SAN FRANCISCO, California — How far has Drew Lock come? “Very,” he told The Denver Post Monday night. “Very. There’s always the — you get traded, little animosity.There’s not anymore. I feel like time has done the healing.” The Seahawks backup is 29 years old now. The baby face from his Denver days is long gone. In its place, though, is a Tom Selleck-style mustache, still visibly adjusting to the space above his upper lip. The quarterback has changed; the charisma hasn’t, really. It’s why Seattle brought him back in the first place this past offseason to back up Sam Darnold, after a lost year in New York — an opportunity, as Lock’s longtime quarterbacks coach Justin Hoover told The Denver Post, to see if he could “still play.” “You always heard about his infectious personality, and that all proved to be true,” Seahawks quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko told The Post. “But he’s a heck of a competitor. And that was something we kinda expected from him — to come in and push Sam mentally, push him physically, and be ready at the drop of a hat that, ‘Hey, it’s your turn to go.’” Four years after the Broncos tossed in the towel on a former second-round pick, four years after they shipped Lock off to Seattle in the Russell Wilson blockbuster, Lock has stuck it out long enough to experience his own kind of renewal. He has thrown all of three passes in 2025 behind Darnold, the 2018 No. 3 pick who’s revitalized his career the past two seasons. But during Seattle’s run to a Super Bowl berth, a funny thing’s happened: pushing a reclamation project in Darnold has given Lock the confidence he can be reclaimed, too. “To me, Drew’s a lot like Sam,” Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak told The Post. “He’s going to get an opportunity — like Sam did — to be someone’s starter here. And he’s going to do a great job.” Lock remembers, of course. The waters of the Pacific Northwest have not washed away the sting. There are good memories: he still looks back at old photos of Courtland Sutton and Tim Patrick from the Denver days, telling The Post in December that “those dudes still hold a special place in my heart.” And the bad is still fresh, of course: the March 2022 day when his phone buzzed while at home with now-wife Natalie. Lock picked up. Broncos general manager George Paton spoke. “We’ve made a trade for a quarterback,” Paton told him, as Lock remembered. “This is going to be a good situation for you.” “Awesome,” Lock replied. Paton hung up, and called back, and walked Lock through it, and Natalie stood across from him, gesturing with her fingers in the air as if pointing at an invisible map of the United States. Were they going up? Down? East? She was from Florida and wanted to go to Florida. She wanted some semblance, really, of how their life was going to change. Seattle Seahawks quarterback Drew Lock (2) warms up before the NFC Championship against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) Salvation in Seattle They landed, of course, in Seattle, which wound up being salvation. It did not feel like it, at first. “There was some feeling of, not being good enough,” said Hoover, who has worked with Lock for 14 straight offseasons. “Not necessarily like he didn’t believe in his own game, but it was just the rejection piece of it that affected him.” In 2019, Lock came out of Missouri as a prototypical 6-foot-4, 225-pound Southern gunslinger. He’d thrown an SEC-leading 44 touchdowns at Mizzou two years earlier, and the Broncos took him No. 42 overall, needing to hit on a new franchise quarterback in the two years since Peyton Manning’s retirement. Lock, as Hoover recalled, came to Denver wanting to prove he belonged as a first-round pick — on the same level as Kyler Murray, Daniel Jones and Dwayne Haskins, the three QBs drafted before him in ’19. Lock went 4-1 as a starter in 2019 after taking over from veteran Joe Flacco, but faltered in a rocky 2020, with a league-leading 13 interceptions in just 13 games. In 2021, journeyman tight end Eric Saubert came to Denver as Lock was locked in a quarterback competition with Teddy Bridgewater in camp. Saubert’s initial impression: Lock had a cannon. He just deployed that cannon on everysinglethrow. “You get out of your break,” Saubert recalled, “and it’s like, ‘Oh! Ball’s out.'” Since growing up in Missouri, Hoover reflected, Lock was always a kid who wanted to take the last shot. Sometimes, every shot felt like the last shot. Mizzou was at a talent disadvantage compared to the Alabamas and the Georgias of the SEC world, and Lock had to play “lights-out” in those matchups, Hoover reflected, to have a chance. He became wired as such. Then, he stepped into a building in Denver, well aware of the franchise’s history, and of John Elway walking around as the general manager. Lock “recognized the logo,” Hoover said. Internal pressure grew with that. “I think he learned a lot about the fact that, in the NFL — you really only need to be Superman five times a game,” Hoover said. AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver PostDrew Lock (3) of the Denver Broncos walks off the field after the fourth quarter of Cincinnati’s 15-10 win at Empower Field at Mile High on Sunday, Dec. 19, 2021. An asset in the QB room The Wilson trade, though, brought him to a particular spot: Seattle, where noted players’ coach Pete Carroll was in the final years of his run with the Seahawks. Carroll and general manager John Schneider made Lock feel wanted, even as he started just two games over two years behind Geno Smith. “I don’t think I would go as far as to say that it saved his career, but I definitely think it shot the energy back into his work ethic, and into his mental approach,” Hoover said. “And so, in a way, I think it did save him.” After a one-year deal in New York to compete with Jones in 2024 ended in disappointment, Schneider brought Lock back in 2025. By all measures, teammates and coaches describe him as a genuine asset. Saubert, now playing alongside Lock in Seattle, told The Post that he’d “roll with Drew any day” — noting he’s now added more touch as a quarterback. Lock pores over concepts and opposing defenses with Darnold every morning and bounces reminders off him. “He’s going to bring up things that I don’t think about, that coaches don’t think about,” Darnold said Tuesday. “And yeah, just, he’s a brilliant guy to be around.” It’s certainly not lost on Hoover, now, that Lock’s developed for years behind two starting quarterbacks — Smith and Darnold — once labeled as busts in a massive New York market. In particular, Lock and Darnold have been friends since they roomed together as high schoolers at the 2015 Army All-American Bowl, and the two came up in the same QB-prospect class. 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In meetings throughout 2025, as Janocko said, the quarterbacks have fired up the December 2019 clip of Lock rapping along — between drives of his fifth-ever NFL start — as Empower Field blasted Young Jeezy. “Oh, yeah,” Janocko said Monday, feigning shouldering on a backpack. “I mean, we still strap it up.” The legend of “Put On” lives on. And Lock can smile now, looking back. “I appreciate that place, taking me in, cheering me on as much as they did,” Lock said “Fighting through some of the struggles, and excited when the good things happen.” Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis. ...read more read less