The relationship between Brock Osweiler and the Denver Broncos seemingly went south last year when the team benched Osweiler in the second half of its Week 17 game against the San Diego Chargers. From there, Peyton Manning took over for good and led the team to a championship.
The move obviously worked out, whether the Broncos won because of Manning or in spite of him. As a competitor, Osweiler was understandably upset. For whatever reason, general manager John Elway was caught off guard by how disappointed the young quarterback was.
“I can understand that he didn’t want to sit down and have Peyton come back in that San Diego game, but it wasn’t the fact that Brock was playing bad,” Elway told Nicki Jhabvala of The Denver Post. “We needed a change of something. So I was a little surprised just how he seemed to be a little bent out of shape about that. But he had an opportunity to make a tremendous amount of money in Houston, and for us, it just didn’t fit.”
It became clear from the start that Denver wasn’t going to pay Osweiler the money he was seeking, but Elway’s comments make it seem clear that a strained relationship had something to do with that. In all liklihood, Osweiler saw what all of us saw — that Manning was one deep pass away from a career-ending injury and that he simply wasn’t the same player anymore.
Still, Manning’s football IQ is invaluable in a playoff situation. Even if he couldn’t make throws anymore, he still understood the game enough from a situational standpoint that he was an asset. The Broncos weren’t willing to risk Osweiler’s inexperience being exposed.
Despite the comments Osweiler made after he signed with the Texans, it’s obvious he wasn’t happy with the situation in Denver.
