Analyzing the Pros & Cons from Drew Lock's Five-Game Audition: Week 13
The Denver Broncos selected Drew Lock in the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft with the intention of him being the team's quarterback of the future. In the 2019 preseason, he showed the promise of being just that, but then suffered a thumb injury that landed him on injured reserve for three months.
Lock ended up sitting out the first 12 weeks of the season (11 games). It eventually got to the point where the Broncos had no other choice but to start Lock because the other two quarterbacks the team had trotted out had failed.
In the first installment of what will be a five-part film series, I am going to break down five plays from each of Lock's starts. Three plays will be good and two bad — to show what he did right, and what aspects of his game he needs to work on in order to be that quarterback of the future.
The potential is there, but Lock has inconsistencies and kinks that must be coached out of him and smoothed over.
Play 1 vs. Chargers: First Quarter | 4:40
Situation: 3rd-&-8
This first look is one of the big plays of the day with the Broncos in three-wide receiver bunch formation at the top of the screen and Courtland Sutton flanking on the bottom. The Chargers are showing an overload blitz which could be a test against the Broncos' five offensive linemen and a running back who stays in to block.
It is a quick, three-step drop from Lock as he takes the shot to Sutton, who is one-on-one against the Chargers cornerback. As Lock is winding up to throw, a blitzer is closing and he just gets rid of the ball in time before getting hit. The play ends up being a touchdown because of a well-placed throw from Lock, but an even better catch from Sutton.
Lock does a lot right on this play. He quickly diagnoses the blitz and sees the linebacker dropping into coverage. Processing speed is vital when it comes to quarterback play because there is so much they have to sort through in about three seconds or less after the snap. A lack of processing speed has led a lot of failure over the years, but thankfully, there's no issue here from Lock.
It isn’t just the linebacker and the blitz that he reads, nor is it all just post-snap. If you look before the snap, you can see the single-high safety is leaning to the bunched receivers at the top and away from Sutton. That leaves Sutton in single-coverage matchup with a lot of space over the top to attack for the touchdown. Being able to make these clear reads pre-snap does a lot to set Lock up for success after the snap, as we see with this play.
Lock knew that Sutton was going to be the target well before the ball was even snapped and what occurred post-snap confirmed exactly what he saw pre-snap. Lock played this snap well and really showed off the potential he has.
A rookie making this throw, especially in his first start, should make fans drool. When looking over all five games for Lock, finding good plays, this one stood out as one of his best.
Play 2 vs. Chargers: Second Quarter | 8:26
Situation: 2nd-&-15
Now we follow up the good with a play that really highlights that 'rookie-ness' from Lock. It wasn’t a terrible play from Lock by any means but it exposes an area to his game that needs to be developed.
Denver is in 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3WR) with two receivers to the top of the screen. Tim Patrick is the lone receiver flanking to the bottom, and he runs a quick curl route. Patrick does an excellent job selling the deep shot to the corner, who bites and ends up far off from Patrick when he cuts it back.
There is so much space for Patrick to make the catch, turn upfield, and get even more yards that all Lock has to do is deliver an accurate ball. However, Lock can't manage to get the ball to Patrick.
There seemed to be some jitters from Lock here as he rushes the throw which causes it to be high and wide and incomplete. Lock did have some pressure coming that seemed to cause him to speed up the throw, but it wasn’t bad enough for him to overthrow as he did. Hitting Patrick would have turned this 2nd-&-15 into a more manageable third down, if not a new set of downs. Denver ended up punting after failing to convert the 3-&-15 on the next play.
Rookie jitters are expected and this was one of those plays. Lock can do better, and he even showed he can during this game. It is just a matter of getting this issue hammered out as he frows with more development.
Play 3 vs. Chargers: Second Quarter | 0:01
Situation: 3rd-&-10
Back to some good, though this was a hail mary play from the Broncos to try and get lucky with a touchdown before the end of the half. Denver is lined up similarly to the first play with three receivers to Lock's left and one flanking to the right. Everyone in the stadium knows what is coming with one second left before the half, and the Chargers are lined up to deal with it.
