After spending the first four years of his career as Peyton Manning‘s backup and coming off the bench as an injury replacement in 2015, former Broncos quarterback Brock Osweiler became an unrestricted free agent in 2016.
In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated‘s Greg Bishop, Osweiler looked back on that offseason and his (lack of) negotiations with Denver.
Osweiler was advised by his agents to not take any calls from Broncos general manager John Elway after a certain cutoff date leading up to NFL free agency. Osweiler listened to their advice but he now regrets doing so, according to Bishop.
Elway made a three-year, $39 million offer to Osweiler’s agents, the former QB told Bishop. That deal would have averaged $13 million per season. The four-year, $72 million deal that he later signed with the Texans averaged $18 million per season, but he didn’t finish it.
Houston guaranteed Osweiler $37 million over three years. That’s less than what he could have earned with the Broncos if he had fulfilled the entire proposed three-year deal from Elway, but that wouldn’t have been guaranteed.
Financially, it made sense to accept the contract with more certainty. Osweiler made over $41 million during his seven-year career in the NFL, according to Spotrac.com. He’d probably be willing to trade some of that money now to go back in time and get a chance to finish his career with the Broncos instead of leaving the team and Gary Kubiak‘s system.
Things didn’t work out in Houston and he lasted just one season with the Texans before bouncing around with four different teams — including another short stop in Denver — before ultimately deciding to retire. If he could do it all over again, Osweiler probably would have re-signed with the Broncos in 2016.
“I would have called John two weeks before that [offer] and told him, ‘Listen I want to be a Bronco until I die. If you want me, let’s get this done,'” Osweiler told Bishop.
“We might have won the Super Bowl the next year,” Osweiler said.
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