NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Drew Lock was getting ready to walk away.

The Missouri quarterback sat through nearly seven minutes while the Broncos were on the clock with the No. 41 pick on Friday night, thinking there was a good chance they might draft him. Instead, they took Kansas State offensive tackle Dalton Risner.

“I was like, ‘Dang,’” Lock said. “I was looking the whole time for [a Denver number] to pop up [on my phone] and it never did. All the emotions ran out of [me].”

Then he heard on the television that the Broncos had traded up for the next pick as well, and soon enough, a Denver number had his phone buzzing. John Elway was on the other end, telling Lock he was the newest Bronco as the 42nd overall pick.

Lock had sat in the green room during Thursday’s first round and watched as 32 picks came and went without hearing his name called. Three quarterbacks were drafted — Kyler Murray to the Cardinals at No. 1, Daniel Jones to the Giants at No. 6 and Dwayne Haskins to the Redskins at No. 15 — and while Lock was widely projected to join them in the first round, he had to wait 24 hours longer to land in the NFL.

“It feels really good,” Lock said after coming over to the main stage following his selection. “After [Thursday’s] events that went down, it was a rough day. But I went back to the hotel, sat on my bed with some of my friends and family. The sun came up today and I’m a Denver Bronco.”

Lock will join newly acquired Joe Flacco in the quarterbacks room in Denver while playing for Elway. The Hall of Famer and Broncos’ general manager tried to downplay any QB controversy, tweeting that Lock is “going to learn from Joe and compete for the backup role.”

On the eve of the draft, Lock spoke of the chip on his shoulder because he was a self-described “Midwest boy” who grew up in Missouri — not the hot breeding grounds for most NFL quarterbacks. His delayed draft pick only added to that motivation.

“It added a whole lot of chips to the shoulder,” Lock said. “It’s more like a full Pringle now.”

Lock didn’t come back to the green room Friday night — he was one of five prospects, out of the 22 invited, not to go in the first round — instead of watching the draft from his agency’s office nearby. He played his favorite board game, Yahtzee, to pass the time until Elway and the Broncos came calling.

“Looking back at it, it’s like, one of the best quarterbacks of all time wants you to come play quarterback for his organization — not only his organization, the team he also played for,” Lock said. “It’s pretty surreal.”