There's only one reason Kevin Hogan remains Broncos' backup QB

John Elway and the Denver Broncos are all in on Joe Flacco. The team is hopeful Flacco can resurrect his career from the past couple of seasons that saw him not only decline statistically, but suffer from a hip injury.

The team brass are relying on Flacco to bring the Broncos back from the disaster that was Vance Joseph. The Broncos fully expect Flacco to get them back to the playoffs. Elway and company are hopeful the 12th-year veteran can be a knock-off version of Peyton Manning 2.0. As Flacco goes, so do the Broncos.

Now, what about the backup quarterback position? The team invested a second-round pick on Drew Lock and believe that he can take the reins from Flacco in a year or two.

Lock has all the physical tools and, so far, has shown the drive to improve and be an NFL quarterback. Why then would the Broncos be holding on to Kevin Hogan as the No. 2 QB behind Flacco?

Is there anyone in their right mind who expects Hogan to take the team to the playoffs if Flacco goes down for the season? How about just keeping the team in the mix if the Flacco is lost for a four-game stretch?

This is a guy who is 0-1 in his only start and seven percent of his attempts have ended in an interception.

The season is lost if Flacco gets injured, period. Broncos fans are hoping that doesn’t happen, but if it does why not let Lock learn under fire?

Make Lock the next in line and throw him into games so he can develop in live situations? Why not invest the practice time to get him ready as the No. 2 guy? The team could move on from Hogan and save nearly $1 million in cap space.

The reason has to be that the coaches know that by throwing Lock into the fire it will likely stunt his growth. Maybe irreversibly so.

If Lock is the future, the Broncos want to give him every chance to succeed. That means he needs to sit and learn. The brass won’t chance ruining his confidence just for the sake of live reps. He can sit and learn this season and be ready in year two to learn under fire as the No. 2 QB.

Drew Lock has all the physical traits that can help him succeed in the NFL, but he has much to learn. In college, he didn’t have to go to the line, read the defense, make adjustments, or do much of what is required from NFL quarterbacks.

The calls came in and he snapped the ball. It was far too simple to make it an easy transition to the NFL.

Throwing Lock to the wolves before he is ready could end the career of this promising young player. The Broncos' coaches are doing the right thing with him and that is a good sign after two years of complete mismanagement of players by the previous coaching staff.

Follow Thomas on Twitter @ThomasHallNFL.