It’s easy to forget that Brock Osweiler’s Broncos tenure is as long as Peyton Manning’s. It’s easy to forget because Osweiler, a fourth-year veteran playing on an expiring contract, never has started a regular-season game.
The blessing and curse of playing behind a future hall of famer is never more apparent as it is with Osweiler. But the next phase of his career will come Sunday when he starts in place of the injured Peyton Manning as the Broncos face the Bears at Chicago.
It will be the first true test of whether he might be the team’s quarterback of the future.
No pressure.
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“I feel very comfortable with Brock,” Broncos coach Gary Kubiak said. “I could go give him all of the work, mentally, that he needs. He handles everything well, but I think there is a point where you go back, you study him and you see what he’s done and what he feels most comfortable with. As far as volume of game plan and stuff, I’m very comfortable doing anything with him.”
Osweiler replaced Manning in the third quarter of the on Sunday. The next day, Kubiak announced Osweiler will lead the offense as Manning recovers from partially torn plantar fascia in his left foot and a rib cage injury.
It could be the start of a new era for the Broncos.
Since Kubiak arrived in January, he has mandated weekly days off for Manning and many veterans in an effort to keep them fresh in the latter part of the season. Osweiler has led the first-string offense in practice most Wednesdays, using his limited reps to become more comfortable in an offense that better fits his strengths than those of Manning.
“Getting to go into that No. 1 huddle with that offensive line and starting building your cadence with those guys, and then getting to build some timing with (Demaryius Thomas) and Emmanuel (Sanders), Vernon (Davis), (Owen Daniels) and those guys — it’s paid off,” Osweiler said. “I’m very fortunate to get that time.”
Kubiak installed his zone-blocking, stretch run offense in an effort to create a balanced attack and open running lanes. It was supposed to relieve the pressure on Manning, who is 39 and has more than 17 seasons of wear and tear on his body. It was supposed to offer him the benefits that John Elway enjoyed in the latter years of his career, when the Broncos won back-to-back Super Bowl titles with Kubiak as their offensive coordinator.
But the system has been tailored to Manning’s strengths. It has been a compromise — one that, despite a 7-2 start, has lacked production and efficiency. The quarterback switch could be a difference-maker.
Osweiler’s inexperience can be trumped by his athleticism. But it creates a ripple effect throughout the offense.
“It changes the scheme somewhat because he’s a little more mobile, we’ve got a bigger arm, so it changes the scheme,” receiver Andre Caldwell said. “For me, I’m familiar with him. As a receiver corps, we put more pressure on ourselves because we’ve been out there more, so we’re going to try to step our game up to try to help him feel more comfortable out there.”
The first 3 ½ years of Osweiler’s pro career essentially have been redshirt seasons. He’s watched. He’s learned. He’s absorbed. And he’s waited.
Osweiler said he never really put too much thought into the what ifs, or the question of whether his chance to start in place of Manning, would ever come.
But he hasn’t played second-fiddle entirely.
“Brock, when he first got in the league, and I was here his second year, he was seen, but not heard — work hard, ‘Yes sir, no sir,” said Greg Knapp, Broncos quarterbacks coach and passing-game coordinator. Knapp said he relied on Osweiler often in 2013, when Knapp arrived in Denver and was learning the terminology of the offense run by coordinator Adam Gase and head coch John Fox. “Now he’s the guy in the room asking good questions, where Peyton is like, ‘He’s got a good point there. Why aren’t we doing this?’ Or, ‘That’s a good point, I’ll take that into play when I make a decision.’ They’re learning a lot faster than most young quarterbacks have.”
For better or worse, Osweiler’s path has been unlike most quarterbacks who come into the league. The learning has required patience and the development has required extra time outside of games and practice. His first start will be viewed as an audition.
But his focus, he says, is more narrow.
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“Anytime that you put the weight of the world on yourself, saying, ‘I have to perform,’ or, ‘I have to get a completion,’ ‘I have to get a touchdown,’ nine times out of 10 you’re going to fail,” Osweiler said. “Right now, I’m not out to prove anything. I’m solely trying to go into Chicago and get one win this week.”
Nicki Jhabvala: njhabvala@denverpost.com or @NickiJhabvala
Osweiler by the numbers
Broncos quarterback Brock Osweiler, a second-round draft pick from Arizona State in 2012, will get his first NFL start Sunday at Chicago:
1: Win on Sunday would make him first quarterback drafted by Denver since Gary Kubiak in 1983 to get a victory in his first start.
44 Number of quarterbacks to start in Broncos history, when he takes the field Sunday.
2: Times in history QBs drafted by Denver (Osweiler and Jay Cutler) will start against each other.
6-8: Height of Osweiler, tying him as tallest player in team history.
15: Games started in college.
1: Distance in yards of first career toudchwon pass, against Oakland on Dec. 28, 2014.
Nicki Jhabvala, The Denver Post
