We hear you loud and clear. Trevor Siemian isn’t cutting it, it’s hard to deny that. When you can’t get a point on the board, it’s legitimate to wonder if someone else could do better.

Don’t forget Siemian won the job fair and square, he was vetted thoroughly, starting off the season hot and seemingly poised to build off his first season as a starter. But there is one quarterback available who wasn’t a part of that competition, Brock Osweiler, the man who helped right the ship for the Broncos on their way to their Super Bowl 50 winning season.

Since then, Osweiler’s trials and tribulations are well known, make no mistake, this isn’t the same Osweiler who had untapped potential and whose book on the NFL hadn’t been written yet. The word is out now on how to defend Brock, which makes this a bit easier than deciding whether or not to switch to a more unknown commodity like Lynch.

So what is the book on Brock? Can he get the offense out of this funk? The tape never lies, so we went out to seek answers, here’s what we found.

Hanging tough in the pocket

Since his days back at Arizona State Osweiler’s always stood out for his ability to stand tough in the pocket and zing passes with good arm strength over the middle of the field, even in tight windows. That’s been both a blessing and a curse for Brock who sometimes hangs onto the ball too long in the pocket and needs to be more trigger happy.

Osweiler has a good arm and a great frame. When he’s operating out of spread formations in shotgun, he can make quick decisions and uncork some deep throws. The arm strength is there to go deep, and that’s where he’s played some of his best games, the issue is Brock hasn’t always pulled the trigger. His accuracy is okay, but far from great. He needs to make timely quick throws to maximize his arm talent.

Brock’s natural habitat is in the pocket, where he has slightly mechanical but sound footwork. He’ll get in trouble if under duress when he has to pass the ball while his lower body mechanics are off-balance. His arm isn’t big enough to overcome awkward footing and platforms.

So what’s the Book on Brock?

If Osweiler doesn’t have protection and teams are clogging the middle of the field he’s really struggled. This is when he’s not pulling the trigger deep, and he’s forced to pass it to the sideline unless he tries a few plays while scrambling.

Side note: Brock’s ability as a runner is good for his size but far from great. He can make some plays on scrambles but isn’t highly athletic or gifted as a passer on the run.

That’s how you stop Osweiler, you play tight aggressive zone up the middle and have a safety over the top. That’s when he has to make passes to the sideline in the short to intermediate game, and Brock’s struggled on such throws. You could say it’s his greatest weakness. It all stems from his ball placement accuracy which isn’t great, leading him to underthrow passes, where he’s succumbed to bad interceptions.

Unlike Siemian who’s throwing picks in large part due to forcing throws into windows, he has no business trying to force the ball into, Brock’s issue is purely accuracy related. It’s fair to say he struggles in congested tight windows despite his talent for zinging passes over the middle. The accuracy isn’t there really, his accuracy deep isn’t great either, but he’s less likely to run into trouble trying to go over the top of a defense. Interceptions have been a problem for No. 17, who threw 16 picks to only 15 touchdowns a year ago with the Texans.

Brock’s really a rhythm quarterback who can play well once he gets going and starts to hit a few deep balls. We saw this Week 15 in 2015 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he battled and got Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas going with quick hitting slants and screens that they took for greater gains. He then found some passes downfield. You saw it in part at the start of his Houston Texans career in Week 2 against the Kansas City Chiefs, where he again got going deep with a couple bombs to Will Fuller. While there’s a misconception about Brock and his arm based purely on his height, it’s true that when he can get a few deep passes going things open up for him, which is when he’s had some of his best performances.

The problem is when Osweiler doesn’t have receivers getting open and creating separation like Thomas and Sanders. With Houston, DeAndre Hopkins didn’t create separation regularly, and he and Osweiler had trouble connecting. Back shoulder throws or fades aren’t his forte, as that ball placement isn’t as pinpoint as it needs to be.

 

The benefit of knowing your limitations

When at his best, Osweiler takes what opposing defenses give him and doesn’t have to work in tight windows because he’s getting the ball out quickly right off of his drops. Gary Kubiak was masterful in formatting an offense that allowed Brock to do those type of things, with a heavy dose of play action sprinkled in as well.

Osweiler isn’t fast, he doesn’t have a powerful arm, and he’s not the quickest at processing information. The ability to process information and be more cerebral pre-snap is key here. It would also be important for Osweiler to embrace his weaknesses and his role more than Siemian’s been able to do as of late. Avoiding risky throws will be key, being quick in processing as well, and Brock will have to take more shots deep, consistently. All while being a more judicious game manager than he or Siemian have been in the past.

Do that, and you can make an argument that you’re better off than with Siemian. Brock’s shown the ability to embrace his role before, especially in his stint with the Broncos.

The biggest question mark for either quarterback truly comes down to consistency, and that’s not just an individual talent. The consistency comes down to how defenses are limiting either quarterback and the offense. Consistency is directly correlated with the ability to make adjustments and throws that the opponent is defying you to make. In that sense, Siemian would be the choice due to his superior accuracy and mobility, but he’s also been his own worst enemy at times. Osweiler reached that point a year ago in Houston in Week 15 against the Jacksonville Jaguars, where he got benched after throwing two interceptions off of only 11 attempts, completing only six for 48 yards. Has he learned from that? can he get back to the quarterback we saw in Denver who kept things simple and made plays deep from time to time? If so, we already know that this defense can win games with that Osweiler. I guess we won’t know which Brock we’ll get until he’s given a chance.