MOVING ON
McNair says trading Osweiler to Browns was ‘unbelievable’
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — It has been almost three weeks since the Texans shipped quarterback Brock Osweiler to Cleveland, and owner Bob McNair is still stunned they were able to pull off the trade.
“It was a shocker to me,” McNair said Monday. “It was unbelievable.”
During a break at the NFL meetings, McNair discussed Osweiler for the first time, disclosed how they might improve their quarterback situation and talked about a contract extension for coach Bill O’Brien. By trading Osweiler after one season, the Texans admitted they made a mistake. General manager Rick Smith sent Osweiler and a second-round pick
in 2018 to Cleveland to get his $16 million guaranteed salary for 2017 off their books and clear $10 million in cap space.
Smith also sent a sixthround pick in this year’s draft to the Browns for a fourth-round selection.
“I couldn’t believe that Rick was able to pull it off,” McNair said.
Since McNair arrived at the Arizona Biltmore, some of the other owners have congratulated him on the trade.
“Everybody around the league, their jaws are still hanging open,” he said. “It’s something no one thought (about), and I think other people have looked at that, and they’ve been trying to do the same thing without success.”
The Texans didn’t keep Osweiler around another season and possibly compound the problem.
“We didn’t know Brock well enough,” McNair said. “Coach (O’Brien) didn’t have a chance to get to know him. That’s one of the problems with free agency.”
On the day free agency began in 2016, the Texans outbid Denver for Osweiler. They signed him to a four-year, $72 million contract that included $37 million guaranteed.
“You need to know who you’re dealing with,” McNair said. “In the draft, we’re able to bring them to Houston, sit down with them, watch them interviewed by a bunch of coaches, and you have time to check them out.
“You can’t talk to them before they become a free agent. You can’t work them out. We didn’t know him that well.”
With Osweiler out of the picture, the Texans have two quarterbacks under contract. Tom Savage and Brandon Weeden are in the last year of their contracts.
They’ll pursue Tony Romo if Dallas owner Jerry Jones releases him. No one in the Texans organization can comment on Romo because he’s still under contract with the Cowboys.
No matter what happens with Romo, the Texans are still expected to use a high pick on a quarterback, possibly even a first-round selection.
“It’s important that we upgrade the play at quarterback,” McNair said. “Maybe we have a player in Savage, but that remains to be seen. We think he has the ability and could be that guy, but he hasn’t been healthy.
“He’s played twice (in regular season) and gotten hurt twice. That’s our only concern with Tom. He’s smart enough. He knows the system. He’s got a good arm. I think he can get the job done, but if we depend on him, and he gets hurt in the first or second game …”
McNair also said he’ll wait until after the season to talk to O’Brien about a contract extension.
O’Brien is in the fourth year of the five-year contract he signed with the Texans in 2014. His teams have finished 9-7 in his first three seasons, and they’ve won back-to-back AFC South titles.
“We’ll talk to him about it at the end of this year,” McNair said. “That’s typically when we do that sort of thing.”
O’Brien has a 27-21 record. Two coaches who were hired the same year as O’Brien was — Minnesota’s Mike Zimmer (26-22) and Washington’s Jay Gruden (21-26-1) — have signed extensions of at least two years.
Oakland’s Jack Del Rio (19-13) was hired in 2015 and already received a four-year extension.
O’Brien is the only one in that threesome who has a playoff victory.
“We’ll sit down and see what he’s happy with and if he wants to be extended and see how we feel,” McNair said.
McNair has hired three coaches. Dom Capers was fired after four seasons. Gary Kubiak earned an extension and was fired in 2013.