The finale

In Lock's final audition, he improved his record to 4-1, beat his second division opponent and tied Trevor Siemian and Norris Weese for the best record by a Broncos quarterback in his first five career starts. In a 16-15 win over the Raiders, Lock completed 17-of-28 passes for 177 yards and a touchdown. He again avoided throwing an interception, and the Broncos recovered his only fumble of the season. Denver's offense wasn't explosive, but Lock found Andrew Beck for a 1-yard touchdown pass and he also connected with Hamilton five times for 65 yards. As he did in the Broncos' win over the Chargers, Lock used his legs to pick up key yardage late in the game. He nearly added more points to the team's total, too. The Broncos seemed poised to add a late field goal that would have iced the game, but an unnecessary-roughness penalty led to a missed field goal and set the Raiders up for a touchdown.

Against Oakland, Lock found another game from which he can learn.

"Last week, I said you like to draw up a perfect script and go 5-0 and throw three touchdowns each game for 300 yards and whatnot," Lock said after the win over the Raiders. "Being able to have all these different experiences, coming from behind, going on the road, getting your butt kicked on the road, winning your first game, I think all of those will help add up to me having more experience and going into next year feeling very confident that no matter what situation we get put in, we will be able to come out positive on the other side."

A win came with that learning experience, as the Broncos improved to 4-1 to finish the season. Only two other AFC teams — the Chiefs and Ravens — finished the season with at least a 4-1 mark. In Lock's mind — Fangio and Elway would later agree — that was enough to earn him the starting job moving into 2020.

"Overall, the last five games, I thought my audition went really well," Lock said. "In my mind, it was enough for me to establish being the guy going into next season with my teammates and hopefully the front office as well."