In March 2016, quarterback Brock Osweiler found himself in the middle of a tug of war.
The Broncos wanted to keep him as the starter, and the Texans wanted to give him their top job, sight unseen. In the end, Osweiler opted for a four-year, $72 million deal in Houston over a three-year, $48 million offer from the team that drafted him.
And then, after agreeing to terms with the Texans, he went to meet his new coach for the first time.
The situation highlighted one of the bizarre quirks of the free-agency rules. For all the time spent interacting with potential draft picks, teams often commit millions to a veteran free agent without ever meeting with him. In some cases, they don’t even know him.
Osweiler didn’t know Texans coach Bill O’Brien. O’Brien didn’t know Osweiler. O’Brien relied heavily on Osweiler’s performance during a Sunday night game against the Patriots.
But watching a guy from afar is a far cry from working with him, interacting with him, seeing him at his best, living with him at his worst.
It ultimately didn’t work, with the last straw coming when Osweiler and O’Brien had some sort of altercation during halftime of a Week 17 game against the Titans, when O’Brien told Osweiler (who had been benched for Tom Savage) that Osweiler would finish the game because Savage had a concussion. The Texans, despite owing Osweiler $16 million fully guaranteed in 2017, became determined to get rid of him.
To do that, the Texans could have eaten the money, or they could have traded him. To trade him, they had to give up a second-round pick to the Browns, which essentially bought the selection for $16 million.
Osweiler thereafter failed to make the 53-man roster of a team that would go 0-16, he returned to Denver as a bottom-of-the-depth-chart guy, and then he reunited with former Broncos assistant Adam Gase in Miami. Tonight, Osweiler starts for the injured Ryan Tannehill. And the guys in the Houston locker room who may have not been big Brock Osweiler fans will get a chance to get after him.
These facts alone make tonight’s game far more intriguing than the fact that both teams currently are above .500 after seven weeks. Even though everyone involved has downplayed it, there are surely hard feelings. Which could become hard hits from a potent front seven in Houston.
