Are the Denver Broncos sticking with Drew Lock as the starting quarterback in 2021? That's arguably the top question on the minds of all of Broncos Country as the team heads into Week 17 to take on the Las Vegas Raiders.
Although the expectation is that GM John Elway will answer that question definitively in his annual end-of-season press conference next Monday, some fans believe he tipped his hand on the Lock issue, perhaps inadvertently, when he sat down with the team website for his weekly Elway Access show.
"Drew's showed some flashes. Obviously, he's been very inconsistent but [he] has showed some flashes," Elway told Phil Milani. "We still have high hopes for Drew that with a good offseason, a lot of hard work this offseason, a lot of film study, that he can come back and be a very good quarterback in this league."
Elway believes the Broncos have talent in spades. The issue? Inexperience. But that was a gap these young Broncos may have bridged in the war of attrition that has been the 2020 season.
"You look at the roster, there's a lot of good, young football players we believe," Elway said.
Elway has been encouraged by Lock's late-game heroics at different points this season. Lock brought the Broncos back from a 21-point second-half deficit to beat the Chargers in Week 8, and almost duplicated the same feat the following week in Atlanta but came up just shy.
This past week in L.A., Lock led a comeback to tie the Chargers with less than four minutes to go in the game. If Vic Fangio's defense gets a stop, Lock gets another legit shot at driving down for a game-winning field goal. Instead, the Broncos led Justin Herbert drive down and kill clock while getting what turned out to be the game-deciding field goal.
Lock got the ball back but it was with 40 seconds to go and no timeouts. After Jerry Jeudy dropped his fifth pass of the day on a dime down the left seam that would have set the Broncos up in Chargers' territory with about half that time to go, all Lock could do was heave a hail mary from midfield as the final gun sounded. Which was picked off by wideout-turned-hands-DB Mike Williams.
Still, despite Lock throwing a boneheaded red-zone interception on the opening possession, he flashed again late, doing his part to put the Broncos in position to win or at least send the game to overtime. Those flashes, despite the ups and downs, are what continue to tantalize Elway, giving the Hall-of-Fame QB-turned-GM hope that Lock can turn the corner.
"That's the part of him that you see—quarterback, that's his responsibility, to win football games," Elway said of Lock's late-game heroics. "We've seen Drew do that a couple times this year. He did it against the Chargers earlier in the year when we were able to beat them 31-30 at Mile High. He's got that ability and I think that's a good sign for Drew and the fact that it's a good confidence-builder for the rest of the team to know that as long as the game's close, we've got a chance to win it. No matter how much time is left."
The ultimate, official question of whether Lock will be given one last chance to be The Guy won't be answered until Monday at the soonest. But I'm inclined to agree with the fans who interpreted Elway's remarks to the team site on Thursday as a Freudian slip of sorts, revealing the GM's true stance on Lock for 2021.
That doesn't mean the Broncos won't tinker with the QB position this offseason. I could see Denver signing a true, bonafide fail-safe veteran to come in and on one hand, mentor Lock, while also being good enough to hold his feet to the fire competitively.
For now, the Broncos are hoping for a win on Sunday vs. the Raiders to close out the season. Even if it means dropping slightly in the 2021 draft order. We're talking about Elway and the hated Raiders, after all. Such a win could be just the boost the Broncos could use to send them into the offseason with modest momentum.
"I think it would," Elway said. "We're always looking to play with more consistency, and be smarter with the football, not turn the ball over and give ourselves a chance to win. I think that's been our hope every week, is that we be consistent, play to our potential and put a full game together, really, against a good football team, too... But it would be nice to end our year with a good, solid football game and come out with a win to where it sends us off into the offseason with a better taste in our mouth."
Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.
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Elway Tips Broncos' Hand on Drew Lock's Future: 'We Still Have High Hopes' - Sports Illustrated
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