The plot thickens in Houston, Denver
To say that Brock Osweiler has been a $ 72 million disappointment in Houston would be the understatement of the decade.
When the Texans blew the Broncos out of the water with that offer in free agency, the minimum the club and its fans expected was a solid game manager with some unique traits who might someday grow into a special quarterback.
What they never bargained for was the NFL’s second- lowest rated quarterback at 74.2 – only Ryan Fitzpatrick is worse at 70.7 – completing only 59.8 percent of his passes for a paltry 5.8 yards per attempt with just 14 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.
It’s not as if Osweiler hasn’t had any help, as the Texans are fifth in the NFL in rushing with 1,454 yards and he’s only been sacked 22 times, which is 11th- best in the league.
He’s just been really bad, and now the Texans have dropped three straight to fall into a threeway tie in the AFC South with Indianapolis and Tennessee. Osweiler actually had one of his better games in Sunday’s 21- 13 loss at Green Bay, but he was awful in the losses in Mexico City to the Raiders and at home to San Diego.
Now we’re hearing that as bad as Osweiler has been on the field, he’s had issues with coaches off the field, too, and his salary will jump from $ 12 million this year to $ 19 million next year and he will still be guaranteed $ 25 million more after this season.
The off- the- field issues will come as no surprise to Broncos general manager John Elway, who we hear wasn’t as concerned about the big offer the Texans gave Osweiler as he was by doubts about whether he wanted to keep him at any price.
We hear Elway was concerned about what he perceived as a me- first attitude with Osweiler, the possibility that he was a selfish player who might never be able to lead his teammates and could eventually become a problem in the locker room.
There have been reports from the beginning that Osweiler was more the choice of team owner Bob McNair than he was necessarily of general manager Rick Smith or head coach Bill O’Brien, but we’re also hearing that neither strongly objected to him, either.
Minimally what this means is even if Osweiler does improve on the field, he’s going to have a lot of work to do off it to justify McNair’s investment in him, and there have been no consistent indications on the field that any improvement is coming.
It looks very much right now like Houston bought itself a lemon. How long the experiment will continue is an open question.
Vikings’ choice between Bridgewater and Bradford may be no choice at all
As disappointing as the Minnesota Vikings’ season has been, one player who clearly is not to blame is quarterback Sam Bradford. Granted, his late Thanksgiving Day interception at Detroit cost the Vikings that game, but it was just his third interception of the season and for the most part he has played very well.
Bradford’s 71.2 percent completion rate is second in the league only to Drew Brees’ 71.4, his three interceptions are third- best trailing only Tom Brady ( 1) and Dak Prescott ( 2), and he is a very respectable 12th in passer rating at 97.5 ahead of players like Andrew Luck, Russell Wilson, Philip Rivers, Carson Palmer and Eli Manning.
Still, Teddy Bridgewater was drafted just three seasons ago to be the franchise under center and he did lead the Vikings to the playoffs in just his second season.
But in 29 games over his first two seasons, Bridgewater threw 21 interceptions against just 28 touchdowns and there have been questions about his arm strength since his days at Louisville.
So the Vikings gave up the 32nd pick in the 2014 draft for Bridgewater, and their first- round pick in 2017, which looks like it could be in the 15- to20 range right now, and a conditional third- round pick for Bradford.
If and when Bridgewater is ready to return to action, most likely not until sometime after the opening of the 2017 season, what are the Vikings to do?
The Way We Hear It, that decision has already been made and Bradford is now the Vikings’ quarterback of the present and the future.
The 29- year- old Bradford is substantially bigger than Bridgewater at 6- 4, 225, more accurate and has a much stronger if not special arm.
While Bridgewater is highly respected among his teammates, Bradford has quickly earned that respect, too.
Whether Bridgewater remains as the backup the next few seasons or is traded remains to be seen, but the Vikings appear to believe there is a lot more upside with Bradford than Bridgewater.
Is Ron Rivera worried about something more than Cam Newton’s neckwear?
According to our sources, no one should read too much into Ron Rivera’s benching of Cam Newton for the first play of Sunday night’s game in Seattle, but we also can’t assume it was about nothing more than Newton’s failure to sport a necktie on the team’s flight to Seattle.
Coming from a military family, Rivera is a stickler for details and rules and we’re sure Newton’s wardrobe malfunction was the reason for his miniature suspension.
We also know that Rivera has been a staunch supporter of Newton from Day One and does not have a problem with Newton’s individualism.
In fact, after Newton’s controversial press conference following the Super Bowl loss, Rivera actually went to bat for his quarterback, suggesting impractically that losers of Super Bowl games shouldn’t be forced to do interviews.
We know Rivera would never dodge his own responsibilities like that and that he was just sticking up for his guy.
But we are hearing now that Rivera might not mind it if Newton found a bit of double entendre in the suspension and realized that the mistake in his wardrobe was the result of a lack of attention to detail that has been missing in Newton’s game this season as well.
Few players in the league have declined as much from last season to this as Newton – 14 touchdowns, eight interceptions and 26 yards rushing per game this year compared to 35 touchdowns, 10 picks and 44 yards per game rushing last season – and we’re hearing Newton may not be fully accepting his share of the blame for his decline.
Rivera is still very much in Newton’s corner, but in some arenas a little poking of the bear is often necessary.