Mizzou Football: Expect Drew Lock to see playing time in 2019
By Cullen Jekel
With the 42nd pick of the 2019 NFL Draft, the Denver Broncos finally ended the waiting game for former Mizzou football quarterback Drew Lock.
By selecting Missouri‘s Drew Lock, the Broncos add him to a roster that features longtime Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, acquired earlier this offseason via trade for a mid-round draft pick.
Now the question becomes: just how quickly will Lock see the starting lineup in Denver?
Let’s start with Flacco.
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The 11-year veteran, who led the Ravens to victory in Super Bowl XLVII, winning that contest’s MVP award, lost his starting job in 2018 to rookie Lamar Jackson after suffering a hip injury in early November. Even before that, though, Baltimore had struggled behind Flacco.
After winning the Super Bowl, the Ravens missed the playoffs four out of the next five seasons, finishing with a winning record only twice. At the time of his injury last season, the Ravens were 4-5 and had just lost three straight games.
Since that Super Bowl victory, Baltimore finished 18th, 13th, 8th, 12th, and 29th in passing offense. Last year they finished 22nd, but still finished ninth in total yards as the dual-threat Jackson added an entirely different element to the scheme. That ultimately cost Flacco his job, as Jackson led a resurgent Ravens squad back to the playoffs.
In the offseason, the Broncos came calling, landing Flacco for a mid-round draft pick. Denver made the deal on the heels back-to-back losing seasons that ultimately cost head coach Vance Joseph his job. The Broncos, led by czar John Elway, replaced Joseph with Vic Fangio and then jettisoned last year’s primary quarterback, Case Keenum, to Washington after bringing in Flacco.
Now comes the selection of Lock, the former Missouri Tiger who had been projected to go in the first round but fell to the second. By acquiring Lock, Elway continues his rough search to finally find a successor to Peyton Manning, who retired after the 2015 season and winning the Super Bowl.
Since arriving in Denver as an executive in 2011, Elway has now drafted six quarterbacks. None have panned out.
- Brock Osweiler, 2012, Round 2, Pick 57: played well in relief of Manning in 2015 before leaving for Houston after the season. Has played for three different franchises the past three years.
- Zac Dysert, 2013, Round 7, Pick 234: never played a down in the NFL.
- Trevor Siemian, 2015, Round 7, Pick 250: went 8-6 as the team’s starter in 2016 before losing the starting gig in 2017. Now with the New York Jets.
- Paxton Lynch, 2016, Round 1, Pick 32: back-up for Seattle after appearing in five games over two seasons in Denver.
- Chad Kelly, 2016, Round 7, Pick 253: out of the league after appearing in one game in 2018.
Lock should change that.
https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1121926665775480832
CBS Sports, which ranked Lock as the draft’s third best quarterback, described Lock as a “[g]ood-sized, decently athletic, big-armed pocket passer who can throw from many platforms and bases with good, not great accuracy and lives for the deep ball.”
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To me, that sounds a lot like the man who drafted him, except this is 36 years later.
The Broncos will go into 2019 with Flacco entrenched as the starter. But in a division with playoff contending teams such as the Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs, it may not be all that long before Denver starts playing for 2020.
If that’s the case, then Elway and Fangio need to turn to Lock to see if he’s the long-term answer, as the 34-year-old Flacco isn’t. The Broncos can also walk away from his contract with zero dead money.
In a division that features Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City, the Raiders primed to land a top quarterback in the 2020 draft, and the Chargers playing well despite Philip Rivers‘ advancing age, the Broncos need to find out sooner rather than later what Lock can do.
As a Missouri fan, here’s to Lock enjoying great success in Mile High–just not too much success.