The Denver Broncos held their annual pre-draft presser on Thursday with General Manager George Paton answering questions from the local media. The first question out of the gates is one that caught everyone’s attention when he was asked if he believed Drew Lock could contribute and win games in Week 1.
“I don’t know about Week 1, but we’re really high on Drew,” Paton said. “I like seeing Drew here every morning when I come in. He’s working hard and trending in the right direction. As you know, he has a lot of talent. I think he’s becoming a better pro, but we’re still going to look at the quarterback position. I’ve said since I’ve gotten here that we want to bring in competition. That’s the goal, and we plan on doing that.”
The part that stands out is Paton’s commitment to looking at improving the position in the 2021 NFL Draft or through a veteran in free agency. While I don’t think a free agent is the route they will go, since that well has run dry, I do think we could be looking at a high draft pick is Denver is in position to get a guy early.
There is little on tape that suggest Lock is going to suddenly ‘get it’ and take the league by storm. So if the cards don’t fall the right way for Paton and the Broncos to draft a quarterback early, I think the hope there is that he’ll progress enough to not be a detriment to an offense that could only muster more than 22 points in game a total of five times last season.
Which leaves us with a Twitter poll to close this out. If Denver does go quarterback in the Top 10, who do you hope they get?
If the Broncos pick one, who do you hope it is?
— Joe Rowles (@JoRo_NFL) April 22, 2021