NASHVILLE--Drew Lock’s NFL Draft experience was not what he thought it would be. The story has to start there. Lock sat for hours on Friday night, watching 32 first round picks come and go without his name called. He was taken eventually on Friday night by the Denver Broncos with the 10th pick of the second round and the 42nd overall.
To pretend that is not the dominant storyline of Lock’s week in Nashville is foolish.
"It was a rough day," Lock admitted on Friday night. "The sun came up today and I'm a Denver Bronco."
But as Lock said on Thursday afternoon, when meeting with reporters hours before he and they assumed he would be a first round pick, Thursday was only 24 hours. It will not define his football future. And it did not really define his trip to the NFL’s premier offseason event.
"I'm glad I came," Lock said.
“There’s 23 kids here,” Andy Lock, Drew’s father, said. “There’s 23 kids in the whole world who are here. It’s pretty cool. We’re really honored.”
“We’re with the big boys,” Laura Lock, Drew’s mom, added.
Of those 23, four others joined Lock in having to wait until Friday to be drafted. But the more important people with whom Lock was linked this weekend were the 60 to 70 friends and family members who descended upon the Music City to share in his big moment.
“That’s the best part,” Lock said. “This is an awesome day for you, but you also get to bring the people along that you love the most.”
Of the dozens who came, 13 people spent Thursday night waiting in the green room with Lock. They could not all stay for Friday, but Lock said his pick ended up being even better because he got to experience it with everyone who came to Nashville to share in his experience. The group reflected all the people who have impacted Lock and who have helped him reach this point: his parents, his sister Claire, three grandparents, Mizzou teammate and roommate Jack Lowary, a high school friend and his high school coach, Eric Thomas and many more.
“Drew’s family has always included me in all these things,” Thomas said. “They’re a part of my family. They’re a special part of what we do. Including my son. We go down to a game and Drew treats him like he’s his best friend. It’s just awesome.”
Drew Lock is a Missouri kid. Maybe more accurately now, a Missouri man. He grew up in Lee’s Summit. His parents are from the state and went to Mizzou. He chose the school over sexier options when Andy once asked him, “How are you going to feel if you see someone else playing quarterback for Mizzou?” He’s never lived anywhere else.
The Tigers have had higher draft picks. They have had players, even quarterbacks, who garnered more national honors and attention. But rarely have they had a player behind whom the fanbase became so unified as his career wound down.
The rocket-armed golden boy didn’t start off the way he was supposed to. Well, he kind of did. His first start was a win over South Carolina in which completed 75% of his passes with two touchdowns and no interceptions and was told by head coach Gary Pinkel “You don’t know how good you’re going to be.”
Things went south from there. Missouri lost six of seven and gained national headlines for all the wrong reasons, Pinkel retired and Lock was lost. Suddenly the Chosen One was in the crosshairs. It didn’t get much better as a sophomore when the Tigers went 4-8 in Barry Odom’s first season.
Lock has alluded to criticism he received from fans, but never truly opened up about it.
“There was a pretty high bar,” Andy said. “Failures; failures is the wrong word. Issues. Issues he had were magnified because Drew Lock wasn’t supposed to have issues. Where the bar is set has a lot to do with it. That was a big part of that.”
“When it happened at Mizzou, I felt like everyone that was around me, they were all watching,” Laura Lock said. “It was like playing ball in the back yard. It was close. It was personal.”
The criticism hurt. The doubt crept in. But Lock rebounded. He put together a good junior year, setting an SEC record for touchdown passes and getting Missouri back in a bowl game. He thought about going pro, but decided to come back to Mizzou. Playing under his third offensive coordinator in four years, his senior season led to a slight statistical drop but eight wins, a better bowl game and a showering of love from a fanbase that had once doubted him so vocally. Somewhere along the way, he saved his coach’s job.
“From the first moment I got the job maybe my first thought was I’ve got to get with Drew. I knew and I saw what he went through his freshman year,” Barry Odom said. “We were both, over three years, so open and honest with each other on where we were as a program, what we needed to do to move it forward and then some of the sacrifices that we both went through to put us kind of both in position to where we are now. Similar paths, different ways, but also we’re finding some of the same things.
“There was never a defining moment that changed either our relationship or the trajectory of our team. There were moments. Many of them put together.”
On a larger scale, it is the same relationship Lock ended up having with Missouri fans. He became theirs as a senior. They loved him. They wanted the best for him.
“It’s a big deal to a lot of people,” Andy said. “And that’s pretty special.”
On Thursday night, they hurt for him.
Lock hurt as well. There’s no ignoring that.
"This adds a little chip to the shoulder bigger than the one that’s already on there," Lock said on a teleconference with Broncos' media. "If for some reason I needed any extra motivation, I definitely got it.”
But the week wasn’t about Thursday night. The week was about the people around him. As the child grows up, he gains an appreciation for all of his parents’ efforts over the last 22 years. He wants to do something to repay them. Drew Lock is no different. Well, he is a little different. He’s going to have a little bit more money than most 22-year-olds do. So this week in Nashville, he used a little of it.
“This is all that I asked for,” Claire said, referencing the Gucci belt she wore to the draft. “Two years ago, I was like if this happens, all I want is a Gucci belt. He surprised me with it.”
