Bill O’Brien didn’t meet Brock Osweiler before Texans signed him

Let’s say you’re going to buy a new car for $40,000. You’d probably want to take a test drive, right? Let’s say you’re going to eat dinner at a new restaurant and spend about $100. You’d probably like a look at the menu before they bring you the food, right? Let’s say you’re going to buy a new app for 99 cents. You’re probably going to take half a second to find out what the app’s about, right?

Well, it turns out that Bill O’Brien, the Houston Texans coach whose team just signed Brock Osweiler to a $72 million contract, didn’t even meet Osweiler before the deal went down. Here are a few early impressions of O’Brien from Tuesday morning’s AFC coaches’ breakfast at the owners’ meetings in Boca Raton:

Bill O’Brien says first time he ever actually met Osweiler was when he first walked in the building for the introductory press conference.

— Peter Schrager (@PSchrags) March 22, 2016

Bill O’Brien said he’s heard Brock Osweiler and DeAndre Hopkins are getting together in Arizona to work together a bit. #Texans

— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) March 22, 2016

#Texans coach Bill O’Brien asked if Brock Osweiler not keeping the QB job gave him any pause: “If it was anyone else besides Peyton.”

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 22, 2016

Now, of course it’s not like the Texans were signing Osweiler completely blind. A few days ago, O’Brien told the NFL Network that the team didn’t just study the seven whole games Osweiler had started before guaranteeing him $37 million:

“We didn’t just study the seven games,” he said. “We studied all of the snaps he had. He is tough. He is an accurate passer. I like his leadership. Of all the people who have coached him, everybody spoke highly of him … We are really happy with our decision to sign him.” Hopefully, for his sake, the Texans fans will be as well.

O’Brien also addressed the idea of an altered preseason, giving coaches more time to work with players. It’s a sentiment that has the support of many of his fellow coaches.

Bill O’Brien is giving an impassioned plea to start offseason earlier. “I believe players at the Texans would like to work with us more.”

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 22, 2016

Interesting suggestion from Bill O’Brien– players being allowed to be in building before April 18. Says he used to have QB school in NE.

— Peter Schrager (@PSchrags) March 22, 2016

If nothing else, O’Brien and Osweiler will make the Texans and the AFC South into a must-watch division early in the season, quite the shift from the garbage that the division has been the last few years.

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