The lack of on-field work at the team facility this offseason has “definitely tempered” Broncos General Manager John Elway’s expectations for the team’s offense this season. It has not tempered quarterback Drew Lock’s expectations.
“Not being able to be with the guys as much as you normally would is not going to change how I feel going into the season,” Lock said Friday, via Aric DiLalla of the team website. “I still want to do the things pre-COVID that I thought we could do this year. I still want to do those things even though COVID hit the country and hit us and allowed us not to be with each other. Also, the real factor of it is that, yes, we didn’t get enough time with each other. We’re going to have a shortened period of time where we’re going to have to pick up a lot of things extremely quickly. It might not be the prettiest at first, but our job is to make the mistake, learn from it and try not to make that mistake more than once because we really don’t have time to keep making the same mistakes.
“I’m still expecting the same things from us this year because we’re going to put in the extra work to be able to make up for that time lost.”
The Broncos are installing their offense and have only 45 days until their season opener against the Titans.
But Lock has something he didn’t have last year as a rookie: The respect of his teammates. He earned that going 4-1 and passing for 1,020 yards, seven touchdowns and three interceptions.
“For me to be able to feel like what I did last year and the comments from everyone this offseason and just being able to walk into the locker room and feel like I have the respect of everybody, that is 100 percent the one goal that I set for that first year, just gaining respect from this team,” Lock said. “Now that I have that, there’s no worries about personalities [or] making relationships because we all know who I am. I know everybody on this team. I know how they act. I know who they are as person. Now it’s time for ball, to where if I need to jump someone, I’m not the rookie anymore yelling at a third- [or] fourth-year guy. It’s ‘That’s Drew yelling at us. That’s Drew getting on us.’ It’s a whole different mentality behind having a second-year quarterback rather than a rookie quarterback.”