Los Angeles has three safeties in the end zone. There are only three pass rushers at first, but a fourth comes on a delayed blitz. The pressure doesn’t really get to Lock, but it is enough for him to slide around in the pocket to better his positioning before the throw and buy himself a little more time.
Lock ends up seeing Courtland Sutton and makes a solid throw that was a little behind Sutton, but the throw isn’t the focus of what makes this play a good one from Lock.
What does make this a good play is how he worked the pocket to buy himself and his receivers more time.
In situations like this, you often see quarterbacks make big movements to help and only find themselves in more danger than they were before. Lock makes small and subtle movements, recalculating after each step. He doesn’t waste movement or time as he avoids pressure and moves himself to help his blockers against the pass rush.
Broncos fans haven’t seen this kind of pocket manipulation since Peyton Manning was at the helm. Instead, fans saw Broncos quarterbacks making the big changes to their positioning and putting themselves in harm’s way.
This is a really good sign from Lock of his potential to be a great quarterback — all he has to do is play like this with more consistency and develop other areas of his game.
Play 4 vs. Chargers: Fourth Quarter | 11:41
Situation: 2nd-&-9
This is the first big mistake of Lock’s career — his first career interception and it came at a terrible time in the game. The game is tied and it's early in the fourth quarter, which is part of the reason this is such a bad play.
Denver is in a pistol formation with 21 personnel (2 RB, 1 TE, 2 WR). The Broncos are loaded to the right, suggesting a run to the right. The Chargers have five men on the line with a single deep safety; they're ready for a run.
At the snap, Lock takes the ball and has a three-step drop. There isn’t pressure coming and there is a decent amount of time to throw, but Lock has his eyes locked on Patrick. One of the Chargers linebackers is just reading Lock’s eyes and he seemingly goes unseen by the QB as he throws the pass straight to the linebacker.
This is a huge mistake at a terrible time. There were a few issues from Lock on this play. First of all, he locked his eyes on one receiver instead of reading the whole field, which is a big no-no for NFL quarterbacks.
That issue is compounded by the decent amount of time he had to go through his reads instead of just locking in on Patrick and making such a bad decision. Lock misses an open running back who had plenty of space to run for more yards if the QB held onto the ball for a second longer and flipped to the other side.
That simple change and Denver would’ve kept the ball and moved downfield to set up a third-and-short if not a new set of downs. Every quarterback will have plays like this, and it coming in his first game wasn't all that shocking. This is something to keep an eye out for in the future.
Play 5 vs. Chargers: Third Quarter | 9:05
Situation: 3rd-&-5
This final play is a good one to show that while a quarterback can do the right thing, there are other factors that can keep a play from truly being great. Denver is spreading out the Chargers defense with five receivers, two to Lock’s left and three to his right. Spreading out the defense gives the quarterback an idea of what the defense is throwing at them.
We 've already seen that Lock can make really good pre-snap reads and this formation just makes that job a little easier. The play calls for the RB Royce Freeman to motion from being lined up out wide to the backfield pre-snap, leaving one receiver to Lock’s left. This motion gives Lock even more information on the Chargers coverage.
The target on this play is TE Noah Fant, who runs a good deep route. Lock has pressure coming and hangs in there to deliver a good throw to the proper spot, outside and away from the defender. With the defender having inside leverage on Fant, Lock had to put it outside to protect the ball.
What Lock did was right, but Fant failed on this play. Fant looks for the ball inside where the defender is which causes him to be late in adjusting to the throw on the outside leading to the incomplete pass. Lock did the right things on this play and made a really good throw with pressure in his face.
The quarterback wants to protect the ball and to help do that, he'll often place it away from the defender. It's a shame because this was so close to being the best play from Lock in his first five games — all he needed was for Fant to do the proper thing and make the play.
Bottom Line
This was a solid game from Lock where he had some big splash plays filled with that enticing potential the Broncos targeted him for, but it also showed off his lack of experience. That was to be expected from the first start of a rookie quarterback, but the question is how much he grows from this game to the next and over the remaining four games he played. Stay tuned for the film pieces from these four games.
For additional insight on Lock's rookie debut, check out the video above before clicking on to the next article.
Follow Erick on Twitter @ErickTrickel and @MileHighHuddle.
