Eagles Will See Brock Osweiler
PHILADELPHIA (973espn.com) — The Denver Broncos have made a quarterback change in advance of Sunday's game with the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field, moving away from the struggling Trevor Siemian and back to Brock Osweiler, a one-time backup to Peyton Manning.
Osweiler was the heir apparent to Manning during the 2015 season, starting seven games in a campaign that ended with a Super Bowl 50 win over Carolina.
The 6-foot-8 Osweiler fled for Houston and a big-money deal in free agency and his lone season in South Texas ended in disaster, one which resulted in the first NBA-like salary dump in league history when the Texans sent Osweiler's bloated contract to Cleveland, along with a 2017 sixth-round pick and 2018 second-round pick, in exchange for the cap relief and the Browns' 2017 fourth-round compensatory pick.
Ultimately Cleveland released Osweiler and he landed back in Denver for the league minimum of $775,000, although the Browns are picking up the rest of his $16 million price tag.
The Broncos are in the midst of a three-game skid and Siemian has been turnover prone during the downtick, something that forced first-year coach Vance Joseph's hand.
Joseph informed his team of the actual change Wednesday morning. Rumors of the potential shift had already started, however.
In Monday's 29-19 loss to Kansas City the Broncos' offense turned it over four times and Joseph hinted at the eventual change.
"When you lose three in a row and how we've lost the football games, again [Monday] on offense with four turnovers, I think everything is for discussion," the coach admitted.
Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, meanwhile, already addressed the preparation for a different QB on Tuesday.
"Every week you’ve got to get ready," Schwartz said. "I mean, just life in the NFL, first play of the game you might be seeing a backup. So, you always have to have an eye toward that. I think it’s probably a little bit different this week. First of all, with them coming off a short week, who knows what’ll happen. We’ll be prepared for any of the three quarterbacks [Siemian, Osweiler and Paxton Lynch] that come."
Lynch, a first-round pick in 2016, might ultimately be the guy in Denver but he just returned to practice after rehabbing from a shoulder injury and is not ready to play.
"Obviously, Paxton is still healing up," Joseph said. "He's getting better day to day, but it would be unfair to put Paxton out there right now. He hasn't played since Week 3 of the preseason and he's only practiced four days, on a short week. It wouldn't be fair to our football team or to Paxton."
-John McMullen covers the Eagles and the NFL for 973espn.com. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen