ENGLEWOOD – At one time or another, EVERYBODY had Drew Lock getting drafted by the Denver Broncos.
He smiled sheepishly when told this. Everybody had Lock going to the Broncos with their No. 10 overall draft pick.
He did get drafted by the Broncos, all right. But with the No. 42 pick in the second round.
We won’t tell him the difference in signing bonus between the No. 10 and No. 42 pick.
“Please don’t," he said with a smile.
For those reading at home or on the phone, the slide cost him approximately $8 million – from an estimated $11 million signing bonus at No. 10 to roughly $3 million at 42.
Still better than most Missouri graduates are going to get as they enter the workforce. And if it works out, Lock can recoup those lost wages by hitting free agency one year earlier than first-round picks -- after his fourth season instead of year five.
But enduring the Thursday night slide into Friday was a rough ordeal.
“You go into the NFL draft and not everything’s certain," Lock said in a sit-down interview with 9News. “I knew there were a couple options to get picked in that first round and it didn’t happen. Me and my family and a couple of my friends and a couple coaches were sitting in the room and sat in there for four hours and you didn’t get your name called.
“One of those nightmares you don’t necessarily think about going into the draft. I went back to my hotel, sat around with my buddies, my family and let it out. Let some emotions out there. But the sun came up the next day. There were more picks to be made and the Denver Broncos picked me. And that was one of the teams we looked at as an awesome fit. With Elway and obviously Joe being here now and I couldn’t be more excited to be here."
Truth is, Lock may well have gone with the No. 10 pick except general manager John Elway didn’t want a relentless Joe Flacco-Drew Lock quarterback conversation to carry on every day on talk radio.
Taking Lock in the second round diffuses that somewhat.
“I was comfortable with whatever situation I was going to get put in to," Lock said. “That was the talk beforehand: There were spots were I might go in and play; there were spots were I might go and sit behind a guy.
“For me to sit behind a Super Bowl-winning quarterback and be in the room with a bunch of awesome quarterbacks and start learning the game, learning the NFL game, the NFL style, I think it’s an awesome situation for me to be in. I’ll get ready every single day like I’m the starter and if that time does come I’ll be ready to play."
Like all the Broncos other draft picks, Lock had a pre-draft visit at the team’s UCHealth Training Center headquarters. With Elway in the room, they went over film of Lock’s play at Missouri and film of the Broncos’ play in 2018.
Offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello drew up some plays, then had Lock go up to the white board and re-draw the plays.
“I taught them like I was the rookie Q teaching my receivers," Lock said. “That was big. They were able to learn about me a little more on the football side of things. People know me as a person, but get me in the film room and let me talk about football."
Lock had been the Missouri starting quarterback since a couple games into his freshman year, when he replaced the suspended Mauty Mauck. Lock’s left tackle that year was a senior, Connor McGovern. McGovern is now the Broncos’ starting center.
“He’s going to get a little more mature quarterback, that’s for sure," Lock said of McGovern. “He had a wide-eyed freshman at 195 pounds that needed his help to get up a couple times. He’s definitely going to get a different guy. He’s going to get a more vocal guy and he’s going to get a little more knowledge out of me and I think it will be awesome to get a huddle with him and look at him in his eyes not wearing black and gold, but blue and orange."
