For fans crying the blues about the departure of Brock Osweiler to the Houston Texans, consider this: Osweiler is slated to make just $5 million less than Peyton Manning made in his four years with the Denver Broncos. That’s going to translate to some big expectations down there in Houston. And on a per-win basis, the Broncos can actually feel pretty happy about their return on investment with Osweiler over the past four years.
Manning, understandably, had immense expectations when he started the second phase of his career – and he ultimately fulfilled them (albeit in an unexpected way there at the end).
In four years, he racked up a world title, two AFC Championships, four AFC West titles and he set a slew of single-season and career NFL records while in orange and blue. His final record, regular season and postseason combined, as the starter was a stellar 50-15. His .769 winning percentage is the best in franchise history.
Not terribly far behind him is Osweiler, at .714; although his sample size is a very small seven starts. Still, Osweiler was a vital part to the 2015 Super Bowl-winning team, leading Denver to several key victories late in the season while Manning recovered from a plantar fasciitis injury.
Although Osweiler was eventually benched in favor of Manning, he cashed in big time with the Texans, who will pay him more per year than Tom Brady or Andrew Luck. At $18 million (average) a year, Osweiler will be making more than five times more in a single year than he made in his four years in the league combined.
And despite playing in only seven games over those four years, Osweiler was actually a better investment – at least from a cost-per-win standpoint – than Manning.
As noted above, Manning walked away with $77 million over four years (including a nice $4 million incentive for winning the Super Bowl), racking up 50 wins along the way. That translates to $1,540,000 per win.
Osweiler, meanwhile, earned a cool $3.516 million on his rookie contract. With just seven wins, that equals $703,200 per win – less than half the ROI of Manning.
This isn’t to suggest that the Broncos would have had similar success with Osweiler at the helm. There’s no way a rookie quarterback leads a run like the one Manning did beginning in 2012. But for those fans saying the Broncos wasted $3.5 million on a backup quarterback who walked away in free agency, they actually earned a pretty decent return on investment.
Statistically speaking, even if Osweiler were to go a perfect 19-0 over the next four seasons for Houston, his per win value still wouldn’t be as good as what he delivered in those five wins for the Broncos.
Broncos Country may be a little hurt that Osweiler left Denver, but they got the better end of the deal while he was here.