Lock took his mom to LuluLemon in Nashville. He told her to get anything she wanted.
“She bought like two things,” he said.
“I said let’s just wait, put this money away,” Laura said. “Spend it on your sister.”
The Locks mingled with football royalty this week. Drew knew many of the other 23 draft hopefuls that were in town. But they talked to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Eddie George spent some time with them. They met Reggie Wayne and Charles Woodson and shared a hotel with Tim Brown and Joe Greene.
“I got goosebumps just walking down the hallway, walking on the stage, just for a tour at ten o’clock (Thursday) morning,” Thomas said. “I was just like make sure you slow down and that you take it all in because that’s going to be amazing. The backdrop of that stage with Broadway is amazing. Just make sure you take it all in, take the chance to enjoy it."
That was all fine. But Lock was more impressed with someone named Nick Colletti. It’s okay if you don’t know who he is.
“He’s a famous Vine guy,” Lock explained. “We grew up watching him, he cracked us up when we were younger. I went up to him, we followed each other, it was one of the weirder things to happen to me. It’s crazy.”
“That’s the one that star-struck him,” Andy said. “He doesn’t know much about Eddie George. But he knows the Vine kid.”
Maybe he’s still a kid after all.
Lock will always be a Missouri kid at heart. But for the first time in his life, he’s not going to be a Missouri resident. The family has known that for a while. They live a few miles from Arrowhead Stadium. They’re aware that the Chiefs have a quarterback who has done all right for himself.
“We processed that two years ago,” Laura said. “We figured that out pretty quick.”
Mom admitted she would “bawl like a baby” when she found out where her first born was going.
“I will too,” Claire, a sophomore to be at UMKC, said. “I mean, my big brother’s moving to like a whole different town and going to start a whole different life. I mean, we’ve been so close and have only been two hours away since he was in Columbia and I was in Kansas City.
“He’s going to be far away and it’s just going to be weird.”
Laura wiped away tears as her daughter talked. “Don’t talk about it,” she said.
But this is the cycle of life. You raise children so that they’re ready to leave you. You always know the day is coming even if you also know you’ll never quite be ready for it.
“He’s a different person,” Andy said. “He was a boy when he came to Mizzou and he’s certainly a man now. He’s changed a lot.”
“But he still does come home and fights with (Claire), doesn’t pick up his shoes, leaves his room a mess,” Laura countered. “So not everything has changed.”
But their boy is moving away now. He’s going to start his own life. And he’s going to do it as the heir apparent to an NFL franchise.
“He’s more than ready to handle it. He’s a special young man. He’s a fine example of kid from the Kansas City area,” Eric Thomas said. “He’s special. He’s not going to tell anybody no. He’s not going to not stop and talk to anybody. He’s never too big for the situation.”
That’s all a parent can ask. At some point, ready or not, you’ve got to let go and trust that your child is ready.
“I feel like we’ve done everything we can up to this point,” Laura said.
And, hey, now they'll get to see him in his home town once a year.
"It's even cooler being in the AFC West," Lock said. "Get to go home to Kansas City and play the Chiefs. I get to kind of end up being the bad boy. I grow up a Kansas City kid, I went to Columbia to play for the University of Missouri and now I can’t do anything else in the state of Missouri. Now I have to go to Denver and come back and beat the Chiefs one day."
Lock’s next stop is Colorado. He will be flown from Nashville to Denver to meet the team and local media in short order. In a matter of weeks he will be in rookie camp, trying to prove to 31 other teams, as well as the one he is on, that he should have been drafted in the first round.
In about four months, he will suit up for his first regular season NFL game. In all likelihood, he won’t play. For the first time in his life, he’ll probably be a backup quarterback, learning the ropes of being an NFL player while being groomed to eventually take over for Joe Flacco.
“That’ll be a little different,” Lock said. “I’ve been around some great backups like Jack (Lowary), Taylor Powell, Micah Wilson, Lindsey Scott. They’ve been great backups. If I could be anything to a starting (quarterback), a veteran guy like they were to me, that would be amazing.
"Joe is a great quarterback. Obviously, he’s won a lot of football games and won a Super Bowl. I couldn’t be more excited to be able to go in there and learn from a guy like that."
“I’m okay if he sits,” Andy said.
Whether he’s on the field or on the sidelines, though, one thing is certain. It may not be 60 or 70 strong every week, but Drew Lock is going to have a support system in the stands.
“We’ve never missed a football game so I can’t foresee that being something that happens in the future,” Laura said. “We don’t plan on missing too many.”
By that time, not many will remember that he was the 42nd pick and not the 10th. It won’t matter. He will be good enough or he won’t. He will prove everyone right or wrong. And how it goes matters. Make no mistake about that. It’s important. This is where Drew Lock has been heading for years. Of course he wants to succeed.
But one thing won’t change. No matter what city he is in, no matter what uniform he is wearing, no matter how many passes he completes, one thing that was true on Thursday afternoon remained true on Friday night and will remain true every day. The feelings of NFL general managers and of football fans ebb and flow. A mother’s feelings never do.
“Super over-the-top proud,” Laura Lock said.
