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[QUOTE
]Houston Texans Brock Osweiler Has Become Public Enemy #1
Patrick Starr
Yesterday at 6:10 PM
For no rhyme or reason, Houston Texans quarterback Brock Osweiler has come under fire for no clear reason, except one.
While he walked away from the Denver Broncos, he has yet to take a snap as the Houston Texans, but quarterback
Brock Osweiler is now a marked man for nothing more than doing what was right for him. The internet is littered with discussion on how terrible Osweiler is and will be for the Texans, as well as how the John Elway-led Broncos made the right choice in not overpaying for the quarterback.
The human element is forgotten when outsiders look to how players should handle themselves and their future. The tenure of Osweiler with the Broncos went from one of hope to a single, final regular season game of the 2015 season; a game which saw Osweiler replaced with Manning due to some unfortunate events of during that game.
No one wants to believe that Osweiler might have had enough with how the Broncos pushed him to the side on their run to the Super Bowl after he helped the team to a 5-2 record in his seven starts with the Broncos. The move in week 17 might have been warranted but what was not was how the Broncos brass expected for Osweiler to wait until the Broncos finally turned their attention to him. The Broncos were busy with the courting of sending off Peyton Manning off into retirement while Osweiler sat and waited.
There was an offer made to Osweiler by the Broncos and, despite the narrative, while the team did not want to overpay for him, they made him a considerable offer. According to Troy Renck of the Denver Postthe Broncos offered Osweiler $16 million a year with $30 million guaranteed. The Texans landed Osweiler on a four year deal worth $72 million ($18 million a year) with $37 million guaranteed.
From our good friend @The_Reliant, he put these two key facts out about the Osweiler situation.
The Z Facts
- The Broncos offered Brock Osweiler just $2M less per year than the Texans ($16M vs. $18M) and just $3M per year less than they were scheduled to pay Peyton Manning in 2016 before retiring.
- The Broncos offered Osweiler $30M guaranteed, just $7M less guaranteed than the Texans will pay him in his first two years of his deal.
Also……
- The Houston Chronicle reported that Osweiler’s agent, Jimmy Sexton, never gave the Broncos a chance to match the Texans offer.
Sexton had told Osweiler to go dark and not return calls, texts or e-mails from the Broncos, including his teammates, until the agent had reached an agreement with one of the teams. Sexton didn’t want sentiment to play a role if he could avoid it.
Sexton never gave the Broncos a chance to match the Texans’ offer.
Read more here.
With the Broncos not getting a chance to match, there is no telling what the counter offer would have been if Elway was given a chance. The Broncos were writing a pretty big check to retain Osweiler initially but, more importantly, no one wants to think that Elway might have dropped the ball and overestimated the loyalty of a NFL player.
Despite not wanting to “overpay” for Osweiler, the Broncos had a plan B that involved them trying to trade for Colin Kapernick who would not accept the trade for the pay cut they wanted him to take, courting Brian Hoyer with dinner, kicking the tires on Ryan Fitzpatrick, and finally trading for Mark Sanchez, who has been on a downward trend since his rookie season with the New York Jets. They had to wait nearly two months to draft a high ceiling quarterback in Paxton Lynch who, some are claiming, is a better quarterback, right now, over Osweiler.
We’ve stayed true to our philosophy of building a team with players who want to be Denver Broncos and want to be here. That’s been a successful approach for us,” Elway said, via the team’s
official site.
“While we did offer a very competitive and fair long-term contract to Brock, we ultimately had to remain disciplined while continuing to assemble a roster that can compete for championships.”
Osweiler said in his introductory press conference that it went up to the wire between the Texans and Broncos.
“It wasn’t until yesterday. It was yesterday, it really did come down to the wire and I gave John Elway a phone call just to let him know the direction I was going to go into and that was a very hard phone call to make, but I told John out of the respect for him and everything he’s done for me he deserved it. It truly came down to the wire, but like I said before, I could not be more excited to be a Houston Texan and get to work.”
Osweiler and his agent played the free agent market exactly like all do when it comes to that key moment in a player's career: look for the highest bidder who appears to be the best fit. They did that by Osweiler not answering calls from teammates and coaches while his agent did the talking to interested teams.
Fast forward.
With sour grapes on how Osweiler left the Broncos, Osweiler and how he is acclimating to the Texans is not coming under fire. This past weekend where Osweiler was asked about the Texans playbook and he answered accordingly.
"It's like you speak Spanish your whole life and then they tell you to go learn French and do it in front of 75,000 people,” said Osweiler. "It's been fun. To come here and learn a new system, one thing I'm realizing is there are a lot of really good answers and things that go with this system if you're willing to put in the time and ask questions, good questions.”
That quote alone sent many into a frenzy questioning Osweiler’s mental capabilities. Some took this as Osweiler struggling with the offense and some quick to say that it could be too much for the new quarterback for the Texans.
What they left out was the following comment from Osweiler.
"That's what we're doing right now as a unit. Coach (George) Godsey is a brilliant mind, a great teacher and it's been fun learning from him so far. There is certainly some carry-over from my previous four years which makes things a lot easier. I don't exactly feel like a rookie."
What Osweiler is saying is no different than what Brandon Weeden said when he arrived to the Texans after being claimed by the Dallas Cowboys.
“I’ve been in a few systems in my four years and I’ve never been in this one, so it’s completely different than everything I’ve ever known but what I’m trying to do is kind of compare what’s similar and kind of translate into what I know verbally then learn it that way,” said Weeden. “I got it last night and I laid there like, ‘Oh my God, what am I looking at,’ but it’s a good system.”
Weeden had to cram all of the Texans playbook info in a matter of a week while Osweiler is over two and a half months away from taking a significant snap.
If anything, outside media and fans are honed in on the fact that someone would turn their back on Elway and the Broncos. Without touching the field, most are earmarking Osweiler as destined to fail with no real basis. He has become a marked man for doing what any business man would do, find the best situation for themselves to succeed.
If Osweiler does not meet expectations, and expectations are especially high with the contract he signed, then that will be another discussion all together. This has come down to people just not liking the fact that Osweiler is doing what was best for himself, not the team he left, and media darling, John Elway.
Time will tell how this story plays out, but right now, questioning everything that Osweiler does is nothing more than sour grapes by those predicting that a 5-2 quarterback tutored by one of the best leaders ever to hit the field in Peyton Manning, will be a failure because he left Elway's Broncos.
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