Drew Lock likens Seahawks OC Shane Waldron to his first Denver OC, when he was at his best
To Drew Lock, this first year of his refreshed career with the Seahawks already is like his first, true year in the NFL.
The team introduced its new quarterback to Seattle on Monday, a week after its rocking trade of Russell Wilson to Denver for Lock, two other players and five draft choices. During an online Zoom call with Seattle-area reporters, Lock said Seahawks offensive coordinator Shane Waldron is similar to his first NFL coordinator, with the Broncos in 2019.
That was when he had the best stretch of games of his since-stalled career.
“I obviously know a little bit about Coach Waldron’s system. It’s similar to the one that I ran my rookie year when I first got into the league,” Lock said.
Waldron is the former Los Angeles Rams tight ends coach and passing game coordinator. Seahawks coach Pete Carroll hired him before the 2021 season to be a first-time play caller. Carroll tasked Waldron to reorient Seattle’s offense to running the ball with an emphasis on zone-blocking schemes, and on using multiple formations and quick, play-action passes by Wilson and short routes by receivers off those runs.
Wilson missed the first games of his 10-year career due to injury last season. He later admitted he returned from his broken finger in mid-November before he was fully healthy. The Seahawks went 1-2 in the starts he missed and 0-3 in his first games back, with the first shutout loss of Wilson’s career. Seattle finished the season 7-10, its worst record since 2009, and missed the playoffs for only the second time in 10 years.
Wilson then left Carroll and general manager John Schneider with the impression he would not re-sign with the Seahawks for a third time when his $140 million contract was to end following the 2023 season. So the Seahawks traded their franchise quarterback, who would only waive his no-trade clause for Denver.
That’s why Lock was talking in front of Seahawks logos at the team’s headquarters in Renton on Monday, as the first headlining QB in Seattle not named Wilson since 2011.
“Excited for a fresh start,” the 25-year-old, 6-foot-4 Lock said. “Excited to come in and compete for a starting job and do everything I can to show this organization and show this league what I’m capable of doing — and that’s playing really good football.”
He was doing that at the end of his rookie season.
Scangarello, like Waldron
Before the Broncos drafted Lock in the second round out of Missouri in 2019, Denver head coach Vic Fangio hired Rich Scangarello to be a first-time play caller and NFL offensive coordinator. Scangarello intended to bring the Broncos a system heavy in zone-blocking run plays and play-action passes.
Lock loved it.
But he began his rookie regular season on injured reserve with a badly sprained thumb. He missed Denver’s first 11 games. The Broncos lost eight of those.
Lock made his NFL debut in week 13 of that 2019 season. In five games he completed 64.1% of his passes. He threw for 1,020 yards and seven touchdowns with three interceptions. He won four of those five starts.
Projected over an entire, 16-game season, Lock was on pace to complete 320 of 499 passes for 3,264 yards, 22 touchdowns and 10 interceptions for a 7-9 team in 2019.
Of course, if Lock had stayed healthy and maintained the level at which he played his only five games that season, those Broncos would have finished better than 7-9. They might have made the playoffs. Scanagarello might have kept his job.
And, to hear Lock tell it, he might still be Denver’s starter.
“You know, I got to play the end of that year, and we played really good football,” he said Monday of Scangarello’s system in Denver in 2019. “We won four of the five games, and I played efficient football, took care of the ball, scored in the red zone, hit the deep shots when they were there.”
In Lock’s mind, he had the right system and play caller.
In Fangio’s mind, Denver needed a new coordinator.
A change, for the worse
Those 2019 Broncos finished the season ranked 28th in points per game and yards per game. Denver was the only team in 2019 to finish in the bottom five in the league in points per game, yards per game, red-zone efficiency and third-down percentage.
Before the 2020 season, Fangio fired Scangarello. He hired veteran NFL play caller and former New York Giants head coach Pat Shurmur to be Lock’s and Denver’s coordinator.
That didn’t go so well for Lock.
First, the coronavirus pandemic and league’s restrictions because of it kept the Broncos from practicing with their new coordinator throughout the spring into summer. The NFL canceled usual offseason practices.
Once play began inside stadiums without fans, Lock led the league with 15 interceptions in 13 starts. He went 4-9. His completion rate in year two of 57.3% remains the lowest of any season Lock has started in football, at Lee’s Summit High School in suburban Kansas City, the University of Missouri or in the NFL.
Shurmur used a lot of “11 personnel” with the Broncos, one running back and one tight end with three wide receivers. But the running game that was supposed to be the foundation for the offense faltered. Lock was forced into run-pass option (RPO) plays where Denver’s run really wasn’t an option.
The Broncos signed veteran Teddy Bridgewater to take Lock’s job for 2021. And that was pretty much that for Lock in Denver.
All that’s older than the Rocky Mountains to Lock now.
Lock’s second chance
Lock thinks Waldron’s run-based, play-action system in Seattle will work for him like it’s 2019 again. He’s looking forward to taking deep shots to big-play receivers Tyler Lockett, DK Metcalf and new tight end Noah Fant, Lock’s teammate the last three seasons in Denver who the Seahawks also got in the Wilson trade. That plan, he feels, is perfect for his big-arm talent. Perfect to, as he said, make “my skill set shine.”
“I can throw the deep ball. I can move around in the pocket. I can play-action, whatever,” Lock said. “Whatever you might need me to do, I’ll be able to do. And I think we’re going to put a good plan together to be able to maximize my skill set.”
It’s the arm Carroll and Schneider said they were attracted to with Lock when he was coming out of Missouri three years ago.
“We loved him in the draft. Our guys were thrilled about him coming up and taking a shot, maybe he could have gotten a pick and get him, but we didn’t,” Carroll said last week.
“He goes into his first year, finally plays his first five games, and goes 4-1 in his rookie season. All of the promise, all of what you hoped to see, the numbers and stuff showed that he was going to have a great run in his career.
“The next two years didn’t work out very well. He battled and competed his tail off, but it didn’t work out.
“Is this a second chance for Drew Lock? Heck, yeah, it is. It’s an absolute, clear second chance for him to take us back to where we knew him to be.
“We’ll find out how we are going to go about it.”
Asked what went wrong for him in Denver and how he plans on making Seattle right, Lock showed he is bringing accountability with him to his new team.
“I will never make excuses for my play. I could have played a lot better in the seasons that I was playing there,” he said. “I did some good things, but there’s a lot of things I could have done a lot better. You know, with everything that happened — with COVID, not being able to practice, a new offensive coordinator, firing the first offensive coordinator after my first year — there’s just a lot that went into those three years.
“And, again, I could have played a lot better. I’ll own up to that.
“As far as what I feel like I can do different: I’m just going to have the mindset of competing the whole time I’m here. I’m going to come in, I’m going to work hard. I’m going to work harder than anybody else in this building, and I’m going to show it to these guys, to try to gain their trust.
“Show them that I’m here to work and, you know, if you put a little faith in me, I have a very talented skill set that’ll help us win football games.”
This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 5:10 AM.
