Rumor: Broncos had to dummy down the playbook for quarterback Drew Lock

According to Pro Football Network’s Tony Pauline, he has heard that the people within the Broncos are “not sold” on Drew Lock and are “down on Drew Lock”. Pauline also heard at the Senior Bowl from people who know the Broncos well is that they had to “dummy down” the playbook late in the year to help Lock out.

Obviously, this isn’t great news for Lock and the change of play-calling and the simplifying of the offense was rather evident in the second-half of the year. This ironically, is also the time period the “Pro Drew Lock” side of the argument points to as Lock finally developing. However, if what Pauline is hearing is true then it does put a damper on Lock’s “improved” final six games.

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Pauline continued here by saying that people at the Senior Bowl believe that the Broncos will ultimately need to move on from Drew Lock because he is unable to handle a complex offense.

This is some pretty damning stuff from Pauline who is well connected within the NFL/Scouting community. I’ve sourced him here before and trust his thoughts and sources. What he is saying also backs up the Broncos actions this offseason. Depending which trade report you believe, the Broncos had some level of interest in quarterback Matt Stafford and may or may not have offered the 9th overall pick along with Lock. These are not actions of a team that are overly thrilled of Lock in my opinion and what Pauline is hearing confirms that.

It also makes sense for people within the Broncos to be down on Drew Lock. Fangio, Shurmur and others are coaching for their jobs this season. If they needed to dumb down the offense for a quarterback that still ranked at the bottom of just about every quarterback metric out there and was tied for the league lead in interceptions then I too would be down on said quarterback as well.

You can listen to his full thoughts on Lock and everything else he had to say in the video below. He starts talking about Lock at the three minute mark.

Let me know your thoughts about what Pauline heard about Lock at the Senior Bowl. Do you think he’s right? Do you think making the playbook simpler was a good thing and not a bad thing? Or whatever else is on your mind.