Looking for consistency as QBs will battle for top spot

It’s just minicamp and no decisions are being made this week, but both quarterbacks will need to overcome some natural tendencies to be QB1.

Sometimes Benjamin Allbright’s analogies on Broncos Country Tonight are a bit wacko…and sometimes he nails it.

His recent comparison between Teddy Bridgewater and Drew Lock to the two main characters in “Tin Cup” was spot on.

Bridgewater is Don Johnson’s character, David Simms – a golfer who will lay up every time to take the safe shot. Lock is Kevin Costner’s Roy McAvoy – a golfer who never met the YOLO shot he wouldn’t take just in case it would end in a big win.

So which is the better kind of quarterback to lead a winning franchise.

Well, neither, of course. And obviously a blend of the two would probably be the ultimate competitor. So the question then becomes, which type is easier to fix?

Too many ways to answer given so many variables, but without putting too much thought behind it, I’d argue that the Roy McAvoy player is the one you want every time because controlling the “go for it all” guy seems easier than pushing the “play it safe” guy.

But that player still has to be open to changing his natural tendency.

And Ryan Edwards noted that these “philosophical differences” between the type of quarterback each player is, means essentially designing two different offenses. For example in the red zone, Lock is going for the touchdown – easy or not – every time; Bridgewater will be happy with three because it’s sure points.

Steve Atwater, who joined Allbright and Ryan Edwards to talk about the QB play during Tuesday’s first mandatory minicamp, argued that we all know Lock can play well. The challenge for him is to do it consistently rather than sporadically.

“We know he has [good football] in him, but his thing has always been consistency,” Atwater said, adding that after Tuesday’s great day, he wants to see Lock come back Wednesday and Thursday with decent days too. “Not necessarily a great day, but we’ve just got to string together a bunch of good days. That’s how you reach greatness; it’s not an up day, a down day, an up day, a down day.”

By all accounts, Lock had a very good day Tuesday and Bridgewater had a pretty good day too. But all three noticed that Lock had started out slow and then eventually turned it on during the 11-on-11 drills.

Allbright pointed out that it has seemed to be Lock’s M.O. to start slow and pick up speed.

“I don’t know what it is about Drew Lock, but he just starts slow,” Allbright said, adding that he played that way in games too. “Is that a function of defense playing lighter after getting a lead, is it a function of just getting in gr I don’t know, but he tends to start slow and finish strong.”

Listening to the quarterbacks talk to the media on Tuesday, their respective responses to a similar question about handling the quarterback competition, both seem poised to make improvements in their own tendencies this summer.

Bridgewater noted that you can’t get too up or too down on each play:

“You just keep shooting. You don’t get carried away in what’s going on. You just keep playing ball. When I’m out there, I understand my job is just to [get] completions, get the ball to my guys and not my opponents, and keep our offense on the field,” Bridgewater said. “Everything else will take care of itself. It’s one play at a time where you’re out there. If you look too far ahead, that’s when you fall. Just keep shooting. That’s the mindset.”

Likewise, Lock noted avoiding the tendency to focus on the bad plays.

“Balls are going to hit the ground in a game; you’re going to throw a pick in a game; there’s going to be bad points in the game; there’s going to be bad points in the can; you’re going to have a bad day,” he said. “It’s about moving on to the next play and just growing from those mistakes so that you can go out there on Sundays or in the year and really benefit from those bad days in camp.”

Head coach Vic Fangio is of course not wanting just consistency, but consistently good, smart, fast decision-making by the quarterback. So far he says both QBs have done well especially as they get more comfortable with the offense.

“I’ve seen them operate a little quicker and a little faster with their decisions, comparing the first few days to now,” Fangio said. “I think both of them have benefitted greatly from the work we’ve done.”