Denver Broncos: 3 reasons to be excited about Drew Lock starting in Week 16
Questions about the future could have some answers
There is no doubt that the Broncos are still looking for the quarterback of the future. While many feel Lock has already shown himself not to be that guy, there should be no doubt that Bridgewater is not that guy.
Lock still has the opportunity in front of him to change that narrative, at least in the short term.
He is still just 25 years old and should have a lot of football still in front of him. This has been the first week all season where he has been able to take reps with the first team in practice and perhaps knowing that he is going to be the starter, rather than just a potential fill-in off the bench, could be the confidence booster he needs to step up his play.
The coaching staff may have told the media that it was a 50-50 competition in camp this summer, but most signs point to that not being true. Lock played just fine in the preseason and was good enough to win the job and should have won the job. It shattered his confidence when he didn’t.
But as Lock showed against these same Raiders last year and a couple of other times in his career (Houston, Carolina), he can put forth masterful performances. Bridgewater has been acceptable at times this season, but not once masterful.
In other words, Lock’s upside outweighs what the team knows it will get out of Bridgewater. Or, the same argument from the offseason leading into the regular season.
It’s all about finding the best way to get the most from Lock so that games like the one where he throttled the Texans a couple of years ago or the game where he threw four touchdown passes against the Panthers last year become more of the norm than the outlier.
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A big game against the Raiders on Sunday could start to shift the way the team looks at its future, even if it doesn’t shift much. Lock needs a positive performance to build off of and then, more importantly than anything, he needs the backing from his coaches and the front office that they believe in him.