The biggest free agent flop of 2016 might end up being the Houston Texans signing former Denver Broncos backup Brock Osweiler to a monster contract and then watching him fail to live up to any expectations for the franchise. He lost his job during the regular season and now finds himself completely out of a job. The Houston Texans traded Osweiler and a 2018 second round draft pick to the Cleveland Browns.
The fall of Brock Osweiler
In 2015, Brock Osweiler was the backup to Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos. He came in after Manning fell to injury and helped lead the Broncos to the playoffs.
However, Denver benched Osweiler for Manning, and he refused to stay with the team after Manning retired, signing a four-year $70 million contract with the Houston Texans, He was never worth the money, leading the Texans to the playoffs but never playing well enough to keep his starting job. The Texans replaced him with Tom Savage and only fell back to Brock when Savage suffered a concussion before the NFL playoffs. During his one year in Houston, Osweiler threw 15 touchdowns and16 interceptions. Now, the Texans seem ready to move on and found a trade partner with the Cleveland Browns.
Cleveland Browns won't start Brock Osweiler
The huge twist in this trade between the Houston Texans and Cleveland Browns is that the Browns have no desire to keep Brock Osweiler.
The reason that the Texans made the trade was to clear his $10 million from their 2017 salary cap numbers because they have every intention of signing Tony Romo. ESPN reports that the Browns are not going to keep Osweiler and will instead bring him in to use as trade bait. Some teams have already contacted Cleveland about Osweiler, and they are willing to trade their early first round draft pick and Osweiler for help in rebuilding their franchise.
This type of trade in normal in the NBA but NFL teams almost never make trades just to clear the money off their books to a team that just wants to use them as a pawn. For Brock Osweiler, last year's top free agent signing is this year's forgotten man.
