Brock Osweiler Needs One More Thing Before I Can Tell If He's A Franchise Quarterback

 

 

Houston Texans quarterback Brock Osweiler hasn't looked too impressive through the first quarter of the NFL regular season. With the Texans atop a very mediocre-looking AFC south at 4-and-2 through the first six weeks, it's really a miracle, that record could easily be 2-and-4; they had two victories where they came from behind in the fourth quarter and won (Colts and the Bears). Even with the team being in first place in the division, you can't really say it's been because of the quarterback play. 

Osweiler signed with the Texans this off season, leaving the Denver Broncos, after winning a Super Bowl as the teams backup quarterback; he was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the second-round of the 2012 draft (57th overall)

Osweiler, who will be 26 this season, is in his fifth season in the NFL and this is his first as a full-time starter. After signing a franchise-player-like contract with the Texans and going to a team that has been longing for stability at the position for nearly five years, it's almost certain to say the pressures on. In his first four seasons, before joining the Texans, he only had 305 pass attempts, 2,100 yards passing and 11 touchdowns (95 percent of these stats came in 2015). 

Coming into the season it was looking as if the Texans were putting the relatively inexperienced quarterback in a comfortable situation. The team already had an all-pro caliber receiver in DeAndre Hopkins. And in the 2016 draft they added former-Nortre Dame receiver Will Fuller and quarterback-turned-receiver Braxton Miller from Ohio State University. Both of these players are speed receivers and have uncanny play-making ability. 

Through the first six games of the season, Osweiler has 1,400 passing yards [24th], 59-percent completion rate, with his touchdowns being locked for a tie with interceptions with 8 each. 

One thing that we fail to really look at, honestly, Brock is in a new system with new players. He turned down the opportunity to remain in Denver with the Broncos, the team his had familiarity with and the team that drafted him.  After being benched heading into the playoffs for a quarterback, who he out-performed, named Peyton Manning; the Broncos won the Super Bowl, the Media had praised Manning and the games that Osweiler had helped them win in the regular season were an after-thought. 

One thing that we have to give any player in a new system, not matter of the pieces around him, is TIME!  With things being the way that they are in this day-and-age, it seems like that the one thing that we don't have to give. Every team is in a "win now" mind state. Is that how struggling teams become successful? or do they get young players, groom them, watch them develop after providing them with the tools to be successful for a handful of years? The goal for any struggling franchise or organization shouldn't be to "win now" it should be for long-term stability and a winning culture. 

 In 2015, the Texans played musical chairs with quarterback, going through several starters throughout the season -- Brian Hoyer, Ryan Mallet, T.J. Yates and Brandon Weeden -- And they couldn't find one worthy enough to hold the position. In 2016, they're hoping Brock Osweiler can sit in the seat permanently for years to come.