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On July 19, Denver Broncos head coach Vic Fangio leveled a blunt criticism on raw rookie passer Drew Lock, saying he’s “not a quarterback yet. He’s a hard-throwing pitcher that doesn’t know how to pitch yet.”
On Monday, Fangio updated (and upgraded) his opinion of Lock, who’s unofficially been promoted to backup quarterback, leapfrogging veteran journeyman Kevin Hogan.
“He’s getting better,” Fangio said. “I think he’s getting better. He’s not what I would call—he’s not a union NFL quarterback yet, but he’s improving.”
In the wonderful world of Fangio coach-speak, this spells progress for Lock, the Broncos’ second-round pick and presumed heir to Joe Flacco’s QB1 throne.
Like the rest of us, Fangio has eyeballs and saw Lock’s development take a small upward tick in last week’s preseason loss to the Seattle Seahawks, when the former Missouri star led the team with 17 completions on 28 attempts for 180 yards, one touchdown and an interception, nearly mounting a fourth-quarterback comeback amid Denver’s 22-14 defeat.
Lock absorbed the entirety of second-team reps Sunday as the Broncos returned to practice, leading many to assume he supplanted Hogan, who was wildly unimpressive (3-of-7 for 27 yards) at Seattle.
“I’m not. You said ‘we.’ I’m not. You can, but I’m not,” Fangio said, keeping his QB cards close to his chest.
Lock as the No. 2
Whether Fangio wants to admit it is immaterial. The script always called for Lock to force Hogan off the roster, or demoted to the third-string insurance policy. The latter option remains open for Hogan, but he’s clearly no longer the best backup QB in town.
As of now, the reps are being divvied with Flacco running the ones, Lock the twos, undrafted rookie Brett Rypien the threes, and Hogan the scout team — read into that what you will. Fangio appears pleased with the arrangement heading into preseason Week 3, a Monday Night Football home game against the San Francisco 49ers.
“I think we’re mixing it pretty good,” Fangio said. “We’ve charted our reps here and after the first five practices they about fell just the way we wanted them to. Nobody was much more than 37 percent and nobody was much lower than 28 percent. Now some of the guys that were injured, you don’t count those. We’re right where we want to be right now.”
QB Plan vs. 49ers
Although the Broncos won’t divulge this bit of information until later in the week, considering they have an extra day to “gameplan,” Lock figures to receive at least a full quarter — and perhaps the entire second half — against the 49ers.
Lock will enter the contest after Flacco, who should see more playing time in another tune-up tilt. When exactly Flacco exits is in Denver’s control, but when Lock’s night is done is ultimately up to Lock.
“Don’t make the same mistake twice,” Fangio advised his young quarterbacks. “Improvement, confidence, the ability to move on to the next play no matter what happened the previous play, be able to handle themselves in the huddle, be commanding out there and give the other 10 guys confidence that they know what they’re doing. That’s done two ways. Eighty percent of it is performance, but 20 percent is how you carry yourself too.”
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Follow Zack Kelberman on Twitter @KelbermanNFL
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