The Broncos Country remains expecting the Houston Texans to finally agree and make the disgruntled quarterback Deshaun Watson available via trade. At this point, Houston’s new GM, Nick Caserio, adamantly maintained his position that Texans are not interested in negotiating with Watson, even if it means veteran QB fulfills his threat to stay out of the 2021 season.
But that didn’t stop Vegas from taking bets on Watson’s next NFL destination. FanDuel recently installed the Broncos with the best chances of winning the Pro Bowler three times.
In the meantime, what does all this media and fan speculation, combined with the open involvement of the new Denver Broncos GM, George Paton, in the QB trade market, mean for Drew Lock? Lock is coming out of a second season in which he started 13 games from 4 to 9, completing an insignificant 57.3% of his passes on the way to the league pace in interceptions (tied with Carson Wentz at 15).
To be worth it, although Lock made many choices, his TD to INT ratio was still +1 in 16 to 15. He ended the season with 2,933 passing yards and scored three more touchdowns. Lock was responsible for 19 touchdowns in total, at the same time that he was responsible for three missed fumbles, bringing the ratio of TD to Giveaway to 19 to 18 – even more-1.
Pro Bowl security guard Justin Simmons spoke about the Watson vs. Lock last week during a live broadcast from Twitch in which he answered questions from his audience.
“We just need to see what happens, man,” said Simmons. “I like Drew … I think if someone adds someone like Deshaun Watson, you’re automatically a candidate, right? That guy is a genre[ational]”He’s an incredible talent. With that said, I also love Drew and I think he will be great over the years. “
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Lock was put in a difficult situation. It’s hard to hear, see, read all the speculation in the media and the fan base, no doubt, but he also saw more than one teammate openly defend and / or recruit Watson to Denver.
If Lock has courage in the NFL, he will ignore all pessimists and negativity like water on a duck’s back. If he doesn’t live up to his opportunity as an NFL QB, it could be an albatross on his neck that drags him down (he arrives with bird metaphors).
Only time will tell. For now, however, Watson Watch remains the same. Houston maintained his reluctant position, while Lock sparked some rumors for staying in Denver at the Broncos HQ and working hard to attack the off-season start.
The league’s new year begins on March 17, when the free agent’s bell will ring, although the tampering period opens two days earlier. Simmons’ fate could be decided by then if the Broncos negotiated a long-term extension in advance or if the franchise marked him for the second consecutive year.
Excluding any of these possibilities, Simmons will enter the open waters of an unrestricted free agency and will be able to negotiate with outside teams from 15 March. If that happens, the Broncos are unlikely to rehear him.
As for the QB situation, there may be additional context for the Broncos’ future soon, even if Watson Watch remains unchanged, if Paton hires a free agent veteran like Andy Dalton, Jacoby Brissett, Ryan Fitzpatrick or Cam Newton. This seems to be the most likely course, given the king’s rescue, Houston will demand to roll over and comply with Watson’s demands.
If Paton is all about ‘sketching and developing’ and stocking draft choices, how he developed philosophically during his hello-presser in January, repeating with Lock for another year and keeping all the choices to fill the gaps in the Denver roster, while hoping that consecutive years on Pat Shurmur’s offensive system will pay dividends to Lock, it seems the most likely course of action.