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The Denver Broncos only have one game left, and then it’s the end of the season. Ideally, the Broncos finish 6-10.
Obviously, this is nowhere near the level of excellence of this franchise and suffice it to say that everyone – from executives to coaches to players – will enter the offseason with the special burden of to be the first team in NFL history to win a Super Bowl and miss the playoffs in each of the following five seasons.
Some players will hit the offseason with a proverbial fire lit under their hindquarters. After the display Justin Fields put on Friday night against Clemson in the college football playoffs, sending Trevor Lawrence’s side out with prejudice and relative ease, Broncos fans are only gnawing their hearts at the act without thin and tortuous of envy of the QB. .
Drew Lock will be one of those players whose offseason is likely to be quite active. Without a doubt, he’ll take some much-needed R’s and R’s before coming back, but Year 3 for Lock is decisive.
It’s possible that 2020 was decisive and the Broncos have already decided his fate as a starter. It’s possible Lock’s tone could change when we hear GM John Elway on Monday for his end-of-season presser, but I doubt it. Optics suggest the Broncos will give Lock another boost, knowing 2021 is a do or die.
On Thursday, Broncos offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur was a little reluctant to turn his gaze towards the offseason, especially with one game to play, and he was a bit low-key when it came to his offseason plan or his advice. for Lock. But he alluded to the subject.
“I think the important thing for all the players, especially the guys who have been through seasons like this – in my mind it’s kind of a first season for him is to go back and catch his breath, ”Shurmur said. “Then we’ll go back and dig and reevaluate everything and try to get back into the mental part of each situation and say, ‘OK, let’s talk about this.'”
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Wait, the coach’s first tip is to relax? As counterintuitive as it may sound for the starting quarterback of a losing double-digit team, it could be exactly what the doctor ordered Lock to reload and restart.
“I think that’s it, just kind of go back and think about everything that’s happened, and then we’re going to sit down and give her a detailed plan on how we want to proceed,” Shurmur said. . “Again, I don’t know what the offseason is going to be like yet. Hopefully we get through all of this COVID stuff, so that we can work together here in the offseason, physically.”
If it comes down to NFLPA president JC Tretter (Cleveland Browns center), there will be no OTAs on the field, no preseason, and Zoom’s life will continue. However, the NFL has proven it can overcome the pitfalls of a COVID-impacted season and keep players safe. Although many players have contracted the virus, luckily there have been no extreme cases of hospitalization or worse.
A few coaches have had a close confrontation with COVID-19, including Broncos defensive coordinator Ed Donatell, who has missed six games and has been hospitalized this season. But the players, being the world-class athletes that they are and given their relative age demographics, sniffed and been under bad weather, but bounced back.
The NFL will remain in a waiting pattern when it comes to the off-season training schedule, but Tretter’s goal of eliminating everything but training camp and the regular season remains a possibility depending on what happens. going on with the pandemic over the next few months.
“I would love to be able to turn those zooms off – I’m finally learning to press the mute button and it’s been since March, but go back and re-evaluate,” Shurmur said.
Regarding Lock, Shurmur concluded by saying, “Think about it and think about it – these are things I could have done better; these are things I did well. I have a list of things that I have done well. we’re going to chat, and I’m just going to keep it private at this point. “
Lock said earlier this week that the full season’s sample size of experience and play strip would be an unrivaled resource for him as a tool to improve this offseason. Naturally, his first goal for improvement will be to focus on areas of his game that are still rough or imperfect. Here are some suggestions.
- Footwork.
- Mechanics / throwing platform.
- Knowledge of the scheme.
- Reading of the defense pre-snap.
- Reading post-snap cover.
- Use your eyes to better manipulate and control security.
- Accuracy of the deep ball.
- Decision making.
The latter will be difficult to solve without time spent on the task and without an increase in live rehearsals in games that have stakes. After all, there’s a reason quarterbacks often come into the league and throw a lot of interceptions to gradually minimize them.
You must be exposed to fire. QBs must go through the crisis in real time to deduce how they will react to a given situation; which are always random and unique to time and place.
It comes with experience and maturation. The problem for Lock is that if he doesn’t understand the other things I listed above, it will continue to haunt him and exacerbate his decision making.
All he can do is eat the elephant one fork at a time. Take it by the inch, it’s a snap. In the yard, it becomes difficult.
We’ll see how determined the Broncos are to continue supporting Lock as he navigates this learning curve through trial and error. First, the management team will be watching closely to see how Lock punctuates his second season against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.
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