ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — As Drew Lock continues developing into a proven starting NFL quarterback, he appeared to make progress on a day that wasn’t going well.
Having performed well through the first week of training camp, Lock had a tough day Sunday. His passes were a tad off. Not by much. But enough.
He didn’t get on-field sympathy from his head coach. Vic Fangio, who doubles as defensive coordinator, doesn’t back off in practice when it comes to showing a variety of pressures and coverages.
But even as Lock was having his worst practice Sunday, his best came in the final team period. He started to mix in some completions and made some plays on the run. The offense started moving the ball.
It was an important day for Lock because that’s how it is on Sundays, too. One reason why former Broncos’ quarterback John Elway had all those fourth quarter comebacks as a quarterback is sometimes the first three quarters didn’t go so well.
But if you’re playing bad and the game is close, you got to find a way to pull it out, anyhow.
Lock showed Sunday he could grind through a tough day and still make something happen before it was over.
“That’s what coach (Mike) Shula and (Pat) Shurmur were preaching to me all day in that practice,’’ Lock said in an exclusive interview with 9News Tuesday. “Obviously, I wasn’t very happy with how I performed and it stuck with me throughout that practice.
“But at the same time, maybe our defense was balling; they had themselves a day. It could be, like you said, 3-0, 7-7 going into the fourth quarter and it was time for me to keep my focus, keep playing and that’s what we ended up doing. We started making plays toward the end of that period and winning sort of the back-end of that practice.”
Elway, who is going on his 10th season as the team’s general manager, wasn’t the only former Broncos’ quarterback great watching camp practice last Friday. Peyton Manning was out there, too. Manning used to go up against Fangio’s defenses in practice when both were with the Indianapolis Colts from 1999-2001.
Manning came away bemused at how Fangio still tries to win every practice – limiting things to the base defense the first week of training camp isn’t for him. But Manning also believes it’s good for Lock’s overall development to practice each day against Fangio’s array of pressures of coverages.
“Without a doubt,’’ Lock said. “I go back and think this is our first year in the offense (with Shurmur as coordinator). And it’s the second year in that defense (with Fangio).
“It’s the first time going against the 1s in camp, where you seeing -- I think personally -- hopefully one of the best defenses in the league.
“They’re coming out every single day, Kareem (Jackson) and Justin (Simmons), you got Von (Miller) and Todd (Davis) who’s healing right now. But we’ve got so many guys on our defense where if you don’t come out and play your absolute A-plus game, it’s going to be an ugly day.
“You have to be mentally focused, physically sharp every single day because you know Fangio, like you said, he’s going to dial up some things to make a point here and there and it’s our job to kind of stick it back to him.”
Lock threw the ball well in the first six or seven practices in training camp, hit a lull for two or three, then bounced back in the second half of practice Tuesday with an array of well-thrown completions to the likes of Courtland Sutton and Jerry Jeudy among others.
The energy was up, as red zone work tends to incite. There was one play late in practice when tempers flared into a roughhouse exchange between pass rusher Von Miller and left guard Dalton Risner – a rare tussle between standouts on each side of the ball.
With the offense executing the last hour or so, it was the one of the Broncos’ better practices overall in a few days.
“I agree,’’ Lock said. “Just a little extra focus. I feel like we all know our job really well right now, but sometimes this is our first time running these plays. It’s our first live look of running certain plays against certain looks and there’s going to be little mistakes that show up that make the play look worse than it actually is.
“Being able to keep getting those reps and keep improving every single day and today was a big step for improving for us.”
