Bill O’Brien Should Channel His Inner Pete Carroll
By Bob Dove
O’Brien needs to channel his inner Pete Carroll.
Carroll faced a similar situation several years ago. Courageously, Carroll designated Russell Wilson to start over just acquired for big money Matt Flynn. Sound familiar? The rest is history, including Super Bowl history. O’Brien won’t make that leap. Only an injury to Osweiler can save O’Brien from himself.
It’s unthinkable to wish an injury to any player, and that is not my point. My point is that O’Brien is locked into a free agency decision gone bad. He is allowing one bad decision to cause another, permanent second string status for Tom Savage.
Maybe Savage isn’t the answer, but we’ll never know while he languishes on the bench. Considering the number of quarterbacks coming through the system in the O’Brien era, I see no reason to believe that O’Brien or George Godsey has a special gift for recognizing or developing quarterback talent. What they proved is they can make journeymen adequate for short stretches. However, all the many candidates that took the field eventually failed, and now Brock Osweiler is on the brink.
The Texans missed on Derek Carr and Dak Prescott. It’s not certain they are missing on Tom Savage, but the cruelest twist of all would be if he succeeds for another team after never getting a chance in Houston. His contract ends after the 2017 season right along with Osweiler’s guaranteed money. Does that mean the quarterback search starts all over again? If it does it will start with a different coach and GM.