Brock Osweiler Puts on a Great Performance

Brock Osweiler was quite good last night, in the preseason opener against the Seahawks, helping the Denver Broncos get a 22-20 win.

The points don’t really matter, though. They never do in the preseason. What matters is that Osweiler looked good enough to be a very solid backup and perhaps the quarterback of the future for the Broncos. There are a lot of games left, so we’ll need to see much more out of him, but it was that type of performance.

Playing in the first half, Osweiler completed 15 out of 20 passes. At one point, he tossed nine completions in a row. He threw a touchdown with under a minute to go in the half, a nice touch pass to Virgil Green, and he never threw an interception.

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He’s been studying Peyton Manning, and it shows. One of Manning’s greatest strengths is that he gets rid of the ball as fast as humanly possible. As soon as anyone breaks open, he throws it. If that’s a downfield shot, so be it, but he’s usually content to throw anywhere at all—even for just five yards—if he identifies the mismatch before the play and knows he can get the completion.

That’s exactly what Brock did last night. He almost never held the ball. He took the open throws. He didn’t force too many passes into coverage.

He’s been in the NFL for years now, all as a backup, but that time still helped him. Young quarterbacks often hold the ball way too long, not wanting to make the wrong read. Osweiler was confident and made just about every throw.

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Not that he was perfect, or that there’s a quarterback controversy. A number of his throws were well behind his wideouts. Guys like Cody Latimer made diving catches and bailed him out. He’s not flawless, and he needs a lot more game action. But he was all potential and upside against the Seahawks.

I’ve said since the Gary Kubiak hire that Peyton Manning is technically not the right quarterback for what the coaching staff wants to do. Manning is great and should absolutely start, but he’s physically not the right guy. He can’t roll out and boot, and he doesn’t have a huge arm.

Osweiler can move. He ran the rollout passes perfectly. He broke tackles. He has arm strength to burn, and he can fire it as far downfield as needed. This year, it means he can step in easily when called upon, and it also means he’s an awesome fit going forward, as long as he continues to develop.