5 reasons Brock Osweiler trade to Cleveland Browns is great
By John Buhler
4. Cleveland can afford to take on salary
Osweiler wasn’t good, but he wasn’t straight up horrendous for the Texans. The bulk of his criticism last season comes from the Texans front office spending $72 million on him on a four-year deal without even interviewing him.
While the Browns will have to play a big chunk of that in 2017, they have the cap space to do so. The Browns are the only team in football that has over $100 million worth of space for general manager Sashi Brown to use this offseason. Why not use a good bit of that on a below-average starting quarterback to an above-average backup in Osweiler?
Cleveland used something like quarterbacks last year. Robert Griffin III got hurt immediately and the Browns cratered instantaneously. He may have limitations as a passer with only one arm speed, but Osweiler isn’t fragile like Griffin or Cody Kessler seem to be. Being 6’8″ seems to help Osweiler in that regard.
Trading for Osweiler’s contract would be ludicrous for most teams, but not Cleveland’s. The Browns are choosing to zag while others zig in their lengthy rebuilding process. They didn’t hit pay dirt in landing Osweiler, but he’s way more salvageable of a quarterbacking project than people want to admit. It’s a lot of dough, but Cleveland can afford him and not suffer horrendously.