Houston Texans: Brock Osweiler drawing incredibly bad reviews

The Houston Texans may have a problem…They paid free agent quarterback Brock Osweiler big bucks to be their franchise QB, and he’s faltered thus far…

The Houston Texans made a significant investment in Brock Osweiler to be their quarterback of the future, but did they really know what they were getting into?

Hindsight is 20/20, but it was easy to see that paying Osweiler big money on the free agent market would be an overreaction to the ‘market price’ of quarterbacks versus the actual value of a player that had started seven games and played — at best — average football.

Thus far with the Texans, Osweiler hasn’t even been consistently average. He’s been consistently inconsistent but mostly bad. DeAndre Hopkins has just 36 catches on 69 targets so far this season, including just one game where he had over 100 yards receiving.

For a player of his talent level, that is a pathetic statistic through seven games, and it’s largely on the play of Osweiler.

Against the Denver Broncos’ vaunted secondary, Osweiler’s accuracy problems were magnified, and the thrill of a comeback victory the week prior against the Colts was almost completely erased by an atrocious performance for the ages.

In reading Bucky Brooks’ column at NFL.com, it’s clear that front office personnel across the league are not impressed and have never really been impressed by Osweiler’s play. Here’s one particularly harsh review of the Texans’ $72 million man.

"NFC senior personnel executive: “He’s so sorry that it’s unbelievable. He can’t play. … I mean, he’s a tall, athletic guy with a long release and decent arm talent, but he’s not a good player. They paid him a lot for nothing.”"

Yikes.

I won’t go to that extent at this point. Osweiler has always had interesting skills, but he’s still raw. He’s started 14 games in his NFL career, and while he’s already in his 5th season, it takes a lot of time to adjust to the speed of the game and to get confident.

It doesn’t help that he has the added pressure of a massive contract, but he brought that on himself.

The Texans decided to pay Osweiler without even evaluating his personality. He was never brought to Houston for a free agent visit because the team pounced at the opportunity to steal him away from the Broncos in the ‘legal tampering’ period.

Osweiler also never had a chance to go to Houston and experience for himself the facility, the coaching staff, his teammates, or his new bosses before he signed with them. He even said at one point that he partly based his decision to go to Houston on what he’d seen on the HBO original series Hard Knocks.

Again I’ll say: Yikes.

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This was a horrid fit from the start, but Osweiler just wanted to get out of Denver when Gary Kubiak benched him in a week 17 (eventual) victory over the San Diego Chargers that wound up getting the Broncos the top seed in the AFC after the New England Patriots fell earlier that day to the Miami Dolphins.

Osweiler wasn’t at fault for all of them, but the Broncos turned the ball over a handful of times in the first half before the team opted to put Peyton Manning back into the game, and he never looked back.

Osweiler continues to say that his decision to leave was not about money, but many people are trying to push that narrative, saying that he only left because Houston made him a better offer than Denver.

Perhaps financially, that’s true. In terms of the fit and potential for long-term success? There was no better offer and no better opportunity than the one the Broncos were offering.

In fact, the job title of ‘Quarterback of the reigning Super Bowl Champions’ seems like a pretty great gig for anyone, but no one captured it until Trevor Siemian took it over midway through the preseason.

All is well that ends well for the Broncos, who are currently 5-2. Siemian, Osweiler/Manning’s replacement, is 5-1 as the starter.

Hopefully Osweiler is able to turn things around in a hurry for the Texans, proving he was worth the contract he signed.

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