Drew Lock sat in his car outside the Broncos facility Monday morning waiting to take his rapid COVID test.

As he waited, he spotted Kendall Hinton — the undrafted rookie practice squad receiver who took Lock’s place Sunday against the Saints in a 31-3 loss.

“Kendall, man, I’m so proud of you for going out there,” a masked Lock said to Hinton. “It takes a lot of guts and a lot of heart to go out there and do what you did in the circumstances that you did.”

Lock had high praise for Hinton and what he did Sunday, coming in on short notice and playing quarterback for the Broncos, saying Hinton is a guy that “has ‘you know what’s’ of steel.” And it was Lock who put Hinton in that difficult position.

He, along with backup Brett Rypien and practice squad quarterback Blake Bortles, were ruled ineligible as high-risk close contacts to third stringer Jeff Driskel, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 26. The four quarterbacks came into the facility on Nov. 24 — an off day — to study film and were caught not wearing masks for a brief period of time, which is what led to them missing Sunday’s game.

Monday, Lock tested negative and would do the same Tuesday, meaning he was cleared to return to full activities with the Broncos after five straight days of negative tests. Rypien and Bortles also tested negative and are able to return, but Bortles is being held out of practice in case a similar situation happens again, according to coach Vic Fangio.

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Wednesday, Lock addressed the media, fielding questions about the incident, which he’s taken heavy criticism for all week.

“First off, obviously this is a big, big week with everything that went on,” Lock said. “We came in on that Tuesday and got some extra work in when no one was here, and we got too lackadaisical with it. It ended up hurting us and it hurt this program and I apologize for letting that happen. We could have been better. That’s the point of the matter here. We needed to be perfect and we weren’t perfect. That’s something that we’ve got to be better at.”

Lock said watching Sunday’s game — in which Hinton was 1 of 9 with two interceptions — was “a gut-wrenching feeling the whole time.”

“It was tough. It was really tough. It wasn’t something that I enjoyed doing,” Lock said. “It hurt my heart, hurt my soul, and it’s time to move on.”

Following Sunday’s game, Fangio expressed disappointment in the quarterbacks for “putting us in this position.” Fangio said Wednesday the team fined the quarterbacks. Fangio’s public criticism of the quarterbacks has led to some questioning his relationship with Lock as well as Lock’s leadership within the organization.

Lock shut those questions down.

“Anything that Coach Vic says it’s not in my opportunity or my jurisdiction to really get upset with him,” Lock said. “He’s my boss. He’s the leader of this team and whatever he says goes. I feel like we were taking a little bit of leadership by coming in and getting ready by ourselves and doing that by ourselves on a day where everyone else is at home. So, I feel like that shows leadership. But, again, we didn’t do the right thing.”

Every player who has spoken to the media since Sunday’s game have all said the same thing: they’re not mad at Lock or any of the quarterbacks. It was an honest mistake and they’re ready to move on as a team.

“It was something that it wasn’t necessarily fully their fault,” receiver Tim Patrick said. “You can’t blame them. It’s not like they did it on purpose. At the end of the day, we just got put in a tough situation and we just dealt with it.”

And as for how Lock will respond Sunday night against the Chiefs, his teammates have full faith that he’ll deliver.

“I think Drew’s going to be motivated,” tight end Noah Fant said. “He’s definitely going to be motivated. That’s definitely a big annoyance from a guy — we’re still trying to prove ourselves and everything like that — and having to sit out for a game like that, I’m sure that was very annoying to him. … I’m expecting him to come out and do some good things this week.”

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Fant’s right — the Broncos have a lot to prove in the final five games, especially Lock.

If the 24-year-old wants to be Denver’s quarterback of the future, he likely needs to turn things around, having thrown 11 interceptions and only seven touchdowns in his second season. And not following COVID protocols last week, which inevitably cost the Broncos a game, certainly didn’t help his case.

But the best way to amend all of his wrongdoings?

An upset win in Kansas City on Sunday.

“I feel like there’s been a lot said and quite honestly, to me and this team, we’re ready to move on from it and ready to get to Kansas City,” Lock said. “We can keep addressing it and keep dragging this on longer than it needs to be but that’s how we’re going to do it. What happened, happened on Sunday. We know what needs to happen this Sunday night and nothing that’s going to help us get ready for Sunday night has to do with what happened last week.”