Elway: Drew Lock's Shoulder 'Says He Feels Well'

Pitted against a formidable opponent like Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots, which quarterback gives the Denver Broncos the best chance to win? Drew Lock or Brett Rypien?

If you answered 'Lock', you're sharing a brain with the Broncos — from GM John Elway to head coach Vic Fangio. On Friday, Coach Fangio acknowledged openly that if Lock is healthy, he'll play. There is no other factor, like picking the perfect week to get him back in the lineup.

“Yeah, I see it more along those lines," Fangio said.

The question, though, is whether Lock's previously injured throwing shoulder has healed. Since it is his throwing shoulder, there's a good chance it won't ever get back to 100% during the season. Only sustained rest and recovery are likely to bridge the gap fully.

But can Lock throw without pain and without causing or risking additional damage? That's the million-dollar question.

On Thursday in his conversation with Phil Milani of the team site, Elway said that Lock's, "Shoulder says he feels well."

The full Elway quote gives fans insight into how eager the Broncos are to get Lock back in the lineup and even presents an optimistic tonality that could hint at a Week 5 return.

"Well, the key thing is, we've got to make sure he's healthy," Elway told Milani. "I think, obviously, when you hurt it, you've got to get the confidence back. Not throwing for a week, obviously, or two weeks—however long it's been—you lose some of your touch, some of your accuracy and so you're not as sharp as you were. It takes a little bit of throwing to get that back. His shoulder says he feels well. He's going to practice a little bit today, so we'll see how it goes. But I think, it being the right shoulder is a lot different than [it] being the left shoulder, especially being a thrower. But he'll get that confidence back. Hopefully, he'll make it this week, but if not, we'll look forward to having him against Miami."

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If the Broncos have made a decision on which QB will start in Week 5, the team is yet to make it public. And why would Coach Fangio give New England the advantage of knowing which signal-caller the Broncos will trot out on Monday night?

“Not right now," Fangio said on Friday. "Drew practiced a little bit more yesterday. Obviously, we’re not going to practice today. We’ll see how he’s doing tomorrow, it’s still open and up in the air as to who will play on Monday night.”

There are two ways to look at it; either Fangio is keeping it "open" because the Broncos really are optimistic, based on how Lock is feeling and how he's doing in practice on a limited basis, that he will be good to go on Monday evening. Or, conversely, Fangio is keeping it "open" as a little gamesmanship to keep Belichick and company off-balance, expecting to play Rypien after all.

Whatever happens, it's important to remember that Denver chose not to place Lock on injured reserve — which would have kept him out a minimum of three games (Weeks 3, 4, and 5) — for a reason. That reason? The Broncos felt like, based on the relative severity of his injury, that Lock had a good chance at returning for Week 5 at New England.

And here we are.

With the game getting pushed back from Sunday to Monday, that only widens the opportunity for Lock to get back to feeling as close to 100% as possible and an extra day for the team to prepare him to start. From 10,000 feet, it would appear as if Rypien is going to start his second straight game especially considering how the Broncos slow-rolled Lock's return to the field last year as he languished on IR for over a month fully healthy and recovered from his thumb sprain.

I would hope that Elway and Fangio learned from that miscalculation because had the Broncos activated Lock off IR in Week 9 (when he was eligible to *again, he was admittedly healthy*), maybe the Broncos don't squander a 20-point halftime lead in Minnesota and maybe, just maybe, they're able to compete at Buffalo and squeeze out a win. Even if the result of the Bills game was unchanged, that loss to Minnesota could have been forestalled, perhaps, if the Broncos had pulled the trigger on Lock at the first opportunity to do so, which, again, was in Week 9.

Back to the present. Analyzing what the Broncos are doing, what they're saying, and the tonality thereof, my intuition tells me that Lock is going to play on Monday. I could be wrong. But the time for waiting until the 'ideal' matchup, which some say is next week at home vs. Miami, is over.

Lock's not a rookie. And the Broncos can ill afford to roll the dice on another Conference game without arguably their most important player in the lineup. Not if this team wants to keep its postseason hopes alive while it still can.

So, again, acknowledging that Lock's shoulder might never get back to 100% during the season, if he can throw without pain or risk of exacerbating the injury right now, by virtue of their 1-3 start, the Broncos might have no choice but to play him and let the chips fall where they may. At least this time around, he has an experienced, competent right tackle to protect Lock and keep him upright.

Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.