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 | Team | St | Cmp | Att | Yds | TD | Sk | Sk/Att |
Drew Brees | NOR | 11 | 281 | 378 | 2979 | 27 | 12 | 31.5 |
Drew Lock | DEN | 5 | 100 | 156 | 1020 | 7 | 5 | 31.2 |
Patrick Mahomes | KAN | 14 | 319 | 484 | 4031 | 26 | 17 | 28.5 |
Jared Goff | LAR | 16 | 394 | 626 | 4638 | 22 | 22 | 28.5 |
Dak Prescott | DAL | 16 | 388 | 596 | 4902 | 30 | 23 | 25.9 |
Tom Brady | NWE | 16 | 373 | 613 | 4057 | 24 | 27 | 22.7 |
Mason Rudolph | PIT | 8 | 176 | 283 | 1765 | 13 | 15 | 18.9 |
Derek Carr | OAK | 16 | 361 | 513 | 4054 | 21 | 29 | 17.7 |
Lamar Jackson | BAL | 15 | 265 | 401 | 3127 | 36 | 23 | 17.4 |
Philip Rivers | LAC | 16 | 390 | 591 | 4615 | 23 | 34 | 17.4 |
Jacoby Brissett | IND | 15 | 272 | 447 | 2942 | 18 | 27 | 16.6 |
Case Keenum | WAS | 8 | 160 | 247 | 1707 | 11 | 15 | 16.5 |
Carson Wentz | PHI | 16 | 388 | 607 | 4039 | 27 | 37 | 16.4 |
Teddy Bridgewater | NOR | 5 | 133 | 196 | 1384 | 9 | 12 | 16.3 |
Matthew Stafford | DET | 8 | 187 | 291 | 2499 | 19 | 18 | 16.2 |
Kirk Cousins | MIN | 15 | 307 | 444 | 3603 | 26 | 28 | 15.9 |
Aaron Rodgers | GNB | 16 | 353 | 569 | 4002 | 26 | 36 | 15.8 |
Andy Dalton | CIN | 13 | 314 | 528 | 3494 | 16 | 37 | 14.3 |
Gardner Minshew | JAX | 12 | 285 | 470 | 3271 | 21 | 33 | 14.2 |
Mitchell Trubisky | CHI | 15 | 326 | 516 | 3138 | 17 | 38 | 13.6 |
Sam Darnold | NYJ | 13 | 273 | 441 | 3024 | 19 | 33 | 13.4 |
Baker Mayfield | CLE | 16 | 317 | 534 | 3827 | 22 | 40 | 13.4 |
Jameis Winston | TAM | 16 | 380 | 626 | 5109 | 33 | 47 | 13.3 |
Jimmy Garoppolo | SFO | 16 | 329 | 476 | 3978 | 27 | 36 | 13.2 |
Matt Ryan | ATL | 15 | 408 | 616 | 4466 | 26 | 48 | 12.8 |
Ryan Fitzpatrick | MIA | 13 | 311 | 502 | 3529 | 20 | 40 | 12.6 |
David Blough | DET | 5 | 94 | 174 | 984 | 4 | 14 | 12.4 |
Josh Allen | BUF | 16 | 271 | 461 | 3089 | 20 | 38 | 12.1 |
Daniel Jones | NYG | 12 | 284 | 459 | 3027 | 24 | 38 | 12.1 |
Kyler Murray | ARI | 16 | 349 | 542 | 3722 | 20 | 48 | 11.3 |
Deshaun Watson | HOU | 15 | 333 | 495 | 3852 | 26 | 44 | 11.3 |
Russell Wilson | SEA | 16 | 341 | 516 | 4110 | 31 | 48 | 10.8 |
Devlin Hodges | PIT | 6 | 100 | 160 | 1063 | 5 | 15 | 10.7 |
Kyle Allen | CAR | 12 | 303 | 489 | 3322 | 17 | 46 | 10.6 |
Joe Flacco | DEN | 8 | 171 | 262 | 1822 | 6 | 26 | 10.1 |
Ryan Tannehill | TEN | 10 | 201 | 286 | 2742 | 22 | 31 | 9.2 |
Dwayne Haskins | WAS | 7 | 119 | 203 | 1365 | 7 | 29 | 7.0 |
Marcus Mariota | TEN | 6 | 95 | 160 | 1203 | 7 | 25 | 6.4 |
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