QB DREW LOCK, MISSOURI - ROUND 2, NO. 42 OVERALL

If all goes well, someday Lock will assume the starting quarterback job. The open-ended timetable includes some factors within Lock's control. Those include improving his short-to-intermediate accuracy, absorbing the Broncos scheme and speeding up his decision-making as he adjusts to the pace of the NFL.

Yet some factors are out of Lock's hands. For starters, the Broncos need to nurture consistent philosophy and coaching on offense over the years, a factor Elway cited last week. And then there is the presence of Joe Flacco, who remains the clear starter.

If Flacco flourishes and recaptures his early-2010s form, it's possible that Lock could wait years for his shot, similar to how Aaron Rodgers sat behind Brett Favre from 2005-07 in Green Bay. But if Flacco suffers an injury and misses games -- which has happened twice in the last four seasons -- Lock could start this year if he can wrest the No. 2 gig from Kevin Hogan.

So if Lock needs to be ready, his 2018 work will help him. Lock's preparation to be a pro accelerated last year, when former Cowboys assistant coach Derek Dooley arrived in Missouri as the Tigers' offensive coordinator. Lock's accuracy improved; in his final seven games at Mizzou, he completed 67.3 percent of his passes. But the most important thing Lock said he learned was how to manage games under pressure.

"I got caught in some bad spots; I put the ball on the ground a couple of times," he said. "But managing games and getting into fourth-quarter games and getting us out of it [was important]."

Mizzou played five one-score games last year after seeing just two in 2017. The Tigers went 2-3; in one of the losses, at South Carolina, Lock led what appeared to be a game-winning field-goal drive before the Gamecocks responded.

"My sophomore and junior year, with the style of offense we ran, we were going to blow you out," Lock said. "We were going to run by you; we were going to score a thousand points, or you're going to have this formula to beat us and we're going to have a tough time putting points on the board. So we didn't end up in a lot of fourth-quarter games, [just] against Kentucky and Arkansas in my junior year.