Denver Broncos' team president John Elway expressed his commitment to second-year quarterback Drew Lock and explained why the team didn’t pursue veteran free-agent quarterbacks.
The Broncos drafted Lock in the second round of the 2019 draft. He started five games for Denver last season and won four games. He had seven touchdown passes and 1,020 passing yards.
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“There are some [veteran] quarterbacks that are still available, but we decided that we're going to build around Drew, give him that opportunity to take the job,” Elway told reporters in a conference call Monday, according to CBS Sports.
“We drafted him last year in the second round with the idea that hopefully, he was going to be a guy that could step in. Obviously we had Joe [Flacco] at that point in time and didn't know exactly how that was going to work out. Hoped it would work out better than it did [for Flacco], but it didn't. Then Drew got an opportunity to play late in the year, and I think he came in and showed us a lot of the things that he can do.”
Elway said he doesn’t think Lock has “made it,” but added the team has high hopes for him.
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“We believe he's got the potential to do it, and we think he's just going to continue to get better and better," Elway said. “But he's still in the learning process and knows that he's going to have to get better. But we really liked what we saw. We liked what we saw last year when he was on IR and how he tried to prepare himself and get ready to play when he had a chance to play. And then he came in and played very well, won four out of the last five games. We feel that he's that guy.”
Denver has the No.15 pick in the draft on Thursday and the No. 46 pick in the second round on Friday. They also have a few mid-to-late round selections.
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The Broncos also made a few key moves in the offseason, adding A.J. Bouye and Jurrell Casey on defense and Melvin Gordon on offense.
Denver finished the 2019 season 7-9.