Denver Broncos adjusting practices to get Drew Lock more reps

The Denver Broncos are adjusting practices to get Drew Lock more reps as he prepares to eventually come off of injured reserve.

I hate to break it to the people who love bringing up Vic Fangio’s quote from training camp when he talked about Denver Broncos rookie quarterback Drew Lock being a hard-throwing pitcher who didn’t know how to pitch yet, but the young quarterback is showing rapid improvements and Fangio’s comments about him are getting a lot nicer.

You love to see it.

Lock is only in his second week of practice after coming back from injured reserve, but Fangio has already talked about the time off being good for him in terms of all of the different new things he was trying to take in throughout training camp and the preseason.

Now, it appears Lock is moving closer and closer towards actual regular season playing time.

As a matter of fact, the Broncos are tailoring practice specifically to get the rookie quarterback more time on task, and Fangio discussed that as well as the thought that he would come off IR as soon as next week.

"“Possibly. Again, he’s not getting a ton of reps. We’re actually—the offense is getting more plays in practice than the defense is to facilitate that somewhat. He’s definitely doing good for when you factor in that he hadn’t done anything since whenever in August. Is he ready? You know, I don’t know that he’ll ever be “ready, ready” in the next few weeks based upon his lack of practice time, but there’s a chance at some point maybe he’ll play.”Vic Fangio (quotes via Broncos PR)"

When I heard Fangio say this during his press conference live, I couldn’t help but think it might just be the nicest thing he’s said about Lock.

The underlying theme with every update the Broncos have given regarding Lock is that he’s not yet ‘ready’. Fangio again talked about that here but it doesn’t sound like the Broncos are going to require that Lock is ready, ready. They are going to give him a chance to play this season, ready or not, and he’s done well in practice according to what Fangio is saying.

My thinking on this is that, if the Broncos are capable of getting Brandon Allen ready to start in short order and he’s seeing a decent amount of success as the starter, why would Lock — who is more talented — not be able to do the same?

We know he’s going to take some rookie lumps, but Lock can be afforded patience with the Broncos relatively out of playoff contention. There are things he can do in this offense in terms of just executing at the most basic level, but the Broncos clearly want to see more of a mastery from him.

That will come in time, but Lock is getting closer to playing time, ready or not.

I, for one, am ready.