Broncos QB Drew Lock Slammed by Colin Cowherd Again: 'He's the Fifth-Best QB in His Division'
In the hearts and minds of most local and national media, Drew Lock has been kicked to the curb like yesterday's trash. After failing to fully capitalize on the fleeting opportunity he was given to be The Guy in 2020, Lock has become worse than an afterthought as the Denver Broncos have publicly pursued nearly every veteran quarterback even tangentially available on the NFL market.
The national perspective's antipathy for Lock has been a theme since well before the Broncos drafted him in the second round two years ago. But like some sort of hater's virus, the derision for Lock has now been transmitted to the local level and it seems that everyone in Denver media (almost) has a bad case of 'Lock sucks-itis.'
The one voice in the national media that ran against that grain was FOX Sports syndicated radio host Colin Cowherd. But that changed in a big, bad way last fall when Lock suffered an injury to his throwing shoulder that caused him to miss 2.5 games.
Cowherd has now fully taken up the banner for all Lock haters in media and the shock-jock's latest diatribe took it to another level.
"He ain't it, as the kids say," Cowherd said on Wednesday. "Too casual. Just doesn't play with enough urgency. He played AAU basketball—a little too cool for the room and that's—cool guys don't win in this league. Baker [Mayfield] tries to be too cool. Johnny Manziel tried to be too cool. Cam Newton sometimes was more worried about being cool. Don't be cool, be urgent. Be kind of a dork. Like every play matters—Drew Lock doesn't play with that kind of urgency. He lets too many balls go that you just wouldn't throw in high school. Just not-good-enough throws, so he's done. But it's now official. Denver is looking for a quarterback now."
Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
Cowherd has been transfixed on Lock's "coolness" for months now. The FOX Sports hot-take artist went from championing Lock's swagger and 'it' factor coming out of the signal-caller's rookie campaign, and predicting him to be the next "pop" NFL quarterback, to decrying his confidence and machismo.
In the wake of Michael Lombardi's report (which was refuted by every Denver insider with a phone) that claimed the Broncos nearly made a blockbuster QB trade last week, and that GM George Paton and the team brass have fully moved off Lock as a starter candidate for 2021, Cowherd has doubled down on his disrespect for the ex-Missouri star. Cowherd believes Lock is done, washed up, kaput and that he won't be given a second chance by the Broncos, or any other NFL team.
"What's really happening in the NFL right now, it used to be when you were a quarterback, you came into the league and you got one shot. Drew Brees was the exception. If you got hurt or you didn't work, it was over," Cowherd said. "It's all done now. You do get a second chance now. Carson Wentz is going to get one. Sam Darnold is going to get one. I think Jameis Winston is going to get one. Cam Newton got one. Marcus Mariota, I think, is going to get one. Ryan Tannehill got one. So why is that happening now? Why do quarterbacks get a second chance?"
I don't know, Colin. Tell us why quarterbacks get a second chance now — ignoring former second-swing heroes like Rich Gannon, Jake Plummer, and Kurt Warner.
"There's two things. A.) it's just a more transactional league. There's more trades made all the time and quarterbacks, like everybody else, can be moved," Cowherd said. "Number 2 is, [it's a] bigger business than ever, more money than ever. GMs and coaches are just less patient. So they're just going to move off you—it doesn't mean the league is going moving off you. It means your team is more willing quickly to move off you."
While I agree that NFL teams are much less inclined nowadays to pine away in long-suffering for a highly-drafted QB to turn the corner, there are plenty of examples of teams riding out the storm and holding onto a highly-drafted player through the term of his rookie deal. If you don't know by the time a QB plays out his four or five-year rookie contract, then it's an answer in and of itself. That, I'll acknowledge.
But Lock is just entering Year 3 and with 13 of his 18 starts coming in a pandemic-influenced season that saw his OTAs and preseason disappear while a new offensive coordinator took over, there were way too many mitigating factors for me to feel confident in any evaluation on Lock based solely off of 2020 (good or bad). Throw in the avalanche of injuries, including to his No. 1 receiver Courtland Sutton and Lock himself, and I don't believe there's enough there to say emphatically that Lock can't be The Guy.
On the other hand, I'm not naive. Lock hasn't proven that he is The Guy, hence the dilemma Paton finds himself in as a first-time GM. But, remember, it's not as if Lock has shown absolutely no promise. He's got two watershed games of prolific production on his resume and though it didn't translate to team victories like it did his rookie year, Lock improved down the stretch by leaps and bounds in 2020. From Week 11 on.
Cowherd doesn't want to hear it.
"And, with this influx of terrific young college quarterbacks ready to play, teams roll the dice more. Joe Burrow walked in with a bad O-line and a bad team and we knew by the second week at halftime, [the] dude can play," Cowherd said. "Drew Lock, [I] thought he was interesting for about five or six or seven starts. Now we got 18 [starts], [the] dude can't play in this league. He won't get a second shot. There's an old rule in the NFL—I've said this multiple times—you can't have the fourth-best quarterback in the division. If you do, you've got to move off them. So, in the AFC West, [Patrick] Mahomes is Number 1, [Justin] Herbert is Number 2, [Derek] Carr is Number 3. Drew Lock is not Number 4. Marcus Mariota, the backup to Carr, is better than Drew Lock, so Drew Lock is the fifth-best quarterback in his division. It doesn't work that way. You've got to move off him. Nothing against the kid, but 18 starts, he's too casual, too many picks—he's just not buttoned up. You've got to move off him."
Listen, it's Cowherd's job to have bold, controversial opinions. But something tells me that the disdain he has for Lock has more to do with the radio personality's bold 'pop' prediction not coming true than anything the QB did.
Odds are, unless Paton is able to move mountains and ply a Deshaun Watson off of Houston's hands, or get Russell Wilson out of Seattle, Lock is going to get Year 3 in Denver anyway. If that's how it plays out, one would hope that the reports of Lock attacking the 2021 offseason and living at Broncos HQ will pay dividends and come out in the wash for the team next fall.
The Broncos have invested time and resources into Lock. The team has wandered the QB desert with Lock, absorbing the jabs and punches of his NFL learning curve along the way. To abandon that investment now when the Broncos could be on the brink of reaping the returns, would be the epitome of folly in the humble estimation of this NFL writer.
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