Brock Osweiler: It's a good laugh now
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- There is a football adage that the eye in the sky never lies, that what's caught on video is the bottom line.
And Denver Broncos backup quarterback Brock Osweiler was certainly caught on video Sunday.
As quarterback Peyton Manning jogged onto the field with the Broncos set to begin a drive with 40 seconds remaining in the third quarter and Denver holding a 41-10 lead over the Oakland Raiders, Osweiler is seen in the background on the video going to get his helmet as if he has been told he is going in.
Osweiler turns, sees Manning running out to the huddle and shakes his head, wearing a look of frustration and waving his left hand. Osweiler had been warming up with Zac Dysert, a quarterback on the Broncos' practice squad, in the bench area almost as soon as the Broncos had taken a 34-10 lead earlier in the third quarter.
Osweiler said Monday it was pretty clear that most everyone inside the Broncos complex had seen the video clip.
"It's a good laugh now," Osweiler said. "There was just a little miscommunication, 'Am I going in? Am I not going in?' But no, there's absolutely no hard feelings or anything like that. We're all just having a good laugh. It's funny that it got caught on tape."
Asked if his teammates had seen it, Osweiler said: "Oh yeah, I think everyone's seen it. It's pretty comical. ... He went in for one play, and then I went in. So it's all funny now."
Manning took the final snap of the third quarter, a handoff to running back C.J. Anderson for a 1-yard gain. Osweiler entered at the start of the fourth quarter and finished out the game, playing 16 snaps. Hewas 2-of-5 passing for 13 yards.
Broncos coach John Fox said it all stemmed from him hearing in the headset that Osweiler was warming up late in the third quarter and that Fox wasn't sure Osweiler was ready to go in before the end of the quarter.
"That was really on me," Fox said. "What happened was we were contemplating, I don't know, what was there 40 seconds left in the third quarter, I heard something about warming up and in my brain I didn't think Brock was warmed up yet and I said, 'Let Peyton finish this off and we'll bring him out.'"
Fox said he also did a slight double take when Manning jogged onto the field just before the fourth quarter began.
"When the fourth quarter came and we did change sides of the field, Peyton actually jogged out there, and I was like, 'What is he doing?' but he was going to get [center] Will Montgomery so he could come over and take some snaps with Brock," Fox said. "... It wasn't earth-shattering. It was just kind of humorous."
In all, it's part of life as Manning's backup. Manning rarely misses time -- never missing a game other than the 2011 season, which he missed after his fourth neck surgery -- or practice snaps. Last season, because of injuries to his ankles, Manning was held out of Wednesday practices for several weeks down the stretch, so Osweiler got to run the starting offense in those workouts.
Overall, Osweiler has played in 11 games since the Broncos made him a second-round pick in the 2012 draft as Manning's protg, having been handpicked for the job by Broncos executive vice president of football operations/general manager John Elway. Including Sunday's action, Osweiler has thrown 26 passes in regular-season games, completing 15 of them.
