? The Defense played well once again, but man I feel so apathetic now knowing its all for nothing and its been the same for years. Not giving up on Lock, but its the same Lock who would light up Vanderbilt then next week look like a high schooler against Florida. Maybe his progression is getting hindered by the fact his brand new qb coach had to have the off season over zoom instead of in person. It just seems like he takes one step forward and then two steps back. I just want to get back to super sundays instead of sad sundays

Hey Gentlemen,

Maybe an unpopular opinion but I think that this blowout felt different than other blowouts. We didn’t get blown-out because our offense was inept (411-286 in yards gained) I understand some yards were during garbage time, and they scored two non-offensive touchdowns, but it is not like we were going 3-and-out every possession. We didn’t get blown out because our defense couldn’t stop anything, we got off the field on third down, we got sacks, and we forced a turnover…

We got blown out because we made terrible mistakes at the worst possible times (am I the only one who thinks that trick plays always work AGAINST the Broncos but go horribly wrong when the Broncos try and run them?) But honestly, I think some of those mistakes are correctable. It might be weird to say but I think we are getting closer… Drew played pretty badly, but he is essentially a rookie QB and that happens to rookie Qb’s a lot. I feel like he was trying way too hard because he wanted it so much.

One quick question; would you trade a first round pick for Michael Thomas if he becomes available?

Thanks for everything you do, stay happy and healthy.

Don’t know about you guys, but I thought in the second half the play calling was better and Lock seemed to make better decisions. They were starting to take what the defense was giving them and making some easy completions to Albert O and Noah Fant. Granted I’m sure that the Chiefs were letting up a little bit but what do you guys think about the second half performance of the team?

I’m really disappointed with Drew Lock’s performance. I mean, did you see all those tackles he missed on Pringle’s run back?

Seriously though the problem Lock has is that the team was struggling against a Super Bowl winning team. He had throws he could make to keep a drive going but he tried too hard and went down the field. His aggression is good to a point but it needs to be tempered.

I see a quarterback who’s got the tools, and the mindset. He’s very confident in himself, but what he lacks is confidence in his team. He needs reliable receivers. He needs his overpaid running back to not fumble. He needs reps in the same system under the same coach for more than a handful of games.

When the rest of the team starts showing up to play a game, I suspect Lock is going to look damn good. As long as it’s dropped passes, fumbles, and the least special teams in the NFL, Lock is going to feel he has to play hero. At least we finally have a quarterback that wants to be a hero!

Oh yeah and Lindsay is a god. Pay the man!

Everyone seems to be piling on Drew so I will start my own pile with the new Mile High whipping boy, Melvin Gordon.

3 fumbles in 5 games? I’m sorry but this isnt a RB by committee with 2 RB1’s. Melvin is officially RB2 and should be treated as such if Phil is healthy.

Lindsay is so much more dynamic and dangerous and everytime he is on the field the team looks much better. He can also hold onto the freaking ball. He should be seeing the majority of carries from here on out. I am over the Melvin Gordon experiment. Take that 8 million and give it to Lindsay early next year before it’s too late.

I was going to talk about armadillos and my main issue with them, but instead I’ll ask you folks why our special teams has fallen into disrepair for so long.

Fans are going to want to give Drew less time and have an answer sooner in part because we’ve had 5 years of an awful QB grab bag and the team HAS to figure that out soon to avoid the worst case scenario – languishing as the worst (or second worst team) in the division with the worst QB for who knows how many years.

It may not be fair, but you’re in a division with Mahomes and Herbert. You NEED good results sooner. When young QBs have a bad game, like with Drew, people say “it’s only 8 games, he could get better” and they’re right to expect that he could improve and become much better. But when we look at a QB like Herbert, it’s fair to say “it’s only 4 games, he could get better”. Herbert, who is already threatening to give us one of the best rookie QB performances in history, can also get much better than he is right now. If Drew Lock improves and gets better to the point that he’s like a Matt Ryan type or improves to what we’re hoping he could be, Herbert improving a comparable amount would make Herbert what? A couple steps below Mahomes? A top 5 QB once Brady and Brees leave the league? Lock needs to start growing and passing a QB like Herbert in terms of progress or we may have lost the QB battle to 2 teams in our division for 14 years or more. Drew brought us a little closer to that being a reality on Sunday and that’s what worries fans.

Fellas,
Had a major PTSD moment during this game. Colts at Pats 2001 and many other Peyton Manning in NE cold weather games. Lock looked listless at times yesterday and his two worst games are against the chiefs in the snow which I believe is completely understandable. The chiefs might just be Drews kryptonite like the Pats were Peyton’s. And that didn’t stop him from succeeding. I’m not nearly as concerned with how Drew does against chiefs as I am with how he does against the Chargers. You don’t have to be top dog right now but you CAN NOT be bottom.
What is the best matchup you would exploit this week between the Denver Offense and the Chargers Defense?

Don’t read aloud: I am placing this comment in both of the last two pods because I’m not sure which ones are going to be covered today. Thanks.

