Mizzou football: Lock can show more progress in prime time

Former Mizzou football quarterback has chance to show improvement in front of plenty of viewers on Monday Night Football.

Not many players are getting this much attention on national TV.

Denver Broncos second-round pick Drew Lock will get a second shot to show his skill in front of national television as the Denver Broncos play the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football on ESPN.

Lock showed plenty of improvement in his second game last week against the Seattle Seahawks. The four-year Tigers starter went 17 of 28 for 180 yards and a touchdown to go with an interception. That followed the rookie’s first NFL action from the week before.

Lock went 7 of 11 for 34 yards against the Atlanta Falcons in the Hall of Fame game. That’s a decent jump from Week 1 to 2.

These opportunities are giving Lock plenty of viewership from the nation. It’s not like he’s just playing on regional television like some of the other quarterbacks around the league, including rookies drafted in front of him.

Lock’s getting attention from all over. This is the second game in three outings he will have this many eyes on him.

That’s good for the rookie to keep growing as he competes for the backup QB position to Joe Flacco.

He is competing against NFL veteran Kevin Hogan and fellow rookie Brett Rypien. Lock is a lock to make the team, the others are not. But will the Broncos have to keep Lock on the team because of the potential he has or will he make the team based off his play over the next few weeks? That remains the question.

John Elway is perhaps tied to Lock as anybody. Elway sees improvement.

"“He continues to get better,” Broncos General Manager John Elway told reporters Saturday. “He’s been overloaded. Anytime you have young guy like that, he’s going to have his good days, and he is going to have his bad days. Obviously, we’re excited, still, about the talent that he has and what he has showed. He is flashed a lot, but it’s a big jump for him, especially with what we are doing offensively and the verbiage that goes along with it. It’s going to take him some time, but he’s done a nice job.”"

That’s a nice compliment Lock is receiving from the GM. He doesn’t get that kind of love from the head coach. But also, it’s time for Elway to show the Broncos fan base he has a future NFL QB.

Elway has missed on a number of quarterbacks since his Super Bowl winning starter Peyton Manning retired after the 2015 season.

He couldn’t resign Brock Osweiler, and that proved to be actually OK. Then he missed on starter Trevor Siemian, as he led the defense-heavy Broncos to two seasons without playoffs. But his big miss was first-round pick Paxton Lynch.

He was drafted with the No. 26 pick in 2016 and within two years the Broncos saw he was a dud and cut ties with the Memphis product. Elway and Co. didn’t spend that high of a price on Lock, as he was taken in Round 2. But Elway does not want another failure in the line of QBs after Manning, who wasn’t successful because of the front office/coaches in Denver. Manning was a Hall of Famer way before then.

Preseason football is for guys like Lock. Hopefully he takes another step in Game 3 as he did in Game 2.