Brock Osweiler's Strong Start Showing Bill O'Brien And Rick Smith Were Right To Bet On Him

One thing Brock Osweiler excels at is tuning out the noise. Be it the roar of a hostile crowd in an opponent's stadium or the passive-aggressive sounding jabs from a Hall of Fame quarterback turned general manager, Brock knows how to ignore what’s unimportant and when to focus on what matters.

If you’re going to be the number one quarterback for Bill O’Brien’s Houston Texans, focus is a must.

While there has been a learning curve for Brock coming into one of the more complex offenses in pro ball, that focus has helped him get up to speed rather quickly. In fact, Osweiler's command of the offense (and the entire team) is obvious for all to see.

The folks over at Pro Football Focus broke down last weekend’s game and once again, Brock’s focus was on display.

Quarterback grade: Brock Osweiler, 85.6; Tom Savage, 69.3; Brandon Weeden, 50.6.

The Texans took a gamble in signing Brock Osweiler for as much as they did this offseason, but with a performance like this, you can see what they like about him. Outstanding throwing the ball downfield, Osweiler completed two of the three passes of 20 yards or more downfield he attempted, with the incompletion coming as a result of a drop. In fact, Osweiler had just two incompletions on his 13 passing attempts, and both resulted from a dropped pass.

Not only do the stats show off Osweiler’s focus, they gave credence to O’Brien’s insistence that Brock was the guy for Houston despite the avalanche of criticism he and Houston general manager Rick Smith have received for paying so much for what amounted to an unproven talent.

While the Houston faithful believed in O’Brien, and by extension, Osweiler, the rest of the world needed some convincing.

Thankfully, the folks at Pro Football Focus brought more evidence to prove Houston’s case.

Click here to see PFF’s graphic for adjusted completion percentage for QBs on deep passes in Week 3 of the 2016 NFL preseason.

It seems nearly every day there's an article in the mainstream media talking about Brock's focus. If it's not DeAndre Hopkins raving about him, it's one of the rookie wideouts. Even the guys on defense have taken notice of how single-minded Osweiler is when it comes to this phase of his life.

While it's way too early to anoint him, one thing guys like Michael Jordan, Nolan Ryan, Dale Earnhardt, Joe Montana, Dan Marino and other all-time great athletes have/had is laser-like focus on their craft. If nothing else, Brock has learned who to emulate in where he places his attention.

With each passing week, Osweiler proves more and more that O’Brien and Smith were correct when they chose to focus on him over a bevy of rookie and veteran signal-callers available in the offseason. Sure there will come a time when Brock screws up and some try and use that to say the Texans brass misfired, but as things sit right now that argument’s going to look pretty thin and patently weak.

What do you think? Have you believed Brock is the man all along? Still yearning for Christian Hackenberg? Wish H-Town had traded for a QB who likes to sit during the national anthem? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

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