Broncos Country needs to start being nice to Drew Lock

Last week, Drew Lock found himself in the middle of a very odd twitter exchange that went viral. A Seahawks fan tweeted that tennis is not a sport, to which the official twitter account of U.S. Open Tennis responded with “not a sport says the person about to watch 17 games of Drew Lock at QB.” Of all the things we expected to see that day, an argument between a Seahawks fan and U.S. Open Tennis was not one of them.

Somehow, for a time, Drew Lock became a bigger story than Russell Wilson.

It was kind of a funny situation. But it also wasn’t very cool of U.S. Open Tennis to bash Drew Lock when he had nothing to do with the situation.

There was some laughter at the tweet; that’s okay. But for Broncos fans, our time bashing Drew Lock should come to an end.

As Broncos Country turns the page to the Russell Wilson era, it’s time to appreciate Drew Lock. There’s no arguing that Lock was not the answer in Denver.

Lock was ineffective, but so was everything else the Broncos tried since Super Bowl 50. However, for a stretch, Lock was the lone bright spot at quarterback in the last six seasons.

Of all the quarterbacks the Broncos started between Peyton Manning and Russell Wilson, Lock was the only one that provided excitement. Lock came off the bench his rookie season and had a record of 4-1 as a starter. Prior to Lock taking over, the Broncos were 3-8. They finished 7-9 after being energized by the rookie quarterback.

From there, Broncos fans had reason to feel like they finally had their guy. Lock played with confidence and swagger. He wasn’t repeating mistakes and was converting third downs. The future was promising. He was Buzz Lightyear to his teammates.

Not everything has a fairytale ending, however. It struck midnight quickly on Lock and the Broncos.

The wheels eventually fell off. There are multiple reasons that can be attributed to this, such as the atrocious hiring of Pat Shurmur to be Denver’s offensive coordinator, as well as the film exposing Lock’s inability to call out protection and read defenses.

As Lock struggled through his second season, the opinions on the quarterback became more intense. Somehow, Lock became as divisive in Denver as Tim Tebow. Any day of the week on social media, you could find Broncos fans arguing back and forth. At some point, people’s disdain for the QB wasn’t about Lock himself, but more about the signal caller’s fans.

People began to root against Lock not because of him, but because they wanted to stick it to his defenders. It got silly. Lock supporters came up with really odd reasons to defend him, such as comparing him to John Elway and Josh Allen. In turn, people would root against Lock just to prove his defenders wrong.

In the end, everybody was just seeing what they wanted. Nobody was rational.

Frustration with Lock’s play was understandable. He became predictable and easily defended. Lock also didn’t do himself any favors when he broke COVID protocols in 2020.

Lock’s lack of success in Denver was disappointing. There’s blame to go around, much of the responsibility should fall on Lock, but he shouldn’t be disliked for it.

Lock wanted to be the face of the franchise. He came into a camp battle in 2021 and played well despite having a head coach who clearly didn’t want him to be the starter.

The U.S. Open Tennis twitter account was a funny online moment at the expense of Drew Lock. That goes with being an NFL player.

As Broncos fans, it might have provided a chuckle, but we have no reason to pile on Lock. In Denver, we should move on from the mocking of Lock. He was far from perfect, but he was also the product of continual poor organizational decision making.

The Lock experiment in Denver did not work. That much is obvious. But he gave us hope in late 2019. Lock saved Vic Fangio’s first year as head coach and gave us something to look forward to the following season. It didn’t work out, but Lock wanted to win in Denver and for that everybody should lay off of him.

Now that Russell Wilson is in Denver, we can move on from everything that happened since 2016, not just Lock. In 2019, for five games Drew Lock made the Broncos worth watching. As Lock looks to resurrect his career, Broncos Country should hold no ill will towards their former starter and wish him well.

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