How John Elway and Brett Rypien combined to help Drew Lock have the best game of his career

CHARLOTTE — For most of his life, Drew Lock has subscribed to the “Shooters shoot” philosophy.

“It’s kinda like being a three-point shooter. You can start the game 0-5, but I’m definitely going to shoot the sixth one,” Drew Lock said as a rookie on Dec. 18, 2019, describing what it means to be a gunslinger. “I’m going to throw a couple of picks here and there, but in my heart and in my gut, I know the couple of picks will turn into a couple of touchdowns. The good plays will outweigh the bad with being a gunslinger if you do it correctly.”

The gunslinger mentality may work in high school ball shooting threes, or even as the starting QB at Missouri.

But not in the NFL in 2020.

Over the past year, the second-year quarterback has learned that the hard way. Entering Sunday, Lock had the second-most interceptions in the NFL (13) to only nine touchdowns. His 55.4 completion percentage ranked dead last in the NFL. Shooting and missing was leading to more shooting and missing.

Lock’s gunslinger mentality was shooting himself in the foot as questions about his future couldn’t be ignored.

The same mentality got John Elway into similar trouble when he was a young quarterback. As a rookie in 1983, Elway threw 14 interceptions to only seven touchdowns. Slowly but surely, young No. 7 learned he didn’t have to try and win every game on every play. Instead, check-down passes were his friend until the big play naturally opened up later in the game.

“That’s the toughest thing to learn, for me at least. I don’t know about others, but that’s the toughest thing for me,” Lock said on Sunday about balancing taking shots versus taking the safe play. “[Elway’s] preached to me just doing your job and not trying to force anything. Once you force it, those are the ones that you want back.”

One of those passes was early in the Kansas City Chiefs game in Week 13, when Lock attempted to force a pass to Troy Fumagalli near the end zone despite a wide-open Nick Vannett in the flat. Lock was picked off.

“It sucks because the ones you end up forcing are in games that you want really, really bad,” Lock explained. “You want to win so badly that you end up doing some things out of character. It’s all about being calm and focused in those games. That’s when you make the right decisions, and I’ve been getting preached that quite a bit here these last couple weeks.”

Entering Sunday, Lock had at least one interception in every single game he’s played in since Week 2. That caused many levels of the organization to talk to him about not forcing plays when they are not there.

“‘Ryp’ tells it to me every single week. He goes, ‘Hey, you’re a special player. But do your job here these first couple of quarters, maybe in the third quarter the big play needs to be there and you’re good enough to make the big play. Make it when it’s there. Check these balls down if it’s not there. If it eats you up or you know it’s going to be a close one, if you try to press something, get it down,'” Lock said, describing the advice backup quarterback Brett Rypien has given him every week.

“[Mike] Shula and [Pat] Shurmur were obviously stressing that to me throughout the week and we worked on it in practice,” the 24-year old continued. “In my opinion, it’s just me starting to feel things and seeing it and knowing where to get the ball when it’s just not perfect.”

Elway and Rypien’s advice clicked with No. 3 on Sunday in Carolina.

In his 15th career start, Drew Lock was near perfect as he went 21-of-27 for 280 passing yards, a career-high four touchdowns, no interceptions and a 149.5 passer rating.

There was no sign of a gunslinger in Lock’s game in the Broncos’ 32-27 win over the Panthers. Just great quarterback play. Scratch that, elite quarterback play.

Lock’s 149.5 passer rating—less than 10 points off from a perfect passer rating—was the third-best rating in the Broncos’ history. The two players with better passer ratings in a single game are two first-ballot Hall of Famers Peyton Manning and John Elway. Not too shabby of company for young Lock to join.

Lock also entered Elway and Manning territory, along with Craig Morton, after becoming just the fourth quarterback in team history to have at least four passing touchdowns, no interceptions and a 75 percent completion rate in a single game.

“It was me coming in and doing my job,” Lock said, explaining how he took the easy completions until the big plays opened up later in the game. “If I just play the game and let it come to me, then those big ones will come.”

At the start of the game, the big play wasn’t there for the Broncos’ passing attack. And Lock didn’t force it. Instead, he listened to Elway, Rypien, Shurmur, Shula and everyone at home and took the easy completions in the first half. Nine of Lock’s 12 completions in the first two quarters went to tight ends and running backs. Despite 75 percent completion, Lock only had 85 passing yards at halftime.

After following everyone’s advice in the first half, Lock was greatly rewarded in the second half as he got to hit K.J. Hamler for two deep touchdown passes.

“I appreciate them giving me that opportunity to be able to take those plays up and give us nine balls,” Lock stated.

By the way, Lock had the best game of his career with three new starters along the offensive line.

“We were more efficient 21-of-27 is a lot better than we’ve been doing,” Vic Fangio said after the game about Denver’s passing attack led by Lock. “We hit some big plays. Threw some touchdown passes. Really good to see. And we spread the ball around. Nice to see KJ come up with some big plays. We believe he can add that to our offense. Jerry had a 31-yarder. Tim had a 32 yarder. Big plays are huge.”

As Lock learned, big plays at the right time are huge.

“It was kind of my mindset. I’m not going to force it downfield. If I can get us to 3rd-and-1 or a first down, then I’m doing my job at a pretty high level if I can do that,” Lock said about scrambling to pick up a few yards instead of forcing the ball deep.

Entering Sunday Night Football, Lock’s 149.5 passer rating was the best in the NFL in Week 14, topping the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson.

“Drew had a heck of a game today,” Hamler stated. “We can do that every week. I think he was on-point today. He’s doing his thing, I’m not going to lie about that.”

The Broncos didn’t have a gunslinger at quarterback on Sunday. Instead, they had the best quarterback in the NFL in Week 14 thanks in large part to Drew Lock taking the advice of No. 4 and No. 7.