Kansas City Chiefs: Getting to know the Denver Broncos before Week 13

Through a Q-&-A with Sayre Bedinger of Predominantly Orange, get to know the Kansas City Chiefs’ Week 13 opponent, the Denver Broncos.

A dozen weeks are in the books for the 2020 NFL season. It feels like a dozen years, though, doesn’t it? Strange times. What isn’t strange: the Kansas City Chiefs keep rolling along as they sit atop the AFC West and second overall in the AFC with a 10-1 record.

The season hasn’t gone as well–or well at all, really–for the Denver Broncos, who are currently third in the division at 4-7 ahead of only the woeful Los Angeles Chargers.

This will be the second time these teams have faced one another in 2020. Back in Week 7, the Chiefs throttled the Broncos, winning by a score of 43-16.

Once again, this week’s Q-&-A is with Sayre Bedinger of FanSided’s Broncos’ site, Predominantly Orange. Check it out for more excellent coverage of the Chiefs’ closest geographical rival.

Thinking about last week with all QBs not being able to play, how confident are the Broncos going forward with any of those guys?

Sayre: “Looking beyond 2020, all we know at this point is what John Elway has said within the last couple of weeks, which is that he’s “excited” about Drew Lock. The Broncos’ message regarding Lock has remained mostly the same — he’s going to get better with more time on the field. The fact that other teams in the AFC West have not had to wait nearly as long for their QBs to “arrive” has made Broncos Country impatient, but the Broncos are hopeful on Lock. I’m not sure they are 100 percent sold yet, either.”

Drew Lock’s seemed to regress. Why is that?

Sayre: “There have been moments it has appeared Lock has regressed. Things that he can control in that regard start with not falling into old (bad) habits, trusting his protection, and working through progressions. Lock will, at times, speed up his process to the point that it’s not necessary, and he will miss open receivers later in the progression and leave plays on the field.

Factors out of Lock’s control that haven’t helped include the COVID-19 shortened offseason and learning his sixth new offense in as many years dating back to his time at Missouri. Lock also has not been able to lean on a star playmaker like [receiver] Courtland Sutton this year. I would also contend that [offensive coordinator] Pat Shurmur’s play-calling has not consistently set Lock up in a position to succeed, but that could just be because he’s really only played seven games in that particular offense. The Broncos’ receivers have also dropped a ton of passes, making Lock look worse on the whole than he really has, in my opinion.

I think the criticisms of Lock are mostly fair. I think a lot of his struggles this year have included pushing the ball downfield way too much when last year, he was preaching taking a profit and not going broke doing so.”