We shouldn’t make too much of a rookie quarterback having a subpar showing in his first preseason game.
Still, Drew Lock, the Denver Broncos’ second-round pick, showed in the Hall of Fame game against Atlanta on Thursday that he is nowhere near ready for prime time.
Coach Vic Fangio said after the game, “I was hoping for more but not surprised.”
“He still has a lot of work to do.”
Fangio added, “I thought his accuracy wasn’t clean all the time along with his reads, but that’s to be expected. We’ve got four more (preseason) games, and we’ve got to get him ready — more ready than he is right now.”
Fangio wasn’t surprised because he said recently, “He’s not a QB yet.”
And added, “He’s a hard-throwing pitcher who doesn’t know how to pitch yet.”
Lock didn’t enter the game until the second period because, even though he is supposed to be the quarterback of the future, Lock is still third on the depth chart behind Joe Flacco and Kevin Hogan.
Lock got off to a shaky start, overthrowing his second pass and then throwing another off-target pass that was almost intercepted.
On his second series, Lock overthrew another pass before completing a 12-yarder to Nick Williams. But then he was sacked twice to end the series.
He wound up going 2-for-5 for 18 yards and a 50.4 rating in the first half and wasn’t much better in the second half. Although he had one good pass dropped, he finished 7-for-11 for just 34 yards and a 68.0 rating.
We shouldn’t overreact to this showing, although overreacting is what we do.
But it is unlikely that Lock can do to Flacco what Lamar Jackson did to Flacco last year.
Lock may need a year to learn how to play before he is thrown into the fire.
The worst-case scenario is that he is the latest John Elway mistake when it comes to drafting quarterbacks.