Drew Lock Observes, Doesn't Participate in Tuesday's Practice Ahead of Week 5
There was hope that Drew Lock might be able to play in Week 5 after Denver Broncos' head coach Vic Fangio said on Friday that the second-year quarterback was truly "50-50" to suit up vs. the New England Patriots. As I wrote on Friday, fans would get a true litmus preview of Lock's Week 5 prospects if he threw during Tuesday's practice.
During the portion of Tuesday's practice that was open to the media, however, Lock was not a participant. Lock was seen observing the Broncos' practice from the sidelines.
Does that rule Lock out from Week 5's road tilt at the Patriots? No. But it's not a positive harbinger.
When it comes to injured players returning to the field of play, Coach Fangio errs on the side of caution especially if said player is unable to fully participate in the week's practices leading up to game-time. There are outliers and exceptions but considering that Lock's injury is to his throwing shoulder, optics suggest that Brett Rypien will get his second straight start for the Broncos.
It's possible that Lock has begun to throw again but if he has, we've not been able to witness it in media and there have been no viable outside reports to go on. I would hazard to guess that he's at least attempted to throw, just so the Broncos' medical staff could get a feel for whether there's any pain, discomfort, or just plain 'weirdness' with Lock's throwing motion.
Unfortunately, without a chance to hear from Coach Fangio on Tuesday, we were unable to get any additional insight on Lock's prognosis. Fangio will speak on Wednesday, though, so we should get more definitive information then on where Lock stands with regards to Week 5.
For now, I'd be stunned if Lock suits up on Sunday — simply because he hasn't played since Week 2 and he didn't practice, even on a limited basis, on Tuesday — the first practice of the week in preparation for the Patriots. The Broncos have to game-plan for New England, and it's another road trip to the East Coast in back-to-back weeks, which means the team needs as much preparation time as possible to get Rypien ready to go.
If Lock was ever going to be on pace to play, he would have needed to take early steps in that direction and that hasn't happened. So, unless behind closed doors the reality is different than the optics suggest, expect Rypien to get the nod in Week 5.
Rypien led the Broncos to a 37-28 victory over the New York Jets last week, going 19-of-31 for 242 yards and two touchdowns while throwing three interceptions. It was a very flawed performance punctuated by some impressive feats of poise.
Patriots' head coach Bill Belichick now has a game of Rypien playing Pat Shurmur's scheme on tape with which to study, so the Broncos have to expect a counterpunch of some sort. It'll be interesting to see whether Coaches Shurmur and Fangio can have some Xs and Os gamesmanship dialed up to perhaps keep Belichick off-balance on Sunday at Foxboro.
Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.
