National Football League

The NFL's gone crazy: Brock Osweiler got $72 million for three good starts

Published Mar. 9, 2016 4:30 p.m. ET

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Brock Osweiler is Sam Bradford in longer pants. He's Blaine Gabbert with a better mentor. He's Matt Cassel with a shorter resume. And for Houston, the best they can hope is that he's the second coming of Matt Schaub, a high-priced, briefly high-profile quarterback who turned a few good games as a backup into a stable starting job that will produce the occasional playoff berth. He's the perfect quarterback for a team with minimal expectations. But if Houston had wanted its own superstar quarterback, it should have signed Peyton Manning back in 2012 rather than his backup in 2016. Osweiler might be taller than his own ceiling.

The deal with Osweiler was announced as $18 million a year over four seasons, more than Denver's reported $16 million per season, with $30 million guaranteed. (The Houston deal is $37 million guaranteed. Good luck figuring out what the out clauses, bonuses and stipulations are.) The short-term pay bump is significant and you can't begrudge Osweiler for taking it, but he's a 25-year-old who, if he's confident in his talents, is playing for his next contract, the one that'll be in a salary cap stratosphere of which young players can only dream.

(Joe Amon/The Denver Post)

So is Houston the right place to do that? Osweiler started seven games in his NFL career, going 5-2 behind the best defense in football and in a system directed and perfected by Peyton Manning. He's going to a team with another good defense, with Romeo Crennel at the helm and J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus doing the on-field dirty work. Given that the AFC South is a bastion of bad football maybe Osweiler did make the right choice. Make the playoffs once at 9-7 and you're a hero. Make it twice in three years and you'll get a backloaded extension that will lead to the team building around you. Going to Houston is a gamble, but not necessarily a bad one.

This is mainly because Osweiler will sign what's perhaps the biggest contract in NFL history with the lowest expectations. No one in Houston is planning a Super Bowl parade today. They're not clearing their calendars for January. Texans fans are merely happy they don't have to play Russian roulette at quarterback every week. Instead of reaching deep into the depth chart to see whether this was the week Hoyer, Mallett, Yates or Weeden was healthy, they'll have a guy they hope will be consistent and healthy enough to start 16 games. Osweiler played three good games in Denver and four average ones, got a huge deal and no one will bat an eye.

Such is life in the new NFL. An average, if that, quarterback will get paid better in 2016 than the best defenders in the league, including former teammates such as Von Miller, DeMarcus Ware and Aqib Talib, the ones who helped Brock Osweiler, Peyton Manning's backup, turn into Brock Osweiler, $72 million man.