The Broncos released Joe Flacco with a failed physical designation yesterday, which isn't a surprise. They'll move forward with Drew Lock in 2020. No doubt there will be growing pains, but it shouldn't take long before he and the offense itself are a whole lot better.

One key area will be in terms of taking sacks. Flacco, old and immobile, took 1 sack per every 10 pass attempts last year. Among quarterbacks who started at least 5 games, that was one of the worst rates in the league. The only guys worse were rookie Dwayne Haskins and the Titans quarterbacks, notorious for getting caught holding the ball (the worst 2 quarterback in the league the previous season). Hard to get an offense going when that high a percentage of plays are ending in sacks (and Flacco lacks the running dimension that the Titans quarterbacks, for example, provided).

Lock, though just a rookie, was sacked only once per every 32 pass attempts last year. Only quarterback better than him? Drew Brees.

QUARTERBACK SACK RATES, 2019
Player TeamStCmp Att Yds TD Sk Sk/Att
Drew BreesNOR112813782979271231.5
Drew LockDEN510015610207531.2
Patrick MahomesKAN143194844031261728.5
Jared GoffLAR163946264638222228.5
Dak PrescottDAL163885964902302325.9
Tom BradyNWE163736134057242722.7
Mason RudolphPIT81762831765131518.9
Derek CarrOAK163615134054212917.7
Lamar JacksonBAL152654013127362317.4
Philip RiversLAC163905914615233417.4
Jacoby BrissettIND152724472942182716.6
Case KeenumWAS81602471707111516.5
Carson WentzPHI163886074039273716.4
Teddy BridgewaterNOR5133196138491216.3
Matthew StaffordDET81872912499191816.2
Kirk CousinsMIN153074443603262815.9
Aaron RodgersGNB163535694002263615.8
Andy DaltonCIN133145283494163714.3
Gardner MinshewJAX122854703271213314.2
Mitchell TrubiskyCHI153265163138173813.6
Sam DarnoldNYJ132734413024193313.4
Baker MayfieldCLE163175343827224013.4
Jameis WinstonTAM163806265109334713.3
Jimmy GaroppoloSFO163294763978273613.2
Matt RyanATL154086164466264812.8
Ryan FitzpatrickMIA133115023529204012.6
David BloughDET59417498441412.4
Josh AllenBUF162714613089203812.1
Daniel JonesNYG122844593027243812.1
Kyler MurrayARI163495423722204811.3
Deshaun WatsonHOU153334953852264411.3
Russell WilsonSEA163415164110314810.8
Devlin HodgesPIT6100160106351510.7
Kyle AllenCAR123034893322174610.6
Joe FlaccoDEN8171262182262610.1
Ryan TannehillTEN10201286274222319.2
Dwayne HaskinsWAS711920313657297.0
Marcus MariotaTEN69516012037256.4

There's a lot more to playing quarterback, of course, but encouraging to think the game wasn't too big for Lock, in his limited action, in terms of getting clobbered in the backfield. That's a plus for his outlook.

As for Flacco, who said he wants to keep playing, he'll likely be looking at a backup contract somewhere -- signing a one-year deal like Todd Gurley just did, conditional on passing a team physical (whenever those are able to occur). Barring injury, his starting days are likely done.

--Andy Richardson