ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Quarterback Drew Lock didn't sign his rookie contract until just hours before his training camp practice was scheduled to begin.

But the second-round pick never had any intention of missing his first training camp reps with his new team.

"I was anxious to get out on the field," Lock said Thursday. "I knew from my side of the party, we were trying to get things worked out. The Broncos and my agency were working together, but I told my agency beforehand that if it got to the point where I was missing practice, then there was no chance we were going to go on with it. I was going to sign a deal and I was going to get here, because the most important thing to me was getting out here."

Missing a practice, Lock said, is "just not who I am."

"I didn't necessarily want to get behind in anything," Lock said. "I was behind in the [conditioning test], but we made it up today. There was no ounce of me that didn't want to be out on this football field, taking every rep that I was supposed to take and being with the guys every second that I could be today and then for the rest of training camp."

Now that he's out there, Head Coach Vic Fangio will look for Lock to show "improvement in all areas."

"Command of the offense," said Fangio when asked what he wants to see from Lock during training camp. "Command at the line of scrimmage. Decisions on where to throw the ball, how quickly he can make those decisions.

"Just become a quarterback."

Lock said he spent quite a bit of time during the offseason working on both his command of the offense and his footwork.

First, he watched tape of the 49ers' quarterbacks from last year to give himself an idea of how he might operate in Offensive Coordinator Rich Scangarello's offense. He studied their footwork and then went through the Broncos' playbook and timed his footwork with the various plays.

"Really just debriefing back through the playbook and trying to match my footwork up with everything to help me play more smooth out here," Lock said.

He also said he was able to listen to the recordings of all his play calls from OTAs. He said he listened to the audio and then called the plays out to replicate what he would go through in the huddle.

Lock said that work paid off during his first practice of training camp.

"I thought it went well," Lock said. "It was really good to be back out here with everybody and kind of get back in the swing of things, start feeling good about being out on a grass field and throwing the football around.

"… I was out here really digesting everything, taking every single rep and being able to go back inside and watch it all over again and learn some more will be good for me."

And though practice has just begun, Lock admitted he has already thought ahead to an Aug. 1 game against the Falcons in Canton, Ohio.

"I thought about that on the drive up here," Lock said. "I was like, 'Wow, we're going to be kicking into live action here pretty quick.' It makes me really excited to be able to put a helmet on and go play someone that doesn't have a Bronco helmet on."