From “Buzz Lightyear” to “The Guy”: Drew Lock’s next leap is critical

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — To infinity and beyond!

That is, of course, Buzz Lightyear’s go-to line.

That’s also similar to what Drew Lock’s mindset is as he takes over as the Denver Broncos’ starting quarterback. Funny enough, that’s not the only connection Drew has to Woody’s good friend.

“Dalton Risner likes to give me a lot of crap in the huddle, especially in practice,” Denver’s new starting quarterback said. “He’ll go up to the ball after I call a play and he’ll ask me and say the exact opposite of the play pretty much. He’s just trying to get me all riled up, especially that first time out there when I was in the huddle. Buzz Lightyear was used because of ‘To infinity and beyond’ with the play calls on my arm. They got it all ready for me. It’s been fun. It keeps things light in practice.”

Last week, Drew was jokingly called one of the beloved characters from Toy Story. But boy how one week can change things.

After starting his career a perfect 1-0, Drew was getting texts from people arguably more famous than Buzz himself. Peyton and Archie Manning slid into Lock’s phone, with Archie telling him “Can’t win ‘em all if you don’t win your first.”

Lock has never been a man lacking confidence. But Sunday’s win, and everything that transpired after, certainly didn’t hurt. And he knows it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

“Now I feel like I’m the voice. I’m the one guy where I can go in and really start to be myself 24/7 with these guys,” Lock said after Vic Fangio named him the starter for another week after Sunday’s win. “They may have thought they saw a little bit of me tonight, they’re going to see a lot of me in the next week.”

On Wednesday, Drew said he hasn’t necessarily been holding back his leadership abilities and unbreakable confidence in his first eight months in the NFL, but more so getting his feet wet and “seeing what it was all about.”

Holding back, getting his feet wet, whatever you want to call it, it’s all about to change.

“I think I’ll just start showing more and more of myself for sure,” he said, with, you guessed it, confidence.

But what does that mean? Of course, every team wants every one of their players to be confident, especially their quarterback. To Drew, it means he wants to be the guy—for the city, the organization and his teammates.

“I can just kind of start being the face to these guys around here, especially in the huddle,” Lock explained. “Just being able to show them a little more of me as a leader and even out there on the field in the game. Not necessarily practice, but even out there on the field. They saw a little bit of my confidence last week and I’m hoping that we can come out and play extremely well and hopefully we can keep building confidence around this place.”

“Building confidence around this place.” It’s been a while since a quarterback oozed confidence in Denver. In fact, the last one that truly embodied confidence and leadership was the one that dropped Drew a text after Sunday’s game.

It’s not only something the Broncos’ organization has truly missed, but it’s also something they’re all desperately seeking.

“When the quarterback is confident it helps you out because now you know he’s supposed to be the man of the huddle. He has the ball in his hands 24/7. And if he has confidence, it gives everybody else that confidence,” Phillip Lindsay said with conviction. “Drew can move with his arm and he can move with his legs. And that gives all of us confidence because when a play is broken he can create something.”

The three words Phil used to describe Lock’s first performance were smooth, fluent and, of course, confident.

“I think that he’s just going to continue to build off it,” the second-year back said. “I think that the more respect he earns, the better off he’s going to be later on and the more confidence he’s going to have in himself.”

One week ago, the rookie quarterback had never taken a single snap in the NFL. Yet, even then, he wasn’t afraid to slowly step into the vocal role that a quarterback needs to take. Despite having done nothing to earn it on the field, Lindsay said Lock’s confidence and vocal leadership “plays well” with his teammates.

Phillip Lindsay didn’t explicitly say it, but the Broncos are all but begging for a vocal, confident leader at the most important position in all of sports.

“The future is bright. It really is,” Lindsay said, detailing why. “You have to go through growing pains like we’ve been going through to be a great football team. Because you got to go through the fire. You have to know how it feels to lose and know how it feels to be in that certain situation so that you can put yourself out of it. And that’s all it is. I think that if they can continue to keep us together and we continue to grow and we continue to add more pieces, then we’re going to be in great shape.

“And that’s what it’s about,” Lindsay continued. “It’s about building confidence for young ones that are going to continue to play for this franchise for a while. A person like Lock, just continue to get his experience up and continue to get him confident.”

Okay, Phil pretty much said it. The players inside the UCHealth Training Center want Lock to be the guy, the leader—on and off the field.

Fangio had no idea what to expect from Drew’s on-field presence before he stepped into the huddle on Sunday. After the fact, that was the aspect he was most encouraged about from his first start.

“He did a good job handling the situation—pre-snap, emotionally, didn’t feel like it got too big for him at any point in the game,” the head coach stated.

From jokes buzzing about Lock being a character in Toy Story to buzz surrounding him potentially being the one the Broncos have been so desperately looking for since No. 18 left, it’s been quite a week for the rookie.

“Where does my confidence come from? I don’t think there’s an exact thing to point to just kind of who I am throughout sports, not just football, but basketball and everything that I played,” Lock said, trying to pinpoint this invisible characteristic.

“I’ve been through some tough times in sports to where I feel like I can come out of mostly any bad times that I’m going to have to where I should always stay confident. If it is bad, I’m 100 percent sure I can come out of it and make something good from it.”

Alright Buzz, aka Drew, to infinity and beyond!