Lock vs Tagovailoa: Two young QBs trending in different directions

The 3-6 Denver Broncos are hosting the 6-3 Miami Dolphins on Sunday at 4:05 p.m. ET. Both teams feature young quarterbacks, but the directions of the two are far from the same.

Drew Lock’s Sophomore Slump

In his rookie season last year, Lock showed off his arm strength and creativity by making multiple off platform highlight throws. The small sample size was enough for front office to do what ever it took to surround him with talent.

Broncos' Thursday practice report:

Drew Lock, Noah Fant improve to limited participants. pic.twitter.com/1SIhgRlq1t

— Aric DiLalla (@AricDiLalla) November 19, 2020

Enter 1st round pick Jerry Juedy, 2nd round round pick K.J. Hamler and free agent signing Melvin Gordon. The talent around Lock in year two is there, but the production is not.

In seven games, he has thrown seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions, while only completing 55% of his passes. This is a downgrade from the five games he played in last year when he threw seven touchdowns to only three picks and completed 64% of his passes.

The Dolphins are currently enjoying the success of a quarterback getting ready to make his fourth career start, but can he keep it going?

Dolphins Starting Tua Tagovailoa was the right choice

3-0 and @Tua is still getting his feet wet.

Scary. pic.twitter.com/46ICC8RD7y

— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) November 17, 2020

It’s always easy to look back at a decision and decide if it was right or wrong. Hindsight is always 20/20. Benching Fitzpatrick during the Dolphins bye week was widely criticized. The team was playing well, and it seemed premature.

Three games and three wins later, this move makes perfect sense to everyone. Tagovailoa has thrown five touchdowns to zero interceptions.

https://twitter.com/thecheckdown/status/1328086890273144833?s=20

After a lackluster debut vs the Rams, he has shown why he was the fifth overall pick. He went blow-for-blow with Kyler Murray two weeks ago. Last week, he beat the sixth over all pick, Justin Herbert, and the Chargers.

Dolphins in the playoffs?

The playoff picture through Week 10! pic.twitter.com/P7sXcwiqxk

— NFL (@NFL) November 19, 2020

This year, seven teams in each conference can make the playoffs. That helps the Dolphins a lot, but is it enough? At 6-3, they are in the running of the AFC East or a wild card spot.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of teams in the AFC worthy of a playoff spot.

The Bills currently lead the AFC east with a 7-3 record. As for the wild card sport, four other teams have a 6-3 record and are currently second in their divisions.

While the Dolphins are playing well under Brian Flores, winning the division or snagging one of the three wildcard spots will not be easy.