Pat Shurmur Threw Drew Lock To the Wolves in Bad Circumstances

After Drew Lock hurt his shoulder and re-entered the game, Pat Shurmur's play-calling was questionable at best.

Drew Lock exited Week 17's loss to the Los Angeles Chargers with a right shoulder injury in the first quarter. The Denver Broncos turned to Brett Rypien for one series.

Lock returned to the game and put together a solid performance with all things considered. However, his first drive back after the injury clarified what offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur thinks of him. Saying Shurmur threw him to the wolves would be an understatement. 

There were a couple of plays that Shurmur called that, with an injury already to the quarterback, were head-scratching — plays that put Lock in harm's way when it wasn't needed. 

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The first was a quarterback sneak third down, which has become a go-to for Shurmur. However, having already hurt his throwing shoulder, Shurmur put Lock at greater risk of making the injury worse. That isn't a play-call you make if you're trying to protect the quarterback. 

The other play was a botched fourth-down attempt to get a touchdown that saw a fake reverse to Kendall Hinton, who threw it to Lock ala the 'Philly Special'. Again, it was a nothing-to-lose play-call and was great to see some creativity, but it put the quarterback at added risk. 

It's great that Lock didn't end up getting hurt more than he already was. While I doubt his ability to be a franchise quarterback, seeing a player get hurt is never the desired outcome. Even though the quarterback wasn't injured further, it doesn't make that play calls acceptable. 

The process was terrible, which is often the case with Shurmur and why he should be, and likely will be, fired from his position. Lock went on to play a solid game and showed he still has a future in the NFL in some form or another, and he did that despite missing multiple key players on offense and Shurmur seemingly going against him. 

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