When the Denver Broncos face the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 16, Drew Lock will be making his first start of the season as the team’s quarterback.
That news was likely met with mixed emotions from Broncos Country but with Teddy Bridgewater still recovering from the concussion he suffered last week, the team is left with no choice.
But that should not be seen as a bad thing. In fact, there should be plenty of optimism surrounding Drew Lock making his first start of the year. After all, the coaching staff did say it was a razor-thin competition in training camp, so it shouldn’t be a problem, right?
Lock’s last start came in the season finale last year and just happened to be against the Raiders as well, a 32-31 loss. He completed 25-of-41 passes on the day for 339 yards and two touchdowns. A solid performance to be sure.
There are reasons to be excited for Lock to make the start this Sunday. Three of them, to be exact.
Lock should bring a different energy
Lock has been prone to mistakes in his short career, but he is much more exciting to watch play quarterback than Bridgewater. The Broncos could potentially translate the energy that he brings into a much more dynamic offense.
As I discussed earlier in the week, it is time for Lock to throw caution at the wind, look at this opportunity for what it is, and let it all hang out.
The Broncos could rally behind Lock if he is able to play with that type of loose approach. It was understandable as to why the coaching staff chose to go with Bridgewater’s approach of not making mistakes, but it’s led to a far too conservative offense.
Lock needs to come in and ramp things up. Does that open the potential for mistakes and turnovers? Sure it does. But it also opens up the possibility for many more big plays and points on the scoreboard.
The 339 yards Lock threw for against the Raiders last year was a career-best. His QB rating of 103.6 in that game was the third-best rating he has had in a game in his career.
The wide receivers should be smiling
The Broncos signed both Courtland Sutton and Tim Patrick to lucrative contract extensions this season. Those deals would look much better if they actually got involved on offense.
The same can be said for Jerry Jeudy, last year’s first-round pick. Between injuries and a lack of production, his career is off to a slow start.
There are plenty of Broncos fans out there who stand behind Bridgewater and feel he is a better option than Lock. That’s fine, but the fact is, he can’t get the ball to the wide receivers. Lock can.
That was evidenced shortly after Lock came in last week to take over for the injured Bridgewater, throwing a touchdown pass to Patrick to give the Broncos a 10-9 lead.
On the season, the numbers this trio of receivers has posted are down for the fact that Bridgewater doesn’t look their way often enough, instead choosing to check the ball down to a tight end or running back far too often.
But let’s find some good news. Ah, here we go:
Earlier this season against the Raiders, Sutton caught eight passes for 94 yards and Patrick caught a touchdown pass. Jeudy missed the game as he was still recovering from his high ankle sprain, but last year against the Raiders, Jeudy made what is still the best play (video) of his career to this point.
That kind of play almost certainly won’t happen with Bridgewater throwing the ball, but it did with Lock.
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.
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.