Brock Osweiler trade shows how desperate quarterback decisions never work

The Texans trade of Brock Osweiler trade to the Cleveland Browns show just how desperate teams are for a quarterback in the NFL—and how rash moves never work out.

The Chicago Bears should pay attention. They could be looking at their future.

On Thursday, the Houston Texans and Cleveland Browns shocked the NFL world with what Adam Schefter called “the most creative trade in NFL history” when they swapped draft picks and Brock Osweiler along with financial commitments. It’s a move that signals the end of the Osweiler era, if you can call it that, in Houston and a sign of the dangers of desperate quarterback moves.

The official terms of the deal give the Browns a sixth round pick in 2017, a second round pick in 2018 and Osweiler in exchange for a fourth round pick this year to the Texans, along with the Browns’ promise to pay $16 million of Osweiler’s deal. In other words, this is a financial dump to a place that can afford it, like Cleveland, and they’re rewarded for it with a nice pick next year.

There will be more ink spilled on the news, the terms and the grades of the Osweiler deal than any one person can read, but more importantly, it’s the most obvious admission of what the most well-run NFL teams already know: that desperation only breeds more desperation.

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There wasn’t anyone alive, besides maybe Texans general manager Rick Smith, who believed signing Osweiler to a 4-year, $72 million deal was a good move in the first place. There’s a reason John Elway let his only quarterback option, at the time, ride off into the sunset without a worry on his face. The results played out even worse than expected, with head coach Bill O’Brien even turning to Tom Savage for two starts (and a bit of another) despite Osweiler being perfectly healthy. He was also perfectly inaccurate.

Rather than heading into another season with the combination of Osweiler and Savage and maybe another addition, the franchise decided to admit its mistake and reward the Browns for taking out their garbage. It’s a healthy move and the team deserves credit for its admission. After all, what sales rep wants to ask local businesses and fans to buy season tickets to Osweiler: Part Deux? Now they can start fresh with a real dream of winning the division again.

Unfortunately, very few teams will follow the Texans lead in revealing their desperation. Time and again, teams are willing to endure the same quarterback carousel or roll out the same product hoping that this time is the time, the oft-quoted definition of insanity. Maybe this will be the year that Brian Hoyer or Jay Cutler or Mike Glennon or Nick Foles or [insert name here] can carry an offense. Never mind that they never have before! Let’s not only give them the starting role, but let’s throw millions at them in the process.

Enter the Chicago Bears and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad contract they ended up giving Glennon. Once again, you’ll hear the crickets chirping when Ryan Pace asks for the hands of those excited by Glennon’s deal. Not only is Glennon an uninspiring candidate to bring in, but it turns out that the closest competitors were several million below the Bears. Why not put those millions and/or some draft assets together to get Jimmy Garoppolo? Or sign a vet on the cheap and draft Deshaun Watson?

It is, once again, the popular, oft-told tale: a desperate team throws tons of money at an obviously-not-a-franchise quarterback.

When John Dorsey took over the reins of the Kansas City Chiefs, the team had been rewriting the same story over and over to tell fans. Maybe this will be Matt Cassel’s year! Maybe Brady Quinn is the answer! Kyle Orton? Tyler Palko? Brodie Croyle? It was even worse before Cassel’s run, with names like Brock Huard and Tyler Thigpen trotting out in the role of “most important player on the field.” Fans were understandably miserable, and so are the team’s records from those seasons.

Dorsey knew what many general managers cannot seem to understand: desperation is not an option at quarterback. Find your guy and pay the cost, whatever it takes. He found Alex Smith, a quarterback who went 19-5-1 in his previous two seasons and he paid the piper. The price was a bit steep—two second round picks—but compared to the aforementioned Osweiler trade, the deal for Smith is a no-brainer.

The same can be said for last season’s mega-deal for Carson Wentz. The Philadelphia Eagles paid handsomely for the rights to move up and select Wentz at No. 2 in the draft. Ask them if they’d do it again, however, and the answer would be a resounding “yes.” After all, look at the team with the picks (the same Browns) and look at which team is on the rise, surrounding Wentz with weapons in free agency (like Alshon Jeffery).

Even Washington’s deal for Robert Griffin III is much more admirable than most GMs moves who somehow feel okay rolling with the Josh McCowns of the world. In that same draft, the team grabbed Kirk Cousins along with RGIII. The reason: never become desperate at the most important position. Pay the price. Get your man. And, for some teams, make sure your back-up plan is also not desperate.

The millions of dollars thrown at products already known to be middling, at best, is staggering and signals that even an executive who climbs all the way to leading a front office can still cave in to fear. It often gets the best of us, but fear-based decisions never work out. Just ask the Texans. They’re actually willing to talk about it.

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