Drew Lock unquestionably has Rich Scangarello’s “non-negotiable quality”

MOBILE, Ala. — Rich Scangarello, Denver’s new offensive coordinator, has a rich experience grooming young quarterbacks.

Gary Grossart had a record-breaking season at Northern Arizona in 2012 with Scangarello as his offensive coordinator.

Jimmy Garoppolo cemented his place as the highest-paid payer in NFL history — albeit for a brief time — under Scangarello.

Nick Mullens became an overnight success story in large part because of Scangarello.

Now, Scangarello will have a loud say in who he molds into the Broncos’ next signal caller.

And he’s got one non-negotiable quality.

In 2017, when he was Kyle Shanahan’s quarterback coach with the 49ers, Scangarello stated having the guts to attempt big plays down the field was a “non-negotiable quality” for every quarterback on his roster.

It’s non-negotiable Drew Lock, a top quarterback prospect in the 2019 draft, has that quality.

“I think when you have the ability to throw it deep, it’s always fun to show that off,” Lock said with a growing smile at the Senior Bowl. “It’s like having really big muscles, I’de be flexing all day and walking around with my shirt off — that’s why I’m wearing a jacket today, I don’t have those kind of things — being able to flex, so to say, those long passes, yeah that’s been fun to do.”

It only takes one game — heck, even one quarter — of watching Lock to understand he not only has no problem flexing the bad boys, but enjoys airing them out, even if that comes at the cost of his personal stats.

“There’s a stat out there that we threw it past 50 yards more than anyone in the country,” Lock said, defending his sub-par 56.9 career completion percentage.

“So I guess for someone to look me in my eyes and say you should have had a better completion percentage than the people that threw it less than you did farther down the field — I don’t know. I think [it’s] something to do with that.”

Last year, top-quarterback prospect Sam Darnold chose to not throw at the combine, instead saving it for his pro day.

With all due respect to his good friend Darnold, Lock is “almost 100 percent sure” — a lock, if you will — he’ll show off his rocket launcher at both events in order to display the deep ball.

“We’ll hit a slant probably right at the beginning of the pro day, but we’re not going to get boring and make a conventional throw all the time. It’s going to showcase some stuff,” he said with confidence oozing out of his pores. “It’ll be clean and crisp.”

But it’s not just all talk from Lock.

Deshaun Davis, Auburn’s star linebacker and showcased player at the Senior Bowl, played Lock and Missouri in 2017. Auburn’s defense had one priority in the game.

“I knew going into that game that they were going to throw the ball a lot and knew they were going to take shots,” he said, recalling the Sept. 2017 spat like it was yesterday. “I would laugh at my DBs because it was funny because they had a rotation where they would throw a deep ball to one of the fastest guys on the team and he’ll run to the sidelines if it’s incomplete and then they’ll run the fastest guy on the team and throw another deep ball. We joked about that.”

For most secondaries facing Lock that year, there was nothing funny about it as he threw for over 300 yards and three touchdowns per game.

“We knew coming into that game that he was going to have control of the game so what we tried to do was limit big plays, try to make them one-dimensional and try to make them run the ball because [we knew if] they didn’t hit big plays we knew they weren’t comfortable settling for short cheese,” Davis said, perfectly describing Lock’s style of play through food. “So we just tried keeping the top on the coverage.”

The Broncos had to publicly beg Case Keenum to not settle for short cheese multiple times throughout the season last year.

Scangarello made it clear he won’t have a quarterback on his roster if he has to beg them to look deep.

There’s no doubt Drew’s a lock to take the long cheese all day long.

“Drew, he’s a rare talent, man,” Davis said, slowly shaking his head thinking of the quarterback. “He has great arm strength. He can make any throw on the field, no matter the hash. Anytime the ball is in his hands it can spit out anywhere.”