Joe Flacco doesn’t hold back on his feelings toward mentoring Drew Lock

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Nine days before the NFL Draft, Joe Flacco publicly told John Elway how he felt about Denver potentially drafting a quarterback.

“I don’t really care about whether they take a quarterback or not. Whether it’s 10 or whatnot, the only thing I care about is, like I said, I want this team to be as good as they can with me at quarterback,” Flacco said on April 16 during the team’s voluntary minicamp, maintaining dominance of the No. 1 quarterback spot.

“If we feel like as a team and an organization that we can add value to our team at the 10th pick, then I’m all for getting a guy that can add value to the team with me as the understood quarterback. At the end of the day, it is what it is.”

Much like the year before, his team, this time in Denver, selected his heir apparent in the first 42 picks in the draft.

On Monday, during the team’s first of 12 OTA practices this offseason, Flacco spoke for the first time since John Elway not only drafted Drew Lock in the second round, but he declared him “the future.”

At first, Flacco toed the company line, referring to his stance on the situation before the draft. The veteran quarterback also downplayed the significance by stating how it’s just a part of what keeps him motivated on a daily basis.

But then he was asked if it’s his job to mentor Drew Lock—the player that was brought in here to one day take his job away from him.

That’s when Joe got real.

“You’ve got to be careful with how you answer that. I think that is—like I said, it’s kind of Rich’s job,” Flacco said, pointing to new offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello. “I’m not a selfish person, I don’t think. There are times where you have to be selfish.”

“Listen, I’ve got so many things to worry about. I’m trying to go out there and play good football. I’m trying to go out there and play the best football of my life. As far as a time constraints and all that stuff, I’m not worried about developing guys or any of that. That is what it is. And like I said, I hope he does develop. But I don’t look at that as my job. My job is to win football games for this football team.”

Without a doubt, Flacco made it very clear he won’t be teaching, mentoring or going out of his way to help Drew develop as a quarterback—that’s not in his job description.

Heck, if he did, he would only be hurting his own preparation, while helping his successor dethrone him.

Instead of carrying the burden of bringing along the 22-year-old Lock, Flacco put that directly on the shoulders of Scangarello, the first-time offensive coordinator.

“Listen, Rich does such a good job in those meeting rooms. Drew’s going to learn from listening to him talk and then us getting the reps on the field and seeing how we all do it, as a collective group of quarterbacks,” he said, putting zero emphasis on him helping bring Lock around.

“Listen, I hope he does learn from me because that means that we’re out there and we’re slinging it around and we’re having a lot of fun. He’s going to learn by watching us do it and watching us do it well. That’s how he’s going to learn the timing and all of those things is to be able to see it on film and hear Rich talk about it with me and digest as much of that as possible.

Last year with the Ravens, Flacco was sidelined nine games into the season due to injury, allowing first-round pick Lamar Jackson to take his job and never look back.

A year later, another promising young rookie is gunning for his job. He wants to make sure Lock stays in his rearview mirror.

“I hope he does learn from me because that means we’re out there lighting it up.”