For one week, the four-year, $72 million deal given to Brock Osweiler appeared worth the risk for the Houston Texans, but in the last four weeks it has looked troublesome.
The Texans paid $72 million for an upgrade at QB, but Brock Osweiler has been a downgrade
Former Texans quarterback Brian Hoyer looks like he’d be a much better option than Brock Osweiler if he was still in Houston.
Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images
In Week 5 it looked downright disastrous.
Osweiler finished a 31-13 loss to the Minnesota Vikings with just 19 completions on 42 attempts for 184 yards. At halftime, neither DeAndre Hopkins nor Will Fuller had a single reception and the Texans had already dug a hole too deep to climb from.
His day also included a terrible interception on a ball lazily lofted to heavily covered Texans receiver Jaelen Strong.
To be fair to Osweiler, the Vikings defense’ is great. It gave all sorts of problems to Aaron Rodgers, Cam Newton, and Eli Manning in the last three weeks and cornerback Xavier Rhodes has been shutting down some of the NFL’s most elite wide receivers on a weekly basis.
He was also sacked four times and under pressure often, something that has given him trouble so far this year.
But Sunday wasn’t the outlier for Osweiler. It was the fourth-consecutive poor performance for a player who was supposed to be the giant upgrade at quarterback for an offense that desperately needed one.
A year ago, the Texans were a playoff team with a stingy defense, but struggled with a revolving door at quarterback with Brian Hoyer, Ryan Mallett, T.J. Yates, and Brandon Weeden.
However, the Texans would be in better shape in 2016 if Osweiler was playing more like the way Hoyer did in 2015. Or the way Hoyer has played so far for the Chicago Bears this season, for that matter.
Hoyer posted a 5-4 record as a starter for Houston in 2015, with 60.7 percent of his passes completed, 19 touchdowns, and seven interceptions. In three starts for the Bears he has three 300-yard games, six touchdowns, and no interceptions.
Simply put: Hoyer has been much, much better than Osweiler. And Hoyer’s doing it on a one-year, $2 million contract with the Bears.
It’s not too late for Osweiler to turn things around and a matchup against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 6 is a good place to start. But after that is a Monday Night Football game on the road against Osweiler’s former team, the Denver Broncos.
It’s the type of game the Texans hoped Osweiler would help them win, but instead he looks more like a burden dragging down the team.
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