Denver Broncos: 7 most heated offseason position battles
1. Quarterback: Drew Lock vs. Teddy Bridgewater
The Denver Broncos went into the 2020 offseason with Drew Lock as the starting quarterback, and they didn’t do anything to provide him any real competition.
Jeff Driskel, who had been tried out as a receiver as recently as 2019 with the Cincinnati Bengals, was the Broncos’ top backup option going into the 2020 season along with 2019 undrafted free agent Brett Rypien.
Rypien ended up taking Driskel’s job after one spot-start opportunity and didn’t look back all year long.
The Denver Broncos swung a trade for Teddy Bridgewater the day before the 2021 NFL Draft. That trade was exactly the misdirection GM George Paton had hoped for as the Broncos made it seem like they were in on quarterbacks all along before taking Pat Surtain II.
With Bridgewater in the fold, the Denver Broncos have effectively ‘raised the floor’ of the quarterback room. I’m not sure who originally quantified his addition in that particular way, but it’s the perfect way to put it.
While Drew Lock gives you greater upside than Bridgewater, Bridgewater is a guy who pretty much is what he is — an effective game manager who can limit turnovers. That is not necessarily a bad thing, either, because you can win in the NFL with average play at the position.
With that being said, the Denver Broncos obviously really like Drew Lock’s upside and aren’t just telling the media that they like him to be nice. Lock certainly showed in 2020 that he needs to be a better decision-maker when the bullets are flying on the field, but he also showed he’s capable of great things.
If Lock doesn’t show improvement in his decision-making and accuracy in 2021, the Broncos have a much better fallback plan in Bridgewater than they had last season. That’s what raising the “floor” means.
Lock is going to have to actually beat Bridgewater for the starting job, and he’s not going to have a very easy time doing it. The Denver Broncos have assembled a tremendous defense on paper, and winning a job against that unit throughout the offseason is going to be no easy task.