Start:

I share all the concerns of Broncos Country about Lock and the poor performance against Kansas City. But through my sorrow I am searching for a way to be a better fan by striving to learn how to pronounce Okwuegbunam.

I transcribed the exchange from the broadcast yesterday when he caught a pass for 5 yards on 2nd and 9 at 6:43 left in the 2nd quarter. Kevin Harlan seemed to be responding to the criticism that it got mispronounced last week.

Harlan (after the completion): And this is Lock’s college teammate, Oak-weg-BOO-num out of the University of Missouri…
Jay Feely: I know you were surprised last week when Lock continued to throw to O-KWAY-boo-num…
Harlan: A lot of letters, a lot of vowels, that’s the way he wants it said…

That made me think initially that its been being said wrong on this pod all this time but then it came up on the post game pod. I’m mystified!

One other really quick note, somebody said something last week about declaring a favorite host in the past. You guys are all great and I followed Mase over here from the Broncos, but I am on team Zac.

Thanks for the awesome coverage,

BroncosOnly

I agree with Rk and I understand his sentiment’s but at this point we need insurance I can forgive you missed this throw or accuracy issues I can forgive that but ….. Drew you gave your team no opportunity to win at all ….. There were times …… That Noa fant was so open running drag routes looking drew in his eyes and drew didn’t make the read the deep accuracy was…..terrible …. Why draft Jerry jeudy you can’t tell me jeudy wasn’t open their secondary isn’t that good outside of thornhill and tyrann…… Drew was first read Tim patrick all game !!!!! All game !!! And ignored the stuff they were giving him …… Or making horrible throws after which …… If drew can play a lot better as to said do it against good teams not against bad competition drew ….you gave your team NO CHANCE TO WIN and I don’t know where to start or begin because if Drew’s not the answer in my opinion John Elway is not the answer because he can’t find a qb and I know he likes herbert but hey he’s not on this team you have to hit on a qb and it’s been 5 years and now we’re trying to figure it out yet again ……… I’m standing firm on that if drew does not work out it’s time for Elway to go …… Lastly ….I hate that I have been fighting for Phillip Lindsay since March of free agency that I’ve been pounding the table for him and I’m just a fan and John Elway couldn’t see through 4 years of playing Melvin Gordon what I have seen ! It pisses me off we wasted that money and it pisses me off phil gotta fight for what he deserves ! Melvin needs to be royce freeman and when he gets suspended get the hell out of this contract and let’s move on give levante bellamy a shot out there like I’m so.done with Melvin gordon DONE !!!!! How the heck phil got hurt in the 2nd quarter and finished the game with more.yards then you MELVIN SMH …… I’m hurt but I’m not done with drew I want to see how he bounces back and how.he plays against the chiefs later I’m the season I’m tempering expectations.but I expect to see a different drew in that game …and that’s when I’ll know from now to that game if Drew’s the guy but for right now I don’t know where to begin or to restart this sucks ?

Can we say that we got Lock’s worst game out of the way now?
Have we now seen his bottom?

He still has the remainder of this season. At this point, he needs to move as far away from this game as possible and do it consistently to avoid doubts come week 17 and heading into next season.

From the moment he stepped on the field, he just didn’t seem comfortable. Reiterating everything that Mase had touched on, he totally was trying to play hero ball and force the big plays that weren’t even close to being there.

It almost seemed like he got a little tunnel vision heading into that game and had made a conscious decision to throw deep and make big plays happen preventing him from seeing all of the other open receivers or much easier completions underneath.

I wonder what sort of direction Pat is giving him? This is a huge learning opportunity for Drew, and I am sure he will take advantage of it.

Is there another QB that had an outlier horrid game within their first 10 starts but went on to have a successful career?

Gotta say my stomach is still hurting after that one as it was tough to watch after the first 10 minutes.

All hope is not lost though.
Lets get them bolts

Hi guys, I’m back, and just signed up for a new annual subscription earlier today… however you may regret that because I’m coming here to voice my frustration with yesterday’s game and in particular Melvin Gordon!
I was telling friends and family watching the game it was a good thing I was not a Broncos coach yesterday because I would have sent him home immediately following that flea flicker play. Have been watching NFL football loving my Broncos since the ’97 Superbowl and have not ever seen that level of ineptitude! $18M for this crap! It’s completely inexcuseable, and worse that the butt fumble. So I have a simple solution, trade Gordon to the Jets today, ASAP, because that’s what his play deserves.
Hated the signing from the start. Main reason being he held out for the first qtr of the season last year and still ended the season with 4 fumbles. He’s still sticking to that average, but deciding to give the ball away the the biggest games at the worst possible moments. Was willing to give him a chance, but it’s over now, time to get him out of town, he can’t run, lacks any kind of vision, and worst of all can’t hold onto the football. I can’t wait till he’s gone: worst signing of the offseason.

But happy to be a new long distance member of the DNVR community in Wichita KS.
Hope everyone has a blessed day!

