Aside from, you know, the millions and millions of dollars, I’m not sure I would really want to be Brock Osweiler these days, as nobody seems to want the quarterback. The Texans gave up a second-round draft pick in order to dump his contract after he flamed out one year into a long-term arrangement, and the Cleveland Browns took on said contract almost entirely just to get the draft pick.
That was the focal point of the team’s press release announcing the trade. Owner Jimmy Haslam again reiterated as much in saying that they “picked up a second-round pick” when recently asked about the trade. Asked to elaborate on the other aspect of the trade, the former Steelers part-owner said that “Brock could be on our team or we could trade him”.
While this position was widely speculated in the hours after the trade was made even, this is the first time that somebody affiliated with the Browns said in a formal capacity that they were more than open to moving Osweiler—of course, they wouldn’t outright say that they would release him if they are holding out hope of acquiring more resources in exchange for him.
Haslam ultimately deferred to Sashi Brown, telling the media, yesterday, to ask him about it tomorrow—which is today—so perhaps we will hear more on this topic by the end of the day as Brown fields questions at the league meetings.
In the meantime, however, Osweiler is on the roster and a member of the Browns, and that will remain true until it isn’t, so Haslam reiterated what his head coach said in essentially stating the obvious, that he would be treated as any other player on the roster for the time being.
“Brock’s on our roster and as long as he’s on our roster, we’re going to coach him hard”, Haslam said. “As you know, the way the CBA works, we can’t talk to these guys right now so we really have had almost no contact with him and won’t until players report on April 17”.
Head Coach Hue Jackson previously said of Osweiler that “we’re going to treat him just like we do all our other quarterbacks until he’s not [one of them]”. He added, “he’s a guy that’s gonna come in and compete…once we start our offseason program, phase one, we’ll get a chance to know him and he’ll get a chance to know us”.
The Browns in the meantime are actively pursuing their options in acquiring their next starting quarterback, which certainly does not appear to be Osweiler. There are multiple quarterbacks for whom they have been tied to potential trades, and they are in the process of bringing in several draft prospects at the position for visits.
If Cleveland manages to find a trading partner for Osweiler and are able to acquire another draft pick and share some of the cap hit, then all the better. Otherwise, they may still release him and hope that another team signs him to defer some of the cap hit due to offset language in the contract.
