DENVER -- Minutes after a 16-15 victory over the Oakland Raiders that enabled the Denver Broncos to finish a topsy-turvy season at 7-9, rookie quarterback Drew Lock already had the framework of an offseason plan.

"You've got to call Peyton Manning and John Elway," Lock said. "One's in our building and one's been talking to me through these [past] five games, and I appreciate him doing that for me."

The Broncos were looking ahead to next season before the stands had even cleared Sunday. They finished the regular season as the only team in the league with a starting offense and a starting defense among the five youngest.

Lock went 4-1 in his five starts, giving the Broncos an optimism they did not have a year ago when they closed the books on a 6-10 campaign and were on the doorstep of a coaching change.

"It's a totally different feeling [than last year]," running back Phillip Lindsay said. " ... All the young players are going to be back. ... We're going to see how it goes next year, but we're definitely going to win a lot of games."

Or as linebacker Von Miller put it: "I can tell you one thing right now, we've got a good team. We've got a great quarterback, running back, receiver, [tight end] Noah Fant is going to be in his second year, [linebacker Bradley] Chubb will be back. ... We done with this losing s---. Next year is going to be our year, we're going to be ready to go."

Miller went on to say the coming months are, "Elway season." The Broncos' president of football operations/general manager is expected to have $65 million-$67 million in salary cap space to go with 12 potential draft picks.

But it likely all starts with the 23-year-old Lock, who got his audition in December and appears poised to stop the quarterback turnstile that started when Manning retired following the 2015 season.

While Lock said he intends to approach the offseason "like I am the guy," he is so new at the job he admitted Sunday he wasn't sure if the Broncos' coaching staff would even tell him in the coming days whether or not he should expect to be the starter in 2020.

"I'm not honestly sure how that's going to work," Lock said. "I feel confident with the five games that I put on tape. If they want to sit me down and have a conversation, I'll be open ear-to-ear to whatever they have to say."

Lock said this past week he hoped to schedule multiple throwing sessions with as many of the team's receivers as possible in the coming months and that he intended to spend most of the offseason in Denver.

"I started thinking about it," Lock said. "... There's probably going to be some quarterbacks who played here for the Denver Broncos that I might give a call and ask, you know, what was your plan going ahead? What did you do with the receivers? When did you get them together? When did you feel like it was a good enough time to let everyone have a break and bring everyone back to try to focus."

He said he reached out to Manning when he was put into the starting lineup earlier this month and that he had talked to Manning multiple times in recent weeks. Lock has had a relationship with Manning, as well as Manning's brother Eli, since Lock attended the Manning Passing Academy in the summer of 2018.

Coach Vic Fangio said he liked what he saw from Lock's five weeks as a starter even if Sunday was a difficult day for the Broncos' offense overall.

Lock, who completed 17 of 28 passes for 177 yards and a touchdown Sunday, finished his five games as a starter 100-of-156 passing (64.1 percent) for 1,020 yards with seven touchdowns and three interceptions. His touchdown total (seven) and passer rating (89.7) were higher than that of Joe Flacco and Brandon Allen, the other Broncos starters this season.

There is still plenty of work to be done for an offense that scored 16 or fewer points nine times. The fate of several high-profile free agents on defense -- cornerback Chris Harris Jr., safety Justin Simmons, defensive end Derek Wolfe and defensive end Shelby Harris -- is uncertain.

But with Lock leading the way, and with a 1,000-yard rusher in the 25-year-old Lindsay and a 1,000-yard receiver in the 24-year-old Courtland Sutton, the Broncos have a lot of pieces.

Even as the Broncos finished out of the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season, their eyes on the future.

"It's a big opportunity for us," Lock said, "because we're all very young."