Texans owner Bob McNair wants critics to leave Brock Osweiler alone

Brock Osweiler has been bad for the Houston Texans. He signed a controversial $72 million contract last offseason and has become a punch line since.

Among quarterbacks with at least 200 attempts, only Ryan Fitzpatrick of the New York Jets has a worse passer rating than Osweiler, who sits at 74.2. Osweiler was 22 of 35 for 202 yards and two touchdowns in a 21-13 loss against the Green Bay Packers … and that was his best game of the season in terms of passer rating. He had a passer rating of 97.6.

Texans owner Bob McNair would be justified if he was angry about Osweiler’s struggles, considering he gave Osweiler a small fortune, but he’s not mad at all. Instead, he defended his quarterback and told everyone to back off him.

“I thought he played great,” McNair said, according to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle. “He played as well as his competitor did. If not for the passes that were dropped, his grade would have been higher than [Packers quarterback Aaron] Rodgers. Don’t be critical of him. He played well.”

Osweiler did play OK, but the Texans also had just seven points deep into the fourth quarter. To compare him to Rodgers is interesting. If you watched the game, Osweiler wasn’t terrible (especially in the snow) but nobody walked away impressed either. And, again, he posted his best rating of the season.

McNair has defended Osweiler before too. It’s not like he has much of a choice.

“He’s still basically a rookie,” McNair said in late October, according to the Houston Chronicle. “He’s going to make some mistakes, but he shows that he has the talent, he has the ability and has the leadership that the team has confidence in him.”

McNair was part of the Texans signing Osweiler. He said after Brian Hoyer melted down in a playoff loss that the team needed a new quarterback. Starting quarterbacks are hard to acquire. You’re either spending a ton of money or draft capital to do it. Coach Bill O’Brien settled on Osweiler as the answer, general manager Rick Smith agreed and McNair signed off on paying him a small fortune (it’s worth reading this breakdown from March by John McClain of the Houston Chronicle to understand how the Texans settled on Osweiler).

The Texans are also stuck with Osweiler for at least another season. His contract is structured so the team can get out of it fairly easily after two years, but that means he’s going to be with the Texans in 2017. So McNair has to continue to back Osweiler. He’s hoping everyone else does the same.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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