“Drew's my boy!”: Meet the Broncos' new bromance

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Call ‘em 41 and 42.

For all intents and purposes, Dalton Risner and Drew Lock are the presidents of the Broncos’ 2019 draft class.

Much like the fraternity of the United States Presidents, especially back-to-back ones, the Broncos’ 2019 41 and 42’ will be tied at the hip for eternity.

And they wouldn’t want it any other way.

“Drew’s my boy,” Risner said, talking about his new quarterback.

“I’ve been knowing Drew… It’s not like I just met [him]. He was my quarterback at the Senior Bowl, and by far out of all the quarterbacks there, Drew knew how to control the huddle. He knows how to come in and have confidence and give offensive linemen confidence. He just knows what he is doing.

“When I saw that Drew was coming, I was extremely excited. I also trained out in California with him. I’ve seen Drew around a lot, and I think he’s going to do a really good job.”

Unlike many back-to-back Presidents of the United States, Risner and Lock are on the same team, wearing the same colors and singing each other’s praise from the top of Lookout Mountain.

“What did I learn about the big man over there?” Lock asked, looking over at his future bodyguard, who was also his teammate at the Senior Bowl. “Dalton is a fiery human being. I said that word yesterday on the phone with [Mr.] Elway, which is why I think we’re all going to work out so well. Getting into a huddle with him, really intense, looking at you in your eyes, he’s ready to go.”

But besides the natural mutual admiration for each other, as would be expected for new teammates during their first full day on the job, the similarities are striking—as if they were cut from the same cloth, or perhaps drafted back-to-back.

Both were full-time starters for three years in college.

Both were three-time captains in college.

Both have spent their entire lives in the Colorado-Kansas-Missouri corridor.

And they both have the ideal blue-collar personalities Colorado embraces.

“These are my work boots right here. I’m coming to work today. These are the boots I’m going to be wearing to this complex because I’m showing up here for work,” ‘The Big Man’ said, when someone pointed to the massive pieces of leather draping his feet. “This isn’t vacation. This is work, man. That’s why I wore the work boots.”

Risner’s beat-up, field-worn cowboy boots he was rocking under the pristine grey suit are the same ones he wears out to the corral when he feeds the livestock in Wiggins, Colo., some 82 miles from the UCHealth Training Center.

As the media examined the pieces of art on his feet, he did the same to the media to them, ad comically commented, “I’m not going to show up here with these pretty things. Those things are nice, I like them, but I’m probably not going to show up in something like that. That’s fine, man!”

“That’s just kind of who I am.”

As a second-round pick, Risner certainly could have stopped by Sheplers just off I-25 to snag himself a fresh, clean pair of boots on his way down to his first day on the job. But that’s not his style.

“I don’t know if you can notice, but you can see the creases. You can see the dirt. I’ve worn these suckers for three to four years now,” he said, proudly showing the scuffs and brown residue.

“I don’t know if it’s because I want to get them worn out or if getting size 18 boots are pretty hard to find. Got to go kill a whole cow to get all that leather made. I’ve been having these suckers for a while.”

While not a true cowboy himself, and rocking a pair of dress shoes his new teammate Dalton would scoff at, Drew is also meant to be landlocked.

“Bigger cities on the coast—the New York’s and the Boston’s—he would have flourished there, but I don’t necessarily know he would have been as good of a fit in New York as he is in a Denver, or a Kansas City or a Nashville or Minneapolis,” Lock’s father, Andy, said on Saturday. “That’s kind of right in his wheelhouse.”

The reason for that is he’s a down-to-earth person with a “huge heart,” according to Andy.

“He’s a really caring and loving person and loves people, loves kids, loves being out in the public. Denver is the perfect place for him to continue to evolve as a person. He’ll embrace the city, and he’ll get very involved. Not only will he get involved in the city, I think the city will eventually fall in love with him, as well.”

But, when he steps on the field “to play the sport that he loves,” the loving Lock disappears.

“He also knows how to flip a switch,” his dad, a former ballplayer himself, said with a smirk. “He’s a different person on the field than he is off the field. That’s cool.”

This switch is a staple of who the Broncos drafted.

“I’ve got a little fire behind me,” Drew said, downplaying it vocally, but showing his true feelings with the expression on his face. “You see it in my play a little bit. See it after plays, for sure. I’m going to carry that with me into this league. There’s no reason to stop being like that. I think it gets the guys around you fired up. I think it lets you see the passion that I have in my soul for this game. I’ll definitely keep that coming here.”

As an offensive lineman, Risner’s “nasty” is more outward.

“He loves to talk, loves to get things going, and I’m kind of the same way,” Lock said, describing his new teammate. “We talked about him being chippy, talked about him getting into peoples’ faces, finishing blocks—I’m kind of the same way at quarterback, so I think that’s why we’re going to end up being a good little combo for sure.”

At 6-foot-5, 312 pounds, the Colorado Native often struts around with the largest smile in the room. That smile is left in the locker room, or more likely at home when there’s football to be played.

“Finishing guys on the ground, that is what offensive line is all about,” Risner said, singing a melody to Mike Muncher’s ears. “I think we’ve kind of strayed from that, but old school football offensive line is about getting your hands on someone and driving them and finishing them on the ground, and I take a lot of pride in that.”

“Every time I am out there on the field, I am not out there to make any friends, ” he added. “I am out there to play this game of football, and it is a job, especially now being a professional athlete.”

41 and 42—don’t call ‘em Bush and Clinton—both had the vision every great president’s possessed.

“I knew it was probably a pretty likely chance that I was going to be their No. 1 guy,” Lock said, nailing his prediction as Elway confirmed he was their top-rated quarterback. “I felt really good after I left my top-30 visit here.”

Additionally, Andy had a “really, really good feeling” his son was going to end up with the Broncos—the team the entire Lock family has despised as Chiefs’ fans. Until now.

“I’ve kind of felt this for a while,” Drew’s father said of his premonition. “I really don’t know why that’s the case, but it just seemed like a really natural fit for him. Just a really good organization.”

One potential reason why is the electric connection between Elway and Lock.

When Elway called Lock to deliver the news the Broncos were selecting him on Friday evening, the two sounded like old college pals reconnecting after many years. John exclaimed Drew’s name to start the conversation and Lock shot back, “What’s up John?! What’s going on, baby?!”

“That’s kind of the quarterback deal,” Lock told BSNDenver, explaining the chemistry with his new boss. “You have a mutual respect for anybody that plays the same position as you and has gone through the trials and tribulations of what it takes to be a quarterback. So I feel like that’s where our relationship started.”

John said he’d do “everything we could” to make sure his buddy Drew didn’t slide any further than 42.

But before 42 was 41.

“No matter what, I feel safe the Broncos are at 41,” Risner said, explaining his mindset after he wasn’t drafted in the first round. “No matter how the draft goes. If I go first round, that’s great, but with the Broncos at 41, I felt like they wouldn’t pass on me. I’m so thankful that they didn’t.

Risner not only called his shot on Friday night, but also back in 2013.

“If I could go back now and choose to be a 20th draft pick, or 21st to the Seahawks or whatever it was, I would choose 41 to the Broncos every day,” Risner said, putting a smile on every Bronco fan’s face.

Since 41 and 42 became Broncos, there’s been nothing but smiles in the prospect for the future.