In a recent interview, Broncos GM John Elway indicated that Brock Osweiler was none too pleased when he got the hook in favor of Peyton Manning last season.
“I can understand that he didn’t want to sit down and have Peyton come back in that San Diego game, but it wasn’t the fact that Brock was playing bad,” Elway said (via Nicki Jhabvala of The Denver Post). “We needed a change of something. So I was a little surprised just how he seemed to be a little bent out of shape about that. But he had an opportunity to make a tremendous amount of money in Houston, and for us, it just didn’t fit.”
Given Elway’s view of Osweiler, one has to wonder exactly how much he wanted to re-sign him. This offseason, Osweiler signed a four-year, $72MM deal with the Texans with $37MM in guarantees. The Broncos, meanwhile, only offered Osweiler ~$64MM with $30MM in guarantees.
Here’s more from the West divisions:
- Osweiler responded to Elway on Monday (link via ESPN.com’s Sarah Barshop). “The only thing I would say is what kind of competitor wouldn’t want to play in that situation?” the former Broncos QB said. “Outside of that, I think I’ve answered all of those questions, we’re now in August, we just had a great training camp practice, and I’m excited to play the 49ers coming up.”
- Nick Foles agreed to lower his guaranteed 2016 base salary in order to secure his release from the Rams, accepting $1MM from Los Angeles rather than the $1.75MM he was scheduled to earn. But as Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk writes, Foles will make up that difference if he earns a spot on the Chiefs‘ roster, as he’ll earn that same $1.75MM amount on his new contract. Foles’ deal with the Rams contained offset language, Florio suggests, and Los Angeles be able to will clear Foles off their salary cap if he makes the Chiefs.
- Cardinals tackle Jared Veldheer converted $6MM of his $7.25MM base salary into a signing bonus, creating $4MM of cap space for the team, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. That gave the team enough wiggle room to give Larry Fitzgerald and Carson Palmer one-year extensions last week.
Dallas Robinson contributed to this post.
Facts missing from the Osweiler / Denver / Houston narrative is that the Broncos originally offered $30M/$64M, then Houston offered the $37M/$72M and he signed. He did not return Denver’s call when they tried to up their offer. Elway’s story has holes in it. Media is reluctant to criticize good ole Johnny boy. Good luck with Sanchez/Simien as the “co-starters”.