Broncos QB Drew Lock Will Begin Practicing This Week
With the Denver Broncos coming out of their Week 10 bye, fans have been waiting with bated breath to find out whether quarterback Drew Lock would finally be activated to practice.
That's the first step to Lock returning to the field of play from where he currently resides on injured reserve. On Monday, we got our answer from head coach Vic Fangio.
"He's practicing," Fangio said from the podium.
The question now is, how many reps will Lock get? He hasn't seen the practice field since spraining the thumb on his throwing hand in the third preseason game.
If indeed, the Broncos plan on playing Lock at any point this season, it's incumbent upon the team to get him as many reps as possible as soon as possible.
"We'll try and get him as many as we can," Fangio said. "Some of that will be scout team, too. And remember, this guy hasn't taken a snap and been in a huddle since early August."
If the Broncos are smart, they'll immediately give Lock whatever second-team/backup reps Brett Rypien would otherwise get. Now that the team is officially pulling the trigger on activating Lock to practice, nothing should stand in the way of getting him as ready as possible and that means the lion's share of at least the backup reps this week.
Brandon Allen will start this week on the road at the Minnesota Vikings. Rypien can still be the backup in that game if the Broncos remain stubborn about not wanting to officially activate Lock to the roster.
Fangio wouldn't commit to whether Lock will eventually make his way back to the 53-man roster but the coach did say that it all depends on "how he looks".
"He has to show that he belongs," Fangio said.
With three months' worth of going through each Broncos practice twice on the virtual reality program the team uses, I'm curious to see how well Lock assimilates to actual live reps again.
My bet, though, is that Lock will make the Broncos feel pretty comfortable in a relatively short period of time. At least the rookie second-rounder is getting some activity again.
I'll still be stunned if Lock gets anything more than the final two games of the season to audition for the 2020 starter's job.
Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.
