Drew Lock days are over in Broncos Country.
Lock has always benefitted from a crazed fanbase, and surprisingly there are some on social media calling for his return to the Mile High City.
Drew Lock back to the Denver Broncos?
Russell Wilson is all but gone from Denver. The Broncos benched him with two games to go, and then when news broke that Sean Payton and the team asked Wilson to change his injury guarantee, Payton was called a bully.
That means there’s no certainty in terms of who will play quarterback for Denver in 2024.
Simply, Denver Broncos fans are quarterback desperate. Just like they were when Lock was still on the team. They’re desperate for someone, anyone, to become “the guy.”
Broncos Country needs a true franchise quarterback. Payton needs one, too.
Not only is it the most important position in American sports, but Denver enjoyed superstar quarterbacks John Elway and Peyton Manning. Since Manning? A ton of mediocre, stop-gap, bridge quarterbacks.
Broncos fans have been spoiled with superstar QB play. And the longer the mediocre play has gone on, the more desperate Denver fans have become.
But being quarterback desperate is why Lock got to start at all. There weren’t guys good enough to beat him out of the job. Well, except Teddy Bridgewater. And Joe Flacco.
Lock fans blamed coaches, teammates, anyone they could before blaming Lock for his inconsistent play.
In Denver, when he was on, Lock was phenomenal. He made plays with his legs and arm, connecting with teammates in the short, medium, and deep passing game. The problem?
Those great games only came around 20-25% of the time. In about 50% of his starts with the Broncos, Lock was merely mediocre. And another 25% of the time he was flat-out bad. Just awful.
A team can’t win with a quarterback who plays that inconsistently.
Lock got his shot as the team’s full-time starter in 2020, the COVID year, in which he missed games due to violating COVID protocol. That showed a lack of leadership. That year, he started 13 games, had a 57.3 completion percentage, with 16 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. He was also 41st in EPA/drop back, with a -0.03.
He got three more starts in 2021, with one better than average performance, and two more mediocre ones, and an EPA/drop back of -0.02.
Lock’s downfall in Denver was his overconfidence in arm strength, repeatedly forcing the ball into tight coverage. Many times, those passes would be defended or picked off.
Since 2022, the Russell Wilson trade sent him to Seattle, where he’s been backing up Geno Smith
When Smith went down this year, Lock filled in Weeks 14 and 15, playing well and even leading the Seahawks to a win over the Eagles. Maybe that win is why we’re hearing his name as the next possible QB from desperate fans.
