Drew Lock, Missouri quarterback, goes to Redskins in Mel Kiper’s mock draft 2.0

Even with Joe Flacco out of the running, there’s still a lengthy list of players who could suit up as quarterback for the Washington Redskins in 2019, whether you’re talking about players already on the roster, free agents, trade targets or draft prospects.

In his second official mock draft of the winter, ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. made the case for Washington picking one of those prospects: Missouri’s Drew Lock.

Kiper said on “Get Up!” Monday that Lock had a big Senior Bowl and wrote in his mock draft that Lock “might have the most arm talent of any passer in the class.”

But the review was far from unanimously glowing.

“Now, he’s inconsistent. He misses throws and needs a lot of work on his footwork,” Kiper wrote. “He put some bad performances on tape in 2018, though he finished the season strongly. You can see on that tape, though, why a team could fall in love and take the 6-foot-4, 228-pound Lock early. That could be Jay Gruden’s Washington team, which might not have Alex Smith this season.”

Analysis:

Do the Redskins really need to draft a quarterback this year? For now, it’s certainly the most pressing need, with Alex Smith’s recovery timeline uncertain to most people outside the building. But if Washington were to sign or trade for a bridge quarterback, a veteran who can play in 2019 who doesn’t break the bank, then Lock won’t be high on the team’s list. The upcoming class of quarterbacks in 2020 is expected to include Tua Tagovailoa, Jake Fromm and Justin Herbert, any of whom would be drafted higher than Lock if they were in the same draft.

Lock, 22, finished his senior year with 28 touchdowns against just eight interceptions and a 62.9 completion percentage. With Missouri, he faced a tough SEC schedule that included three poor performances in back-to-back-to-back losses against Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama.

Kiper did not have Lock going in the first round of his initial mock draft, but bumped him up because the demand for quarterbacks always pushes them to higher and higher selections.

He’s not the most inspiring pick, although he’s considered the third-best QB in this class — behind Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins and Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray, and ahead of Duke’s Daniel Jones.