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For the Denver Broncos, the entire football world seemed to know John Elway was enamored with Missouri quarterback Drew Lock very early on in the 2019 NFL Draft process. It was no surprise that a majority of pre-draft mocks had the Broncos selecting Lock with their 10th overall pick as it was widely seen that he was a first round talent at the sports most important position.
Instead, Denver traded back in the first round with Lock on the board despite two quarterbacks being taken already. Then with a third quarterback taken by Washington, the Broncos decided to go with their board and take Iowa tight end Noah Fant. In the process, Elway secured another second round pick - the one he intended all along to use on Lock if the opportunity arose.
Then Day 2 began.
With the 41st pick, Denver again passed on Lock for offensive guard Dalton Risner. From there, word apparently got into the Broncos war room that the Green Bay Packers were looking to take a flyer on Lock with their second round pick. That was when Elway pounced. He packaged a couple of late round picks to move up from the 52nd spot to the 42nd spot to take Drew Lock.
SB Nation’s Dan Kadar in his post-draft one A+ move each team made on draft weekend, he noted that this entire sequence of events was Elway’s shining moment on draft weekend.
Waiting on Drew Lock. John Elway and the Broncos could have taken quarterback Drew Lock in the first round and it would have surprised no one. Instead, the team waited until the 42nd overall pick. This is the smart play on a flawed quarterback rather than drafting him in the top 10.
I would have to agree with every part of that assessment. While Lock may well end up being a franchise talent, there are red flags. However, Elway had learned his lesson ignoring those red flags with first round picks with Paxton Lynch and, instead, played the value pick game and won big.