Within the next two weeks, the Broncos will either release Peyton Manning or he’ll retire. That likely will result in the Super Bowl champions re-signing and transitioning to Brock Osweiler. With a much stronger arm, that in theory should help the Broncos have more success throwing deeper balls downfield. Or will it?
Osweiler played almost half of last season, and in that sizeable chunk of action, he wasn’t any better than Manning at driving the ball downfield. In fact, he was even worse.
Osweiler attempted 275 passes last year, yet completed only 17 passes of 20-plus yards. That was the lowest ratio in the league among quarterbacks with at least 200 attempts.
Maybe he’ll be better when given more of a chance from the git-go. But in a couple of years, we might look at Osweiler as more of a Elvis Grbac. The arm and potential are there, but it’s possible that he’ll never quite develop into an above-average NFL starter.
PERCENTAGE OF 20-YARD PASSES | |||
---|---|---|---|
Quarterback | Att | 20+ | Pct |
Andy Dalton | 386 | 52 | 13.47% |
Russell Wilson | 483 | 60 | 12.42% |
Carson Palmer | 537 | 65 | 12.10% |
Blake Bortles | 606 | 72 | 11.88% |
Tyrod Taylor | 380 | 45 | 11.84% |
Jay Cutler | 483 | 53 | 10.97% |
Drew Brees | 627 | 68 | 10.85% |
Marcus Mariota | 370 | 40 | 10.81% |
Jameis Winston | 535 | 57 | 10.65% |
Cam Newton | 495 | 52 | 10.51% |
Ben Roethlisberger | 469 | 48 | 10.23% |
Ryan Tannehill | 586 | 57 | 9.73% |
Aaron Rodgers | 572 | 55 | 9.62% |
Blaine Gabbert | 282 | 27 | 9.57% |
Ryan Fitzpatrick | 562 | 53 | 9.43% |
Tom Brady | 624 | 58 | 9.29% |
Derek Carr | 573 | 53 | 9.25% |
Kirk Cousins | 543 | 50 | 9.21% |
Teddy Bridgewater | 447 | 41 | 9.17% |
Alex Smith | 470 | 42 | 8.94% |
Joe Flacco | 413 | 36 | 8.72% |
Brian Hoyer | 369 | 32 | 8.67% |
Sam Bradford | 532 | 46 | 8.65% |
Matt Hasselbeck | 256 | 22 | 8.59% |
Johnny Manziel | 223 | 19 | 8.52% |
Eli Manning | 618 | 52 | 8.41% |
Matthew Stafford | 592 | 49 | 8.28% |
Josh McCown | 292 | 24 | 8.22% |
Philip Rivers | 661 | 53 | 8.02% |
Nick Foles | 337 | 27 | 8.01% |
Matt Ryan | 614 | 49 | 7.98% |
Colin Kaepernick | 244 | 19 | 7.79% |
Andrew Luck | 293 | 22 | 7.51% |
Peyton Manning | 331 | 24 | 7.25% |
Matt Cassel | 204 | 13 | 6.37% |
Brock Osweiler | 275 | 17 | 6.18% |
—Ian Allan