In both his heart and his gut, Drew Lock believes he’s a gunslinger quarterback.

But three games into his NFL career, and with two starts remaining in his rookie season, Lock admits he needs to be more like peak Brett Farve, and less like an unhinged cowboy Jay Cutler.

“I won’t beat myself up too hard if I end up making a mistake like (an interception), because I’m going to keep the gunslinger mentality at all times,” Lock said. “But I think I need to adapt as a gunslinger with a little bit more situational awareness, and put together both (those approaches) to try to be the best quarterback I can for this organization.”

Lock is 2-1 with a 85.9 rating, completing 61.1% of his passes for 651 yards and five touchdowns along with three interceptions. He’s thrown one pick in each of his starts so far, including last Sunday in Kansas City, where the Lock hype train was humbled in a 23-3 blowout in the snow.

But Lock won’t be burning that tape.

“If you’re a Q and you’re burning the tape, I don’t know how good of an attribute that is of yours,” Lock said. “I’ll definitely keep that one in the back of my head, especially going into next year. I think it’ll do wonders for me more than not — right now and down the line. I’ll respect that game and know that it helped me hopefully win more down the road.”

While the strong arm and swagger of a typical gunslinger are seemingly innate traits in Lock, the 23-year-old said he’s evaluating every mistake to decrease the unpredictability that such a mindset typically produces.

“Sometimes I need to figure out how to actually get the score (a different way), instead of making the risky plays and possibly having it turn out bad, which is what happened with my (red zone interception in Kansas City),” Lock said.

From his teammates’ perspective, Denver’s dud at Arrowhead Stadium isn’t at the feet of Lock, who was 18-of-40 passing with a 50.8 rating. As long as he continues to show incremental progress, young offensive leaders like Phillip Lindsay and Courtland Sutton understand there’s going to be a learning curve for Lock’s aggressive style of play.

“Drew’s doing a (heck) of a job and it’s only through, what, his third game?” Lindsay said. “This one’s going to be his fourth. It’s about seeing him grow, and what he does better this game here on Sunday than the last game.”

As for the gunslinger himself, Lock believes he has the right mindset to be the franchise’s quarterback of the future — even if that future comes with some tribulations like he endured in Kansas City.

“(Being a gunslinger) is kind of like being a 3-point shooter. I can start the game 0 for 5, but I’m definitely going to shoot the sixth one,” Lock said. “I’m going to throw a couple of picks here and there, but in my heart and in my gut, I know the couple of picks will turn into a couple of touchdowns. The good plays will outweigh the bad with being a gunslinger if you do it correctly.”