Monday, April 30, 2012

Brock Osweiler: The Elway 2.0 Project

Brock Osweiler's great arm and quick release isn't enough.

Instead of posting this as a reply to some of the debate I’ve been in the last 3 days about him, I’ve decided to cram it into a blog. Most probably won’t get through the first paragraph of this rant but I’m going to write it and post it anyway because it’s still bugging the holy hell out of me.

The stuff I read said he made questionable decisions in games and didn't always play smart. The trouble is he doesn’t have a large body of work to even judge if he is football smart. I think the Mark Sanchez example is the perfect one; he only played one college season. He played on a good team in a horrible defensive conference and by draft day he was projected to go in the 1st round then eventually the Hall of Fame.

It took a while but his ass and his game have finally showed itself in living color. He couldn’t beat the lowly Broncos team last year could he? Then what happens… irony of ironies the Jets trade for Tim Tebow, go figure? What does that say about an unproven college QB with a very small sample size of a record? And Sanchez’s resume at first glance makes Osweiler’s look like a chump. I know he’s not a chump I’m just saying.

All the arm strength in the world, all the pretty long balls in the world, all the quick release throws in the world don’t mean squat if that guy isn’t a winner. In clutch time I’d rather have a warrior who wins games ugly than a strong armed QB who loses pretty. The fact is losing is never pretty, it’s always about winning. So it’s extremely infuriating and nonsensical that we traded away a “Project” for another even more unproven “Project” and call that a brilliant personnel move or still dumber building for the “future.”

In this case Elway’s ego took over. He forgot why he signed Peyton Manning apparently. As I’ve said about a dozen times in the last 3 days as I understood it we signed him, paid him the big bucks and gave up cap room money so Manning could come in and win a championship NOW. Manning wasn’t hired to help rebuild the Broncos, it was to win NOW.

The better move in this draft was to sign a player who could contribute immediately with the 2nd round pick for that reason. If Elway thought that Caleb Hanie wasn’t going to cut it I don’t understand why he wasted the time, money and the roster spot when he wasn’t sold on him. Even so the Broncos would have been better off by signing some other cheap experienced free agent QB rather than wasting a pick grooming a 3 year “Project.” Hanie could carry the team for the short term if the worse thing happens to Manning. He isn’t going to be the next big thing we all know that but even he could have carried on for a half season if Manning got hurt. Then the following year the Broncos could have focused solely on getting a replacement either through free agency or the draft.

By the way fans, had we not drafted Osweiler guess what? They’ll be more QB’s available in the draft and free agency next year. Osweiler is not the first nor will he be the last great young “Project” in the history of the game

Regardless, the whole ffing strategy behind signing Manning was to win NOW. Not to sign a guy who’ll set on the bench for 3 years. Yes we need a back up for Manning but we also need every good player we can get that can tackle, cover, block, catch a pass or run well with the ball today not tomorrow. Osweiler does none of that, he detracts from it in fact and in this bid to win a championship NOW if that’s what we want we have to have players on the field that can help us do that NOW!

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