John Elway has identified his next field general of the future.
The Broncos traded up with the Bengals to select Missouri quarterback Drew Lock with the No. 42 overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft on Friday night. That choice came one spot after Elway grabbed Kansas State offensive lineman Dalton Risner with the 41st pick.
Under terms of the trade, Cincinnati received Denver's second- (No. 52), fourth- (No. 125) and sixth-round (No. 182) selections.
Lock is the sixth quarterback handpicked in nine drafts under Elway, joining Brock Osweiler (No. 57, 2012) and Paxton Lynch (No. 26, 2016) as early-round additions. Both of those signal-callers failed in their quests to replace future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning as the face of the franchise.
With the addition of former Ravens veteran Joe Flacco as the starter, Lock will be eased in as a developmental project under new coordinator Rich Scangarello, formerly the quarterbacks coach under offensive guru Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco.
Although Lock led the FBS in passing yards (10,861) and passing touchdowns (95) over the last three seasons, critics have cast doubts about his 21-25 college record, 56.9 completion rate, inconsistency in the face of pressure and spotty footwork. On the positive side, he's a top-shelf athlete with a cannon arm capable of making every throw on the field.
"Drew Lock is probably the most arm talent (in the draft)," one offensive coordinator recently told NFL Network's Tom Pelissero, "but he is (Patrick) Mahomes-like in that you think he's a year away, and you've got to really rein him in in terms of footwork and all those type of things, where he's not going to be ready right away. All of his above-the-neck stuff checks out. It's not going to be perfect. There's a learning curve, but I think he'll get there."
Elway's latest attempt at identifying a franchise savior represents a boom-or-bust proposition, which is why Lock slid past every quarterback-needy team in the draft's first round.
