George Paton has shown his hand, so he must move on from Drew Lock

You can’t fool the locker room.

We know George Paton tried to acquire Matthew Stafford, and he may be one of the general managers calling on Carson Wentz or Sam Darnold.

The players in the Broncos locker room know that, too.

Perhaps that’s why Kareem Jackson felt comfortable telling TMZ he’s talked to Deshaun Watson about coming to Denver. And maybe that empowered Jerry Jeudy to tell ESPN Radio it would be “exciting to have Watson” and they “looked forward to his decision.”

When the locker room knows the organization doubts the quarterback, problems begin.

When I was in Washington, a point came when Kirk Cousins gave us a better chance to win than Robert Griffin III. We knew it. Mike Shanahan knew it. But the biggest factor was we knew that Shanahan knew.

You can’t fool the locker room. Especially in today’s NFL, where nearly every player’s phone buzzes with a notification of Adam Schefter’s latest tweet. And when you’ve lost the locker room, you’ve got no shot.

George Paton has a six-year deal. He has the time to be patient until he finds the right quarterback. So he certainly doesn’t have to find his next passer in 2021, but he would be wise to try. Not because Drew Lock isn’t capable, not because it’s impossible for Drew Lock to develop, but simply because of the doubt that comes now with the fact the team knows Paton is trying to replace him.

Heading into 2021 with Drew Lock as his quarterback, while the entire roster knows Paton wanted someone else, isn’t the end of the world long term. Paton certainly isn’t the first general manager to publicly swing and miss on a new quarterback.

However, Paton must know that if he doesn’t find his next signal caller in 2021, his locker room is likely to be filled with doubt about their quarterback, who is supposed to be the leader of their locker room. And that’s a tough mountain to climb for any team.

Paton’s shown his hand, there’s no turning back now.