Broncos’ Joe Flacco Focused On Winning And Not Mentoring Successor Drew Lock

Joe Flacco, at 34 years old, refuses to take a spot on the bench with his new team, the Denver Broncos, after the Baltimore Ravens picked his heir in Lamar Jackson and dealt him.

Of course, questions arose during the first day of the Broncos’ team organized activities. General manager John Elway had taken quarterback Drew Lock in the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft and some pictured Flacco providing mentorship to the former Missouri Tiger. While Flacco didn’t view Lock entirely as his enemy, he made sure to state that he was there to win games and not to teach.

“I got so many things to worry about,” Flacco told reporters. “I’m trying to go out there and play good football. I’m trying to go out there and play the best football of my life. As far as a time constraint and all stuff, I’m not worried about developing guys or any of that. That is what it is, and like I said, I hope he does develop. But I don’t look at that as my job. My job is to go win football games for this football team.”

Flacco said that the young quarterback would do the best learning from his offensive coordinator, Rich Scangarello. Scangarello spent the previous two seasons with the San Francisco 49ers molding quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.

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“I’m not a selfish person, I don’t think,” Flacco added. “There are times where you have to be selfish. But listen, Rich does such a good job in those meeting rooms.”

“Drew is going to learn from listening to him talk, and then all of us getting reps on the field and seeing how we all do it as a collective group and as a quarterback. Listen, I hope he does learn from me because that means we’re out there and we’re slinging it around and having a lot of fun because he’s going to learn by watching us do it and watching us do it well. That’s how he’s going to learn the timing and all those things is to be able to see it on film and hear Rich talk about it with me and digest as much as possible.”

Flacco, before this year’s draft, said that he only cared about the team’s success with himself at the helm. Even if Flacco is a success in Denver, bucking the downward trend he established while with the Ravens, he is still 34 years old. Denver clearly thought enough to trade for him and take on his contract but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t feeling some pressure in a possible quarterback competition.

Article by Bill Piersa

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