Howdy,
Not gonna lie when drew took that slide I thought he had broken his ankle or knee or something I was so pissed I threw my hat across the room and was cussing up a storm. Luckily I was called back to work right after that so I missed the rest of the game and looking at the score I don’t think I’ll go finish it. Sorry boys rant over.✌

MY BOYS! Thank you, RK and Mase, for being reasonable in your evaluation and critique of yesterday’s game and Drew Lock. I love the Denver Broncos and bonding with fans, but for a couple of decades now, which has only been exacerbated by the proliferation of the Internet and social media, I have found too many of them becoming more and more insufferable, unfortunately. IMHO, we don’t need more wholesale changes yet. This is what rebuilding looks like, particularly against an elite team that can still play dominant football, even when its high powered offense is contained. As is easy to forget during the heat of the moment in games, this incredibly young team had no OTAs and a cram session training camp. It has battled an inordinate amount of injuries. That being said, do you think that it is time to relieve Tom McMahon of his duties, at the very least, after the season, absent marked improvement from his coverage units? Keep your chin up, DNVRMY.

Hey guys,

The defense is doing really well right now. I hope this trend continues and is something we can hang slim hopes on. Unfortunately the offense can’t keep up to help us win more games and there are many reasons each week. First our receivers can’t catch, then we can’t finish a drive in the redzone, Melvin can’t hold onto the ball and now Drew is losing my faith (slightly, but still losing some). At this point what would be the cap loss on cutting Melvin right now because I’m all for it. Turnovers kill drives and he had two costly ones yesterday. As for Drew, he missed some open throws yesterday, had the terrible pick six and seems to be progressing very slowly or not at all when he drops back. I think if these things don’t get fixed by the end of the season then John may look for a new project at qb. I hope Drew does as he is still young and only played a handful of games but the people in power often don’t wait long for these fixes to happen.

1st question is for Zac: you didn’t buy books at the book fair? Does Captain Underpants mean nothing to you?

Good morning, it’s Onion Booty. Here are this week’s Onion Booty Observations…

– If there’s one thing Pat Shurmer is good at, it’s disrupting a good drive. Giants fans warned me of his incompetence, but the Booty didn’t listen. SMB—shaking my buns.

– Denver has serious little brother syndrome against Kansas City. They seem to bring out the worst in us.

– Desean Hamilton caught footballs.

– Phillip Lindsay is far and away superior to Melvin Gordon.

– Drew Luck is proving the haters right. Yet we have a lot of season left. Can’t afford him not to be “the guy.”

– Lock supporters are lucky he didn’t play against the Steelers and Buccaneers, otherwise he’d have two more loses on the resume.

– It’ll be fascinating to see how Drew handles real on field, career questioning adversity. I have no doubt he’ll handle it with class, but when will his play catch up to his intangibles?

– Fun fact, the Broncos will go a month without scoring a receiving touchdown. That is, if they do score one next Sunday.

– Anyone happen to tweet the hang time of each of Sam Martin’s punts? (Mase is the Adam Schefter of in-game hang time reporting.)

– When does the line of DNVR tear buckets drop?

With love and other broken hearts,

Onion Booty

Ugh. Flea flicker against the Griefs. Really. Smh. I used to call them the griefs because the few fans they had in my circle hated it, now because if you play them they give you grief and you watch saying good grief what do we do now. Defense looks like it is trying but special teams and the offense are dying out there. I like Drew. Drew needs to relax and learn to take what they are giving him though. Forced it a few too many times for my liking. My birthday is this Wednesday but I am not getting my birthday wish. Oh well there is always next week. A win against the Chargers will have to do. Time to go drink a Christmas Ale and relax a little.

I’m choosing to remain cautiously optimistic about Lock’s ability to become a legit NFL QB, but I’m getting cautiouser and cautiouser.

On the flea-flicker, I thought it was a good play call, especially during a sequence where the Broncos were successful running the ball. It’s high risk/high reward and exploits a defense keying on the run. Just because it backfired craptacularly doesn’t make it a any worse of a decision than running the first play of Super Bowl XLVIII from the shotgun.

I agree with your assessment of Lock 100% Mase. I even made the Brock comparison myself.

How fixable are the problems you discussed? My main concern is the one you stated… is he not getting better and is this just who he is? How many games do you need to make that decision? I’m not saying he’s NOT the guy, but I’m very concerned. Give him the rest of the season and then make a decision for the future

Just a reminder for everybody upset with Drew:

In the past two seasons, the Broncos are 4-10 without Drew Lock.

They are 5-3 when Drew Lock plays full games.

They’re also 5-0 with Drew against opponents that did not play in a conference championship last year. I get that he played the worst game of his career this week, but its undeniable that he considerably raises the level of this football team. The Drew Lock version of this team is far better than the non-Drew Lock version. So let’s give the guy some patience and time to grow. Remember, he’s only played 8 full games, only 3 with his current offensive coordinator, and he’s missing his number one receiving option. Give it time, folks. This team is still on an upward trajectory.