To say that Broncos general manager and President of Football Operations John Elway has exercised some really interesting decision-making at the quarterback position since Peyton Manning retired following the 2015 season would be damning with faint praise. Even as Elway and his staff built one of the best defenses in the league, the quarterback position — from Paxton Lynch to Trevor Siemian to Brock Osweiler to Case Keenum to Joe Flacco to Brandon Allen — has been the obvious Achilles heel that has kept Denver out of the postseason since Manning’s last game, when the Broncos beat the Panthers in Super Bowl 50.
Lynch was Elway’s most prominent failure; Denver took the Memphis alum with the 26th pick in the 2016 draft, and Lynch did very little through his two seasons with the team. Siemian was the comparative “savior,” as the 2015 seventh-round pick out of Northwestern managed an 18-touchdown, 10-interception season in 2016. But Siemian regressed in 2017, and thus began the parade of ineffective veterans with Keenum and Flacco.
When Denver took Missouri quarterback Drew Lock in the second round of the 2019 draft, it was thought to be yet another example of Elway leaning too hard on his “big guy/big arm” bias. The 6-foot-4, 228-pound quarterback proved to have all the mobility and arm strength you’d want in a prospect, but he had a GPS that was dangerously out of whack at the best of times — the primary reason he completed just 56.9% of his passes over four seasons for the Tigers.
And through the first half of the 2019 season, when Flacco was first ineffective and then injured, and Allen did little to elevate the offense in his stead, head coach Vic Fangio had the same line every time he was asked about Lock starting a game — the kid just wasn’t ready yet. Part of that was a thumb injury that had Lock on injured reserve, and when he was activated in late November, it was a case of perfect timing — Allen imploded against the Bills’ tough defense on November 24, completing 10 of 25 passes for 82 yards and a touchdown. At this point, if Lock could throw the ball at all, there wasn’t much chance of him doing any worse.
Activated as the starter in time for Denver’s Week 13 game against the Chargers, Lock completed 18 of 28 passes for 134 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception — not blowaway numbers, but good enough to give him another shot against the Texans on Sunday.
This was the same Texans defense that had just shut down the Patriots, so Lock was going to have to earn it here. This he did decidedly, completing 22 of 27 passes for 309 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception. With that performance, he became the first rookie in NFL history with at least 300 passing yards and three touchdown passes in his first career road start.
Lock just scalded Houston’s defense, especially in the first half, where his 235 passing yards were the most by a Broncos quarterback since Manning was under center. He also became the third Broncos rookie with a 300-yard game, joining Elway in 1983 and Tim Tebow in 2010.
Moreover, on plays like this — a 14-yard first-quarter touchdown pass to tight end Noah Fant — Lock showed that his accuracy has met his velocity.
Get used to hearing this.@DrewLock23 finds @nrfant for six! pic.twitter.com/4Kv4wKcdDY
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) December 8, 2019
The 5-8 Broncos are playing for the future at this point in the season, but at least at the most important position — and for the first time in a long time — there’s real and legitimate hope.