Broncos’ draft shows they are all-in with Drew Lock as quarterback
The Washington Post on Tuesday ranked the AFC teams based on their quarterback situations, and it’s little surprise the Chiefs topped the list because of Patrick Mahomes.
At No. 10 is the Denver Broncos, whose starter is former Mizzou/Lee’s Summit High School star Drew Lock.
“The jury is very much out on Lock, a second-round pick last year who started just five games as a rookie,” Des Bieler wrote. “He provided plenty of room for optimism in those five games, though, completing 64.1 percent of his passes for 1,020 yards, seven touchdowns, three interceptions and an 89.7 rating.”
It seems Broncos general manager John Elway’s faith in Lock is stronger.
Denver’s first two picks in last weekend’s draft were wide receivers: Alabama’s Jerry Jeudy and Penn State’s K.J. Hamler.
“I felt that offensively, for us to be able to compete and give Drew a chance to be successful and us to be successful on the offensive side ... we had to get some speed and we had to get some talent on that offensive side and some explosiveness on the offensive side,” Elway said on the team’s website. “That’s why we decided to go that way. We played good defense last year and we’ll continue to play good defense this coming year, but we had to pick things up on the offensive side (with) that explosiveness and speed factor.
“We have some good players on the offense already, but we had to add to that. We were able to do that especially with Jerry, as well as KJ (and) the wide receivers, and then Albert O. today, with great speed at the tight end position. We just feel like we had to add that explosiveness, and we were able to get that done.”
Albert O. is Mizzou tight end Albert Okwuegbunam, who was drafted in the fourth round. Elway sought his quarterback’s opinion before making the pick.
”The first phone call Vic (Fangio, head coach) and I made today was to Drew to find out about Albert and see what he thought about him, because he had a much better junior year when Drew was there than he had last year,” Elway said, per Missourinet.com.
Since Peyton Manning retired after the Broncos won Super Bowl 50, Elway has struggled to find a starting quarterback. Denver has had Trevor Siemian, Paxton Lynch, Brock Osweiler, Case Keenum and Joe Flacco.
At the end of last November, the Broncos had a 3-8 record with Flacco and Brandon Allen under center.
But a strong finishing kick to the 2019 season has Elway content to build around Lock.
“I think that when you look back over the last four years, since Super Bowl 50 when we really won it on the defensive side — then when Peyton retired, we’ve been trying to find that replacement for Peyton since then,” Elway said on the team’s website. “We’ve tried to concentrate on the defensive side with the idea that if we can keep the score down, we’ll stay in football games and eventually try to find the quarterback we can replace him with and get the offense back on track.
“I think with the way Drew played at the end of last year, we saw the signs of a guy that has a chance to be very successful in this league, but to do that, he’s got to have some good people around him.”
