INDIANAPOLIS — Unlike last year, when quarterback Brock Osweiler was christened the starting quarterback during the offseason, the Houston Texans will enter offseason workouts with an open competition.
At the NFL combine on Wednesday, head coach Bill O’Brien said that the Texans would have a competition at quarterback, but said he wasn’t treating that any differently than any other position on the team that’s up for grabs.
“Competition is open with every position on our team, obviously with the exception of a few,” O’Brien said. “But the majority of positions on our team — that’s what we’ve based our program on from the day we walked in here. We’ve based our program on competition and competing in practice.
“The depth chart changes with us. I think you guys have seen that whether it’s quarterback or any other position. So that’s what our team is based on. That’s what our coaching staff believes in. Competition will always be a part of our program here.”
The Texans have three quarterbacks on their roster right now — Osweiler, Tom Savage and Brandon Weeden. Osweiler struggled in his first season with the Texans, throwing more interceptions (16) than touchdowns (15) during the regular season. He was benched for Savage in Week 15, before returning to the field in Week 17 after Savage suffered a concussion.
There is a possibility that the Texans’ starting quarterback isn’t on their roster yet. In early February, Texans owner Bob McNair said Houston will “probably be looking at a young quarterback” in the draft, but it depends on who is available. The Texans have the No. 25 pick in the first round, and the quarterbacks who are generally seen as the top two in the draft — Clemson’s Deshaun Watson and North Carolina’s Mitch Trubisky — could be gone long before Houston picks. O’Brien said he is very early in the draft process, and could not comment on whether the Texans will draft a quarterback.
“Mr. McNair is the boss,” O’Brien said. “We’re going to do what he wants us to do. We’re early in the draft process, especially as it relates to me. I’ve just really started looking at these guys.”
The Texans could also add a quarterback in free agency, but they do not have much money to do that. After the NFL salary cap was set for next season at $167 million, the Texans will have less than $24 million to work with this offseason and have other areas of need.
O’Brien said the organization is seeing what it can do to improve every day, but “those ideas sometimes change based on the landscape.”
“To say ‘Am I looking to add or are we looking to add a quarterback in free agency?’ — my experience in this league is we don’t even know who’s out there in free agency yet because some of these guys sign back with their teams,” O’Brien said. “That’s been my experience as a head coach in this league. I think it’s more about, every day, monitoring the league, focusing on ourselves and making sure that we communicate as an organization. That’s what we’re doing.”
O’Brien did not single Osweiler out when discussing improvement that needs to be made to the offense, but instead said he thinks “there’s a lot of areas of improvement that have to take place” going into the 2017 season.
“When you look at our offense, there’s a lot of areas that need to improve,” O’Brien said. “It’s not just one position. It’s protection. It’s run-blocking. It’s route-running, it’s throwing the ball. All those things, it all goes together. It’s not just one thing. We’re working hard to get it better. That’s what the offseason is all about.”
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