DENVER — Well, there it went.

The Broncos had it all in front of them. A chance to win three in a row and pull within just one game of first place in the AFC West. A chance to play a Kansas City Chiefs team without so many of their key cogs. A chance to play them without Patrick freaking Mahomes for more than half of the game.

The Broncos had an opportunity to reclaim a once lost season, and they crapped the bed.

No fire. No urgency. No swagger.

They let the Chiefs walk onto the sacred grounds at Mile High and absolutely clown them without even putting up a fight, literally or figuratively. They were bystanders just like you and I.

The Broncos lack fire in the worst way, and it starts with their quarterback, Joe Flacco.

Listen, it’s not his fault really, Joe Flacco just isn’t that guy. He’s Joe Cool, he’s even-keeled, he’s all those things that everybody says about a quarterback who just isn’t a natural leader. His thing can work when he’s 0n a team with vocal leaders and a team that’s winning. In this situation, as he slugs his way up to the line down three scores with the clock ticking in the fourth quarter, it looks pathetic.

And that leads me to the decision in front of the Broncos, one that they simply cannot afford to screw up.

Denver has five players on Injured Reserve that could possibly come back this season, De’Vante Bausby, Jake Butt, Theo Riddick, Tim Patrick and Drew Lock. Of those five, the team can only bring back two.

It is absolutely, positively, imperative that the Broncos make Drew Lock one of those two players. In fact, it would be downright assinine if he wasn’t one of those two players.

At 2-5, thanks to the big fat egg they laid on Thursday night, the Broncos can kiss their playoff hopes goodbye. From here on out, the two most important things that the Broncos need to do is repair their culture, which may include trading away some players, and find out what they have in Drew Lock.

Funny enough, as he sits on IR despite being ready to go, Lock is exactly what this team needs right now. He’s got fire, he’s got swagger, he’s got playmaking ability from under center. Most of all, passing the torch to a young quarterback will also empower the rest of the young players on the team, such as Phillip Lindsay and Dalton Risner, to become leaders on the team.

And guess what? If he comes in and falls flat on his face, well that’s quite alright too, because you’ll then have a draft pick high enough to pursue just about any quarterback not named Tua.

This is the no brainer of all no brainers, yet there is still chatter out there that it’s not a guarantee that the Broncos will make this move, and it didn’t inspire much confidence when Rich Scangarello said, “I feel, in this league, especially if you’re a spread quarterback, the ability to not play early on is everything.”

In fact, the Broncos have already lost a week of possible Drew Lock playing time because they didn’t activate him for practice this week. Because of that, the earliest Lock can play is in Week 11 against the Minnesota Vikings.

If the Broncos are smart, they’ll get him in there as soon as they possibly can, because the countdown to their return simply cannot start ticking until he plays in a game.

Joe Flacco most certainly ain’t it, Drew Lock just might be.

Don’t screw this up.