Kiz: During the happiest Sunday of this Broncos’ season, rookie quarterback Drew Lock looked like some super-hero combination of Patrick Mahomes and Buzz Lightyear. If only he took over as the starting QB earlier, Denver might still be in the playoff hunt. So at the risk of irking coach Vic Fangio and all the apologists for those big thinkers down at the team’s Dove Valley headquarters: What took the Broncos so dang long to figure this out?

O’Halloran: Two factors played into the Broncos’ slow-play decision on Lock even practicing — 1. The schedule didn’t line up with Lock’s completed recovery. He could have started practicing the Monday of the first Kansas City week, but that was a Thursday game with no real practices. And then Fangio gave the players the entire bye week (Week 10) off, which meant had Lock been designated to practice, that week would have counted on his clock. 2. General manager John Elway truly believed the Broncos at 2-4 were on the cusp of a turnaround-into-playoff-contention and Joe Flacco was better-equipped to lead that charge. Um, no. The Broncos went 1 for 2 on this one, right to look at the schedule, but not so much on thinking they had a playoff team.

Kiz: I have this classic rock song lyric in my head: “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow. Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here. It’ll be better than before. Yesterday’s gone …” Maybe that explains what I like about the transition to Lock. Earlier this year, the older dudes in Denver’s locker room — from receiver Emmanuel Sanders to quarterback Joe Flacco — were stuck in the glorious way they once were. Lock fits perfectly with Courtland Sutton, Phillip Lindsay, Dalton Risner and Justin Simmons as Broncos out to get something new started instead of trying to recapture the past.

O’Halloran: So far, Kiz has dropped references to Toy Story (never seen any of them, by the way) and lyrics from Fleetwood Mac (at least that’s what Google told me). What makes your point good is the Broncos finally raised their hands and said, “Lock may not be ready, but let’s get him playing time so he can grow with our young core.” So far, so good. To your list, I’ll add Noah Fant and Tim Patrick on offense and Alexander Johnson on defense. That’s a solid young group to move forward with.

Kiz: I’m so old I can remember all the way back to halftime against the Vikings, when Denver was leading 20-0 and we were at the dawn of the Brandon Allen era. Could Denver have won that game if Lock was in the huddle? We’ll never know. But the Broncos were never going to get to 10-6 and the playoffs from that 3-6 record they took to Minnesota. So letting Lock get more comfortable before starting him not only was best for the kid, it probably was best for the Broncos in the long term.

O’Halloran: If the Vikings game seems like a long ago, imagine how many eons have passed since our trip to Canton in August? My guess is the Broncos didn’t want to throw Lock to the wolves (or defenders) who wear Vikings and Bills jerseys. Fair enough. Thinking out loud, what if the Broncos hadn’t put Lock on injured reserve (sprained thumb) and let him rehab while on the roster like cornerback Bryce Callahan? Lock has said he was cleared around mid-October so he could have started grinding out practices and been ready to face the Vikings after the bye.