Denver Broncos: Pros and cons of Drew Lock, Teddy Bridgewater
The QB competition in Denver is just beginning, but does either Drew Lock or Teddy Bridgewater have the early edge? The Denver Broncos’ off-season programs are starting up, and the much-anticipated quarterback competition between Drew Lock and Teddy Bridgewater is now underway.
Both signal-callers, like literally every single professional athlete in the history of the world, have their share of pros and cons.
I’ve seen countless arguments for both Teddy and Drew, and I want to make my own.
I do think there is a clear ‘winner’ here, simply based on what they do better than the other, and how it translates to the Denver Broncos’ offense.
Drew Lock, Pros
Unless you are a biased Lock hater, you fully recognize that Drew has plenty of pros.
He’s got a cannon, above-average mobility, and an infectious personality. Furthermore, he can throw very accurately on the run and is not afraid to make an ambitious throw.
He also excels at moving safeties with his eyes, as we saw in the Carolina game, and rarely takes sacks because of his mobility and quickness in releasing the ball, both with his arm and his decision to throw the ball.
Lock has plenty of ‘good’ to his game. We’ve seen how good he can be when he’s played his best, and we know that there’s still some untapped potential. Working with Peyton Manning this off-season, coupled with long workdays which consisted of film study and technique should yield far better results in 2021 if he is the QB1.
Not only that, the fact that Peyton Manning, the smartest quarterback in NFL history is willing to work with Drew should tell us something.
Drew Lock, Cons
Lock has his fair share of cons, too. As we saw in 2020, his decision-making was suspect, his throws were often wildly inaccurate, and he tried to play ‘hero ball’ too much, leading to inopportune interceptions.
The specific things he did not do well in 2020 made watching him hard and frustrating to watch because he would often be having himself a decent game before he made a boneheaded mistake.
Throwing an interception that a DB plays perfectly happens to the best QBs, but throwing an interception on an inaccurate pass or while a DB jumps the route is the part that made us rip our hair out.
Fortunately, what he needs to work on is very fixable, and we can hope that working with Peyton Manning in the off-season can help prevent some of those mistakes.
Now, for Teddy.
Teddy Bridgewater, Pros
Most of us in Broncos Country haven’t seen much from Bridgewater. We do know that he had a solid stretch with the Saints in 2019 before cashing in with the Carolina Panthers in 2020.
His era in Carolina ended after one season, but he wasn’t terrible.
Teddy is what a game manager looks like in the NFL, and that isn’t a bad thing. He has sound mechanics all around, has a high football IQ, and is an efficient passer.
In his last two years with the Saints and Panthers, he’s combined for 24 TDs and 13 INTS with a 68.5% competition percentage in 20 games.
His elevated competition percentage is exactly what the Denver Broncos offense would need, and his ‘play it safe’ mentality would theoretically help this offense at least reach a league average plateau.
He is in many ways an Alex Smith. He’ll never ‘wow’ you with much, but you can with him, with a strong supporting cast, and that’s exactly what the Broncos have.
Teddy Bridgewater, Cons
While the league will never not be in demand for QBs like Bridgewater, they still have their shortcomings.
Teddy has a pop-gun arm and below-average size for an NFL quarterback. He’s thin in his upper body and his throws often have little zip on them.
Playing in Denver, especially when the weather gets colder may be a challenge for Teddy, as he can’t drive the ball down the field as an NFL QB should.
His play-it-safe mentality isn’t always good either. He often opted for the ‘dink and dunk’ style with Carolina, even though they have receivers who can stretch the field.
This makes me think his vision downfield is rather poor, and as a result, we won’t see the Broncos take the deep shots as much.
This also makes me think that the Denver Broncos’ offense won’t be able to reach its full potential with Bridgewater at QB because the Broncos have four legitimate big play receivers, and a big play, hyper-athletic beast at TE.
With Bridgewater as the starter, I think we would begin to see many of our pass catchers accumulate more YAC, as a result of shorter passes, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
In my opinion, I think the Denver Broncos offense is more suited for a player like Drew Lock if he can improve on what he struggled with.
His willingness towards the end of the season to take what the defense gives him instead of always looking for the big play gives me hope for his future.
Lock isn’t afraid to take the deep shots, and our pass-catchers can all stretch the field in their own ways.
So, for those reasons, I think the Denver Broncos’ offense would perform better if Drew Lock was QB1 to start the 2021 season.