What a moment Drew Lock had on Monday Night! He drove the Seahawks down 92 yards in less than 2 minutes down 13-17 to keep the Seahawks alive in the playoff race. I found myself rooting for him so hard throughout the game and I'm glad he has this moment because he has dealt with a lot in his young career.
I never felt like he had a fair shake in Denver. After a promising rookie season in Denver, his OC was fired. Then he struggled in year 2 as he had to learn a new system during a pandemic so face-to-face time was limited. As a result of his struggles, Denver brought in Teddy B to compete with him for the starting job and ultimately Teddy was anointed the starter in an even competition. I've talked before about how starting Teddy was the wrong decision but I won't get into that. Ultimately, Drew's time in Denver ended with an 8-10 record as a starter and recorded 25 TDs with 20 Ints.
Then he was a part of that trade package that landed Russ in Denver. He then was a part of another QB competition in Seattle and in the midst of that, he got COVID-19 and missed the second Preseason game. In the final preseason game, he threw three interceptions and Geno was named the starter. He had no playing time in 2022. In 2023, he finally had his opportunity to start since the 2021 season. His first start was against the 49ers in Santa Clara where he played pretty well considering the circumstances as he threw for 22-31 for 269 yards 2 TDs and 2 Ints. Then came the game vs the Eagles on Monday Night where the starter was not named until minutes before kick-off. Drew was named the starter as Geno was still nursing a groin injury.
During the game, Drew didn't do much in the passing game but didn't make any mistakes. He was the definition of a game manager. The Seahawks' run game did most of the damage throughout the game. But when the team needed a score at the end of the game, Lock came through in the final drive which consisted of 2 beautiful passes to Metcalf which was fit in to double coverage down the right sideline for 32 yards and then the go-ahead dime to JSN for 29 yards for the lead—seeing him celebrate doing the celly that he did when he scored his first TD as a Bronco was so cool to see.
After the game, Lock gave one of the most authentic post-game interviews you'd ever see from an athlete and talked a lot about how he started to doubt himself because he hadn't played for so long and after last week he realized he could still do this and the joy on his face while speaking about his teammates just shows how much he truly loves the game of football. Hearing his voice break a couple of times almost made me choke up. I'm not saying he's the future for the Seahawks and his now a franchise QB. All I am saying is that athletes are human too and sometimes as fans, we tend to talk about them like they are machines or objects. I am guilty of this too and I feel I can learn from this.
My overall point is this. Drew has flaws in his game that his kept him from being the face of the franchise. However, he has made strides and shown growth over the years despite getting no help from his coaching staff in Denver. All the fans in Denver turned on him so quickly and it felt like he lost his confidence. But in Seattle, it feels like there is finally some stability around him and he finally has a coach that truly believes in him because I don't think Fangio ever did. Sometimes all we need is someone to believe in us and credit to Geno and Carrol for doing that which helped rebuild this young man's confidence and we saw the result of that on Monday Night when he made his biggest throws on primetime against the defending NFC champs with their season on the line. He deserves this moment.
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