On the other side of town from Aaron Rodgers, there lives a Drew Lock Fan Club that waits impatiently for him to steal the starting quarterback job from Daniel Jones.
The backup quarterback is the most popular guy in Giants Town.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Lock said at Thursday’s Giants OTAs. “I would say I appreciate the people that respect my game and know what I can do, but you’re the backup, and you’re here to help Daniel.”
Lock, signed to a one-year, $5 million deal, is new to the Giants and the last thing he cares to do is rock the Big Blue Boat. Even at only 27, even after 23 NFL starts (28 TDs, 23 INTs) mostly in Denver, patience is more of a virtue for Lock than it is for The Drew Lock Fan Club.
“Three years I wasn’t a starting quarterback,” Lock said. “I was patient then. I know how to be a backup, and just be ready if and when your time comes. As a backup, you hope it never comes, you hope the team’s playing good football. You hope Daniel stays healthy, but do everything you can to be ready, and when that time comes, just make the best of it.”
But take heart, Drew Lock Fan Club: Just because Lock is saying all the right things does not mean that he believes he has the sparring partner’s mentality in the ring.
“I know I can do it,” Lock said. “It is what it is. Whenever that time comes, if it comes, I’ll be ready.”
The Broncos made him the 42nd pick of the same draft that saw Jones chosen sixth by the Giants.
“We were roommates at the Senior Bowl,” Lock recalled. “We were with [Jon] Gruden and the Raiders that Senior Bowl, so I got to know him there a little bit. I tried to stay up as late as he did studying the playbook, it’s like, ‘Crap, I’ve got to go to bed, buddy. You going to have to turn the light off.’ He’s been great to be around.”
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Lock doesn’t keep his emotions under lock and key the way Jones so often does, as he regaled the media with his recollection of his 2019 predraft visit with the Bills, when Giants head coach Brian Daboll was the offensive coordinator and Giants quarterbacks coach Shea Tierney was an offensive assistant.
“I talked to Shea. I didn’t talk to Coach Daboll,” Lock said. “They had drafted Josh [Allen] the year before. … Towards the end I kinda had a feeling that Shea was just a normal guy, we’re talking, we’re chilling, I’m like, ‘Hey Shea, do you guys talk to everybody, ’cause you guys just drafted Josh Allen? I’m gonna be respectful and have my conversation, tell you everything I know, but there’s no way you’re picking me right now.’ ”
Lock learned not to pay attention to all the hype surrounding the Giants’ interest in the 2024 Quarterbacks Class.
“I’d say my first couple of years I listened to it,” he said. “And then when nothing I heard came true, I was like, ‘OK, we’re gonna let that be.’
“I’m confident in who I am, and the place I decided to come to, and I really like it.”
He’s having a blast.
“First offensive head coach, that’s been fun,” Lock said. “It’s been fun to have him in my headset. You can tell he’s been doing it for a long time. Great reminders, good tips, but not too much to get you bogged down on what he just said. There’s a lot to it, but it’s been fun to learn, and I can see I can be really successful in it.”
Lock was a gunslinger at Missouri, but his arm talent has been somewhat mitigated by decision-making and injury.
“He’s got some moxie and competes to him,” Giants assistant GM Brandon Brown. “It’s gonna be a learning process for him, and it’s not gonna be overnight.”
Lock could not seize the moment when Pete Carroll tabbed Geno Smith as QB1 after Lock had come from Denver to Seattle in the ill-fated Russell Wilson trade. With Jones making progress as he continues to rehab his torn ACL, Lock has an opportunity to close the gap between them in practice.
“Being able to just have those reps under your belt definitely builds confidence going into the year,” he said. “Like I said, you hope the time doesn’t come, but if it does, you feel like you’re ready, you’ve been with the guys in the huddle, they know your face. They know your cadence, they know how you operate, and it just makes you feel more comfortable.”
Lock was supportive of Geno Smith in Seattle and he isn’t about to change his stripes now.
“This team’s really talented,” Lock said. “On both sides of the ball. I don’t think there’s a position that we lack in. I think it’s a really good team. It’s a team that sticks around all day.”
It’s still Daniel Jones’ team. The Drew Lock Fan Club will be the first to tell you that it is no lock it stays that way.