Here's how Allen's Emergence Affected Broncos' Timetable on Drew Lock

Before the Denver Broncos’ Week 9 victory over the Cleveland Browns, it felt like all momentum — despite the dragging of feet in the front office — was building for Drew Lock to return to practice and eventually the roster following the Week 10 bye.

A groundswell of external pressure from both fans and media alike was forcing the Lock conversation inside Dove Valley. As the rookie second-round quarterback languished on injured reserve, 100% healthy and fully recovered from his preseason sprained thumb, the shot-callers at Broncos HQ were being forced to confront the issue.

Then Brandon Allen went out and not only tossed a couple of touchdown passes, but he led the Broncos to an upset win over the Browns. It was an authoritative win in which the Broncos got out to an early lead and never looked back, with Allen posting a 125.6 QB rating in his first career start.

Since Sunday’s win, fans have been pining to know; does Allen’s emergence change the timetable on Lock?

It's impossible to say for sure, as little about the way this front office has managed the Lock situation stands to reason. But I think we can approach a probable answer.

For a fanbase whose team is sitting at 3-6 with an unresolved QB situation, it’s about all people have to look forward to and hang their hat on — getting a long look at Lock. The answer to the question, however, is 100% dependent upon how GM John Elway views the issue.

Ever since the Broncos drafted Lock, it’s felt like the team brass have been intent on Lock red-shirting his rookie year. The thought being that veteran stop-gap Joe Flacco could kill two birds with one stone — keep the Broncos competitive in the short-term, while also keeping the seat warm for Lock, showing him the ropes.

But the Broncos seriously overestimated Flacco’s wherewithal as a starting QB, with Elway laughably declaring that the 12th-year, 34-year-old signal-caller was “still in his prime”. Flacco received a half-season’s audition before succumbing to a neck injury. He couldn’t move the needle, as he left the Broncos’ active roster with the team sitting at 2-6.

Whatever initial plan that Elway and company might have had for red-shirting Lock this year went out the window with the catastrophic failure of the first half of this season. No competent front-office executive could draft a QB that high, only to watch the stop-gap starter flounder at 2-6, and not move mountains to get that young QB out onto the field.

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Lock will need a couple of weeks of practice before he can be inserted, just to shake off the rust and get back into the physical groove of playing quarterback but he’s as ‘ready’ as he’ll ever be. He’s healthy, he’s spent the last two-plus months diligently studying the playbook and going through each Broncos practice twice through the team’s virtual reality program and is champing at the bit to play.

There will never be the perfect time to start the clock on Drew Lock and there will never be a better time than right now, at this very moment, with the Broncos’ season being lost, for Lock to debut and begin his assimilation into the NFL.

With the season’s stakes snuffed out, if the Broncos don’t use the second half of this campaign to A.) get Lock the live-bullet experience he’ll need to develop and B.) get as thorough of an evaluation on his ability to play in the NFL as possible, 2019 will have been another truly wasted season.

The Broncos are cruising for another top-10 pick and if there’s a chance Lock isn’t this team’s future franchise QB, it’s incumbent upon the front office to ascertain that as soon as possible in the wake of a failed season so that the team can know where to place its eggs in the 2020 NFL Draft.

You saw how well a first-time starter in Brandon Allen played in this offense and how explosive the Broncos were. Now imagine a truly dynamic QB calling the signals and running that offense. It’s what NFL dreams are made of and there’s a solid chance Lock could be that QB. But the Broncos won’t know until they play him.

Comparatively, Lock stands head-and-shoulders above Allen from a pure tools perspective. And while it’s true that Allen has more NFL experience than Lock, having entered the league in 2016, it’s only a marginal difference. Those snaps last week were the first of Allen’s NFL career after all.

Elway said last week that the Broncos were “thinking about looking” at Week 11 following the bye to begin practicing Lock. As encouraging as Allen was last week, the bottom line is, it was nowhere near enough to slam the door on the Lock issue, or change the timetable.

Remember, it was the talented but hapless Cleveland Browns. At home, in Denver.

As head coach Vic Fangio said himself, it’s too soon to put Allen in the Ring of Fame. Let’s see how the third-year QB fares on the road in Week 11 at the Minnesota Vikings where Mike Zimmer will have had a couple of weeks to study Allen’s Week 9 tape. And the same holds true for Week 12 at Buffalo.

In a perfect world, Week 13 at home vs. the L.A. Chargers should the debut of Drew Lock. But it won’t be, barring an injury to Allen.

I'm betting that Lock will begin practicing in Week 11 as the Broncos prepare for the Vikings as Elway hinted at last week. Again, nothing Allen did was enough to forestall that from happening.

But if Lock plays this year, as Mike Klis ‘speculated’ back in Week 8, it likely won’t be until Week 16 or 17. Elway told Lock back in early September as the team made the decision to place him on IR that 2019 wouldn’t be “a year off”, priming the young signal-caller and the fanbase for a red-shirt rookie season while communicating to Lock that he needs to keep his nose to the grindstone. Elway’s best-laid plan changed, however, when the Broncos crawled out to a 2-6 start under Flacco and the GM spelled out the new itinerary via Klis on 9NEWS.

Circle Week 11 as the date Lock will begin practicing again. While there is a chance he could start in Week 13 vs. the Chargers, it’s more likely that he’ll be activated to the roster that week and serve as the backup to Allen.

Come Week 16 at home vs. the Detroit Lions and Lock will finally get the nod to start. The Broncos will likely close out 2019 with Lock starting the final two games, both at home, and head into another tumultuous offseason with too small of a sample size to shape any meaningful evaluation on what exactly the team has in their second-round QB.

Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.