What kind of player is Brock Osweiler going to be?

[Akhilleus]

Since he was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the second round of the 2012 draft, I liked Brock Osweiler. When they brought in Peyton Manning, I saw it as a Brett Favre/Aaron Rodgers situation all over again. Osweiler however, is 6'8 and has a hell of a cannon for an arm. Finally it appears that Peyton Manning has hit the wall, and it is now time for Osweiler to shine. Sometimes he has, and sometimes he hasn't.

So which Osweiler are we going to see? The one who was playing in the first half yesterday's game in Heinz Field against the Pittsburgh Steelers, or the one who played in the second half and against the Oakland Raiders the week before. He has had a lot of time to learn from one of the greatest Quarterbacks of all time. He has more resources and opportunities to succeed right now than most young quarterbacks who get this chance.

He has a lot of talent, but the problem is that talent is still raw. Which is pretty inexcusable considering he has been red shirted for the last three years. The success of his first half came off of one read passes. He wasn't even looking at other players. He threw one crucial interception, but the Steelers dropped about five more right in their hands too. To be fair, although Osweiler has had three years of learning under Manning's wing, this is his first chance playing as a starting QB in the NFL. That always comes with a learning curve. The difference is most of the time teams who sit through these growing pains are teams like the Browns or the 49ers right now who are eliminated from playoff contention.

The difficulty with this situation is the 2015 Denver Broncos are very much a Super Bowl caliber team, and when you are getting ready to make a playoff run you don't want to be watching growing pains with your starting QB. However I have no doubt that Peyton Manning has hit the wall. The thing is though if you leave a legend like Peyton Manning on the bench and then the greenhorn QB costs you the game in the playoffs, there is going to be a lot of criticism.

I personally think Osweiler is going to be a very solid starter for the Broncos. I don't think he has been playing to bad at all. He's had some rookie mistakes, but I don't get all of the criticism. It was Vernon Davis and Demaryius Thomas who dropped two huge passes in last night's game. He is huge, he has a lot of talent, and he's the future of the Denver offense. Kubiak and the rest of Denver need to stick with him throughout the rest of the season.

 

[J.J.]

He's a solid QB but I can't really get an accurate judgement on him just yet. His biggest weakness appears to be batted or deflected passes to over the middle targets and his eyes fixing on the target area before the pass is delivered. It's fair to say that is fixable so I will ultimately give him the benefit of the doubt.

It's also unfortunate that the play calling in the red zone for Denver is atrocious, mix that with Thomas forgetting how to catch the ball and key drops. The lack of a run game is forcing him to pass way more than he should.

But overall based on what I have seen of him so far, no major complaints.

 

[Khalifa]

I think he will be a good quarterback. Does he have the potential of Winston or Mariota or Carr? Not quite but his first half yesterday or actually more specifically the 1st quarter was really good and showed me that he will be a set and forget player. Someone who you don't worry about upgrading and are actually happy to have. Granted one of the drives was a touchdown on the first play, but still it looked like he would be throwing bullets the whole day. Unfortunately he hurt his shoulder at the end of the first half which is part of the reason why I think his second half was quite different compared to his first. He endured some major pressure coming in for Manning mid way through the year and has done a somewhat decent effort to keep the Broncos in contention for bye week despite what was a tough schedule. I really like the kid and obviously he is doing something right to keep Manning on the sidelines.

 

[J.J.]

To further emphasize he has to be more effective inside the red zone. A quarterback needs to be able to read a defense before the snap, anticipate its movements after, and fit the ball into tight pockets. Overall Osweiler is a much a better fit for Kubiak's offense. That run based, play action and stretch play heavy offense than an aging Peyton Manning would be.