Denver Broncos rookie quarterback Drew Lock had a tough debut in the team’s preseason opener against the Atlanta Falcons.
The Denver Broncos were victorious in the 2019 Hall of Fame Game against the Atlanta Falcons, but the early returns on Drew Lock were not exactly what everyone had hoped for.
They are also nothing to worry about.
Lock, playing in his first game as an NFL quarterback, should be afforded necessary patience. No one should have expected him to come out and complete every pass and have a touchdown on every drive he orchestrated, and he didn’t.
Lock completed seven of his 11 pass attempts for 37 yards. One of those 11 passes was a really bad one that looked like it was five yards behind his intended receiver near the left sideline. Two of those incomplete passes came on deep balls where Lock overthrew his receivers.
The final incompletion came on a swing pass Lock threw to backup running back David Williams. The ball hit Williams in the hands and should have been a catch and run on third down for at least 25-30 yards, if not more. Williams had no one out in front of him and just couldn’t corral the pass for whatever reason.
Otherwise, we didn’t see anything overly spectacular from Lock in this one. Had he connected on one of his deep throws, it would have been great, but he didn’t. The Broncos didn’t score on any of his drives, ultimately.
At this point, it’s nothing to worry about. There were obviously first NFL game jitters. Next time out, however, Lock won’t have the luxury of that excuse or even valid reason.
Vic Fangio spoke very fairly of Lock’s rookie debut after the game:
Fangio on Drew Lock:#4Broncos @CBSDenver pic.twitter.com/sUgXPlNOyq
— Michael Spencer (@MichaelCBS4) August 2, 2019
Fangio didn’t love the reads he was making, thought his accuracy was not quite where it needed to be (which we also mentioned) and overall said he wasn’t surprised by it. It’s to be expected of a rookie in this type of situation.
Like all of us, Fangio was ‘hoping for more’ with Lock tonight. Thankfully, the Broncos have four more preseason games to get a longer, better look at the rookie. And yes, I say thankfully with all seriousness. I love the preseason specifically for these types of evaluating purposes.
Lock was out-played in this game by Kevin Hogan, but by no means was he out-played by fellow rookie Brett Rypien, whose game-winning touchdown got a literal assist from Juwann Winfree and had problems with accuracy all throughout his fourth quarter reps.
The Broncos and Lock will be in action again next week against the Seattle Seahawks. The starters will likely get a decent amount of reps throughout the first quarter, but we’ll see Lock again.