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Brock Osweiler, Trevor Siemian, Paxton Lynch, Case Keenum, Joe Flacco and Brandon Allen combined to go 24-36 for the Broncos after Peyton Manning retired.

The Broncos then handed the reins to Drew Lock, their second-round choice last season. It’s a small sample size, with Lock going 4-1 in the final five games, but the Broncos’ search for a franchise quarterback could be over.

“We drafted him last year in the second round with the idea that hopefully he was going to be a guy that could step in,” General Manager John Elway said, via Nicki Jhabvala of TheAthletic.com. “Obviously we had Joe at that point in time and didn’t know exactly how that was going to work out. Thought it would work out better than it did, but it didn’t. Then Drew got an opportunity to play late in the year, and I think he came in and showed us a lot of the things that he can do.

“By no means has Drew made it. We believe he’s got the potential to do it, and we think he’s just going to continue to get better and better. But he’s still in the learning process and know that he’s going to have to get better. But we really liked what we saw. We liked what we saw last year when he was on IR and how he tried to prepare himself and get ready to play when he had a chance to play. And then he came in and played very well, won four out of the last five games. We feel that he’s that guy.”

Lock, 23, passed for 1,020 yards, seven touchdowns and three interceptions as a rookie.

The job is Lock’s to lose heading into 2020, Elway said.

“Jeff Driskel came in. He’s going to be coming into camp as the backup,” Elway said. “He got some playing time until he got hurt last year in Detroit. There are some [veteran] quarterbacks that are still available, but we decided that we’re going to build around Drew, give him that opportunity to take the job.”