Last season I wanted the Savage Project to be a go on Day1. My guess and this is only my guess, O'Brien was looking forward to having Savage take the reins...but somehow between McNair and Smith, Osweiler was thrown into his lap as the new leader of this offense. Personally, this threw the QB position back another season...bit on the positive side, this blunder only had a 2 year cycle and1 is already in the books.
With the QB situation being what it is for 2017, the Texans need to finally focus their draft, FA moves or trades on shoring up other areas of their offense (OL, RB, WR, TE) and adding depth to some positions on defense (DT, SS, CB, OLB) before a 2017 Rookie QB becomes the order of the day. The Texans are going to have to make the best out of this QB situation in 2017. First, O'Brien must announce that the QB position will be an open competition...may the best man win. Second, the team must re-sign Weeden and include him in the competition. Third, I would like to see the team sign another veteran of this system for the purpose of pushing this competition. I would have no problem with the team signing Case Keenum, since I like his competitive nature. This would give the Texans, Savage, Weeden, Osweiler and Keenum to compete for 3 spots next season. Why would this work? The Texans would have no financial obligations to any of these QB's beyond the end of 2017. If it works, one less problem going into 2018. If it doesn't, the team has a very clean financial slate for the position in 2018.
Color me crazy, but I think an open competition like this could wind up coming down to Savage or Weeden on who becomes QB1. Would I be surprised to see Weeden win...no. The Texans would have to be ready to make a move if this competition played out in a manner that I see as a possibility. I sincerely believe that Savage, Weeden and Keenum would beat out Osweiler leaving him as QB4 while the team would only carry 3 QB's. The Texans would need to trade Osweiler versus cutting him. Take a Conditional RD6 in 2018 if it means getting him and his contract off the books.
On a side note, wasn't Savage's first throw/completion a 30+ yard strike outside the hash-marks? BO hit maybe 1 out far to many throws at a similar distance and location....and many of those throws were not under duress. He just flat out cannot connect on this type of throw. Without having this type of throw in his arsenal, he will effectively remove, Fuller and Williams as weapons. In all reality, for the money BO received he should have walked in and taken ownership of the dumbed down game plan and he didn't.
As for Savage, Obie and the FO have taken a lot of care on how they kept him off their PS since they drafted him. The Texans were not the only team that found Savage viable as an NFL QB and if they ever put him on the PS another team would have snatched him out of their hands. He's been QB3, IR, QB2 and QB1. Regardless of what transpires leading up to the off-season Savage would be better than any QB the team could draft. Savage also gives O'Brien something he couldn't do with any veteran or rookie QB...the ability to open his entire playbook. Weeden probably gives O'Brien the same opportunity.
Savage should get a lot of attention since this is his make or break season. I would be incredibly bummed if as a fan, I didn't get to see the Savage Project get a real opportunity to lead this team before he left via FA.
I have another move in mind to help this team get the required picks to fill needs and depth for 2017...it's not going to popular but it would make sense financially.