Since winning the Super Bowl four years ago, the Denver Broncos are 27-37 and haven’t made the playoffs. Denver offensive lineman Dalton Risner, however, believes that will change very soon.
“We have all the pieces to make it happen,” Risner told JR SportBrief. “I think that [John] Elway and [Vic] Fangio have done a heck of a job drafting guys for this team and getting a dynasty set up here in Denver. We got to get Denver Broncos football back where we’re used to. We had a few bad years, but we’re getting things back on track. We won the last four out of five games with Drew last year, and we’ve got to carry that on this year. We’ve got a really tough conference. We got the Kansas City Chiefs, the big dogs, but we’re ready to get this year rolling. We’re ready to be that team this year.”
Risner and Lock were both second-round picks in 2019. They were roommates during OTAs and training camp last year, and it didn’t take long for Lock to earn Risner’s respect.
“[Joe] Flacco was the guy heading into our year last year, and Drew got drafted and knew that he’d have an opportunity at some point, but he wasn’t sure [when],” Risner said. “Drew stayed up as late as I was. He’d record a voice memo of a play, and then he put his headphones on and play that voice memo back as if the offensive coordinator was telling that to him, and then he would say it out loud as if he was in a huddle. He just did little things like that. He wanted to be confident. He wanted to be that guy when he came onto the field, be ready to announce the play and know everyone’s position and where they were supposed to go: routes, blocking scheme, everything. That’s kind of when I knew, ‘Okay, Drew Lock has that it factor. . . . Flacco is the guy, but he’s making sure he’s ready.’ That meant a lot to me.”
Lock, 23, completed 64.1 percent of his passes for 1,020 yards, seven touchdowns and three interceptions in five games last season.
“He brings a whole different swagger to the team,” Risner said. “He’s going to celebrate when he scores a touchdown, whether it’s pretend like he’s Buzz Lightyear or whatever it is. Drew is going to do it. He just gives a whole different edge to the whole offense when he’s out there. When we line up as an offensive line, we know that when Drew’s back there as quarterback, anything is possible, especially with the weapons that we have now at wide receiver.”