The Denver Broncos are just two days into training camp, but most eyes are on Drew Lock. After taking the reins of the offense with five games left in the 2019 season, he did more than enough for John Elway to invest heavily into the offensive side of the ball to help get him as many weapons as possible.
The pads come on tomorrow. #BroncosCamp Day 2 highlights: pic.twitter.com/izaTN6Nunc
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) August 16, 2020
With rookies Jerry Jeudy and KJ Hamler paired with Courtland Sutton and Noah Fant, Lock has more than enough weapons to throw to in 2020. He got some work in with Fant this offseason and, on Friday, Fant talked about the chemistry they are building together.
“With Drew, we got a couple of good sessions in,” Fant said. “I’d say like 10 or 15 of them—throwing with him and just kind of working out with him obviously in small groups with everything that’s going on right now. It was good. That helped us out a lot being able to work out together and kind of run through those beginning plays together and kind of try and make up for lost time. That was very helpful.”
That chemistry continued on the field and while the defense has had the better go at it through the first two days, Lock has held his poise. The respect he has from the players on the defensive side of the ball is evident.
“He looks really good,” Todd Davis said of Lock on Sunday. “I love the way he takes changes and tries to fit balls in tight windows. I love how quickly he gets the ball out of his hands when he sees the route or he sees the play develop it’s coming out now. I told him that the other day. I like what he’s showing us. I can see where he’s going to take it in the future. It’s going to be phenomenal.”
Earlier I mentioned the weapons Lock had at wide receiver and tight end, but Elway also added Melvin Gordon III to be the 1-2 punch with Phillip Lindsay. So far, the two have split reps and been very active in the passing game - giving Lock even more options on passing downs.
Gordon was asked about his impressions of Lock so far and he provided some of the best insight yet of the young quarterback. Lock is driven to be great and puts in the work to get better every single day - sometimes even between sessions at practice.
“I like him,” Gordon said of Lock. “Like I said, he’s a fiery quarterback. He wants to be great. He wants to learn and he’s hard on himself. Anytime he makes a bad throw, whether it’s pass catching, skeleton [drills] or anything, he’s like, ‘Hey, Mel, let’s run it back on the side. Let’s run that play back over.’ He wants to be perfectionist and I feel like as a quarterback—in some type of fashion—you have to be and think like that in a sense. Like I said, he’s a competitive person and I like that. I like that in a quarterback. I like a guy that’s going to put it all out there on the line for you, and I feel like on game day, he’s going to give us that. You like to be led by guys like that.”
That’s a bit of a Peyton Manning-like mentality right there. Of course, Lock has to come out in real games and produce for it all to come together, but from what we’re seeing and hearing of him so far, he is putting the work in. When a guy works hard to perfect his craft, it will accent his natural talent all that much more. I am personally really looking forward to watching Drew Lock grow as an NFL quarterback this season.