The Texans wasted $37 million on Brock Osweiler, and now they're stuck with him
The Houston Texans remained squarely in the hunt in the AFC South with a much-needed win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. They kept pace with the Tennessee Titans, who eked out a win over the Kansas City Chiefs on a game-winning field goal as time expired.
Both teams are now 8-6 with the Indianapolis Colts one game back, setting up for a potential winner-take-all meeting between the Texans and Titans in Week 17. Their win over the Jaguars was great, but they have serious issues to deal with – namely at the quarterback position where Brock Osweiler was benched in favor of Tom Savage.
That’s right, the Texans sat Osweiler – their $72 million man – on the bench after just a few series. Savage, whose contract includes just over $300,000 guaranteed compared to Osweiler’s $37 million, lit up the Jaguars in a way that Brock failed to do all year. He completed 23 of 36 passes for 260 yards, leading the Texans to a one-point win. Osweiler, on the other hand, was 6 of 11 for 48 yards and two interceptions.
With Savage outplaying Osweiler by a wide margin, it should make for an interesting week in Houston. Will Brock get his job back? Or will the Texans ride the hot hand in Savage? Regardless of what they decide, they’re stuck with Osweiler for at least another season – and that should worry a lot of people.
The Texans gave him $37 million guaranteed, all of which comes in the first two years. The contract technically keeps Osweiler in Houston through 2019, but the Texans can get out of it in 2018 without much dead money incurred. That doesn’t fix their looming issue next season, though. Regardless of how Osweiler finishes the year, Houston will be forced to pay him in 2017.
His $16 million base salary next year is fully guaranteed. He carries a $19 million cap hit, and if they decide to cut him, it’ll cost them $25 million – $6 million more than it would to keep him on the roster. This puts the Texans in a terrible situation – one they got themselves into by throwing around bags of money to a quarterback they didn’t even meet with in person.
Houston can either pay him $16 million to be the backup to someone else, or he can start for another year, thus becoming the Texans’ weakest link. Moving on and paying $25 million for him to play elsewhere simply isn’t doable. His hefty contract also makes it almost impossible for the Texans to go after a pricey quarterback in the offseason. Paying Osweiler and say, Tony Romo or Jay Cutler, isn’t conceivable, especially with the Texans projected to have about $18.8 million in cap space next year (sixth-fewest in the NFL).
The Texans have made this bed for themselves, and now they’re forced to lie in it. They thought Osweiler was a franchise quarterback, threw $18 million per year at him and never had him flown out to Houston to meet with him. They let Brian Hoyer go despite him posting substantially better numbers than Osweiler both this season in Chicago and last year with the Texans.
Now, they’re stuck with arguably the worst quarterback in the league – and unequivocally the most overpaid. He entered Sunday with the second-worst passer rating, the 28th-best completion percentage, the fewest yards per attempt and just 204 yards per game. All of those rankings will get worse after Sunday’s debacle, which now gives Osewiler more interceptions (16) than touchdowns (14) – the only current starter (besides Bryce Petty) who can say that.
It’s not that Osweiler had a mediocre cast around him, either. The Texans drafted two starting-caliber WRs in Braxton Miller and Will Fuller, signed Lamar Miller and had DeAndre Hopkins already on the roster. Cody Kessler performed better with a no-name group of players around him in Cleveland. If there’s one thing the Texans did do right this offseason it was surrounding Osweiler with talent. He just wasted their money with a disastrous season.
It’s bad enough the Texans spent $37 million guaranteed on a guy with seven starts in four years prior to this season. It’s even worse that he’s absolutely tanked after just 14 games.
