Talib on Osweiler: "Maybe he didn't want to be in Peyton's shadow, John's shadow"

In case you’ve been living under a rock, the Denver Broncos are searching for a quarterback, much in part to the fact that their one-time “QB of the future” Brock Osweiler bolted for the Houston Texans and a big ol’ contract.

Since his departure, many rumors have surfaced as to why Osweiler packed up for Houston, other than just chasing dollar signs. One of those being that Osweiler felt disrespected by the Broncos when he was benched for future hall of famer Peyton Manning in Week 16.

On Monday, Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib did the ESPN media tour and on ESPN Radio’s Russillo and Kannell, Talib scoffed a bit at the theory of Brock feeling disrespected.

“If you’re a backup quarterback, then that’s your job title,” he told. “You backup and when the starter comes back, you backup again.”

Talib went on to elaborate, offering his own theory that falls in line with some of the other reports that have gone around.

“Maybe he didn’t want to be in Peyton [Manning’s] shadow, John [Elway’s] shadow,” said the pro-bowler. “He wanted to start his own thing in Houston.”

But Talib warned Osweiler about such a thing, about chasing the money.

“What I do, I tell the young guys — young guys like Malik [Jackson] and Brock — I tell them it’s not always greener on the other side,” he said. “I’ve been on the other side before. It may look like $100 million but after about two 3-13 seasons, that whole contract is gone. There’s a whole new staff in there. Once the guaranteed money is all gone, it ain’t really what it look like. I gave him fair warning, man.”

As for the future, the Broncos defender said he’s not too worried about who’s calling the signals for the offense next year.

“We got a great exec, you know — John Elway,” Talib said. “I feel like, after the draft, whatever quarterback is set to be our starting quarterback, I feel like everyone will be comfortable with it … We’re definitely talented on ‘D,’ but we still definitely need a quarterback who’s a leader and willing to work … It wasn’t like we were just absent at the quarterback last year.”

Talib later admitted on SportsCenter that he and his teammates have a “group chat” where they talk about who they think they’re going to get at QB. Wouldn’t you love to have a look at that?