How Does Denver Broncos QB Brock Osweiler Fit in the Gary Kubiak System?

The Denver Broncos have made a change at quarterback. Future Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning hasn’t looked like himself for most of the 2015 season. Injuries have robbed Manning of his physical ability, and his latest injury—a foot injury—has been the most severe.

Manning’s foot injury is actually a partially torn plantar fascia, and this is an injury that could take some time to heal. That type of injury comes down to pain tolerance, and it’s unlikely to require surgery. Instead, the injury just needs time to properly heal.

That means the Broncos are moving forward with backup quarterback Brock Osweiler while Manning is out. Osweiler, a second-round pick of the Broncos in 2012, came into the game Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs after Manning threw his fourth interception of the game.

Now, Osweiler gets to be the team’s starter as they prepare to travel to Chicago and take on the Bears in Week 11.

Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak made the announcement about the change at the start of his Monday press conference.

“I told the team that this week Peyton is not going to play, that [QB] Brock [Osweiler] is going to play this week, and all of our full attention is going to be to getting Peyton back and healthy," Kubiak said. "As I walk out of there and I’m here with you guys, that decision has been made.”

Kubiak continued, “I know that it’s the best decision for him, for us to get him back and healthy. We need to know where we’re heading this week with Brock and get our football team ready to play Chicago. All our focus is in that direction as we move forward here today.”

The news about him starting did shock Osweiler.

“It takes you a little bit by surprise. [QB] Peyton [Manning]—he's been the starter here for this team for a number of years now, ever since I've been here. To hear [head] Coach [Gary] Kubiak say, 'Hey Brock, you're going to start this week at Chicago' in front of the whole team, yeah, it's a little abnormal.”

How does Osweiler fit in the Kubiak system? Let’s take a look.

Arm Strength

Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Osweiler has a rocket arm, and he can stretch the field vertically with ease. Receivers are going to welcome the idea of passes that travel with bucket accuracy into their awaiting grasp 50 or more yards down the field. In practice during training camp, there were times where Osweiler fired passes around 65 yards in the air.

There’s no question he can attack a defense vertically.

With speedy targets like wide receivers Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders, Osweiler will take some shots to the edges—perhaps more than a few times against the Bears. With a speedy target like tight end Vernon Davis, Osweiler will also be able to hit the deep seam route if open.

A player who has thrived with Osweiler in practice is second-year wide receiver Cody Latimer. He entered the Week 10 game with only one target on the season. Osweiler came in and targeted Latimer five times in less than two quarters, and Latimer had three catches for 30 yards against the Chiefs.

Osweiler’s arm strength means he can fit passes into tight windows. Defenders may have good coverage on the assets mentioned above, but Osweiler’s arm could squeeze passes through that Manning just couldn’t make.

Footwork

Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

The biggest adjustment Osweiler has made from college to the pros has to be his footwork. Osweiler often threw flat-footed in college, and his accuracy suffered because of it.

Over the last four years, Osweiler has worked hard to throw from the balls of his feet. Now, Osweiler does a good job of staying light on his feet when going through his progressions. This helps his accuracy, and it also quickens his ability to take off and run if need be.

Osweiler doesn’t expect many designed runs for him just because he’s athletic enough to do so.

“I don't call the plays," Osweiler said. "I just either throw the football or hand it off, so I'm not really sure what Coach Kubiak has in store for our offense this week, but whatever he dials up I'm going to run to the best of my ability.”

Osweiler’s athleticism means that edge defenders won’t be able to blindly crash in on the running back. Instead, defenders will have to honor the run or bootleg just in case Osweiler kept the ball looking to pass or run himself.

Don’t Expect Much Shotgun

Patric Schneider/Associated Press

Osweiler has the athleticism to operate from under center. Working from under center is a hallmark of the Kubiak system. Manning lacked the athleticism to do that, so the team had to utilize more pistol and shotgun formations to accommodate the seasoned veteran.

This year, Manning already has more passing attempts from the pistol or shotgun (299) than Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flaccco had all last season (213) when Kubiak was his offensive coordinator. Osweiler is most often compared to Flacco because of their similar size and rocket arms. We could see Denver run a more accurate rendition of the Kubiak system, one similar to what Flacco thrived in back in 2014.

The young quarterback doesn’t believe the offense will look much different than it did with Manning running the show.

“I would assume everything will kind of be similar," Osweiler explained. "We have one offense here. We have the Denver Broncos offense. I couldn't really tell you today on a Monday what might be different or what might be the same, but like I said, we've got one offense here. That's the offense I'm expecting to run.”

In long down-and-distance situations, the Broncos should use the shotgun formation. However, we could see more pass attempts that start with Osweiler under center than we saw with Manning.

Play-Action Passing

Patric Schneider/Associated Press

With Osweiler’s rocket arm, we could see the Broncos utilize more play-action passing with the young quarterback at the helm. The team can use fakes to the running backs in order to draw defenders close to the line of scrimmage as they look to stuff the run. Osweiler can then quickly turn to find different options downfield.

Osweiler believes this upcoming game will be his first true test in the NFL.

“Yeah, absolutely. It's my first regular-season start. I'm not going to put the weight of the world on that," he said. "At the end of the day, it's just a football game. That's how I'm going to treat it.”

Osweiler revealed, “I'm going to prepare the same way that I prepared every other week when I was the backup or whether I was starting a preseason game. I know my teammates are going to prepare hard as well. We're going to have a great week of practice. We're going to go into Chicago as a team and we're going to go in there and battle.”

With defenders playing near the line of scrimmage, corners on the outside could bite on double moves and play fakes. This should open up the deep passing game for a quarterback who can bootleg opposite play side to give himself time to throw. The Broncos should also use designed rollouts in order to get Osweiler away from pass-rushers looking to rattle the young passer.

Summary

Osweiler has a much stronger arm that Manning. Defenses are now going to have to respect the deep passing game, and that could open things up underneath.

His footwork has greatly improved during his time as a pro, and Osweiler should have better accuracy because his altered throwing motion correctly begins in the lower half of his body. If Osweiler needs to escape from pass-rushers, he has the footwork and athleticism to do just that.

The offense should look more like the traditional Kubiak offense we’ve become used to. This could greatly benefit an offense that has been struggling to find an identity in 2015.

Osweiler’s teammates certainly believe in him.

“My teammates have been tremendous. Everybody is very supportive," Osweiler said. "I've had multiple guys come up and say, 'Hey, we're going to fight for you. We believe in you.' To have that support from my teammates, that really means a lot.”

How does Osweiler fit the Kubiak system? With his arm strength, footwork and athleticism, the answer is perfectly.

All quotes and injury/practice observations obtained firsthand. Record/statistical information provided via the Broncos media department unless otherwise noted. Advanced stats via ESPN's employees-only database.

Contract and salary-cap information provided by Spotrac. Transaction history provided by Pro Sports Transactions.