Brock Osweiler – October 17, 2018
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Wednesday, October 17, 2018
QB Brock Osweiler
(Are you embracing the ‘Brocktober’ hashtag?) – “(laughter) I don’t have social media so I’m not a big hashtag guy; but it is pretty cool to see. The guys in the locker room, we’ve been having fun with it, obviously my family is having fun with it, so go ahead and keep writing it. It’s fun.”
(What’s your favorite pun that your family has told you?) – “Right now it’s ‘Brocktober.’ I’m not looking much past that. (laughter)”
(How beneficial is it for you to take first team snaps?) – “It’s huge. But whether I get snaps or whether I don’t, it’s my job as a professional to be prepared and ready to play and help contribute to the football team. In general, yes. Getting reps with the first team offense and building some relationships out there in practice is huge. It’s very beneficial.”
(Head Coach Adam Gase was talking about how you told him it was 58 games or so that you heard him call before. How was it that first time and how is it now that you get a whole week of him planning for you?) – “It’s something that I’ve been wanting for a lot of years. I talked quite a bit on Sunday about how I believe in Coach Gase, and his system and who he is as a person and a coach. I saw that firsthand for a lot of years in Denver. I saw what it’s like to be able to play quarterback for a coach like that. As a quarterback, that’s the guy you want to play for. To be able to go out there on Sunday and have him in my ear the whole time and working together on the sideline, it was really cool. It was a lot of fun.”
(You did a lot of waiting I guess in Denver?) – “A lot of waiting. I heard a lot of play calls come in through that earpiece that weren’t coming in for me. To go out there and finally be the guy pulling the trigger, it was a very special day.”
(Was there one play call where you were like ‘I really like that, I dig that. I didn’t expect that at this moment.’) – “I wouldn’t say that. There was a number of play calls that I absolutely loved and that’s what makes Coach Gase so special. I think the really unique thing is I anticipated a couple of those, especially late in the game because I’ve seen him do it so many times. I know what coach wants when he calls certain plays because I’ve been in the meeting room with him for so many years, hearing where he wants that football to go. There were times where he’s sitting there looking at his sheet and in my head I’m like ‘I think he’s going to call this play.’ Sure enough, three seconds later, that play comes in. We were definitely on the same page and that made it a lot of fun.”
(Terminology-wise has things changed or have you guys been picking up where you left off?) – ‘No. Terminology is all the same for the most part. Obviously, you change some things over the years. Teams catch on to certain words and signals, so you change those up; but for the most part it’s the same system he was running in Denver.”
(You had a lot of big moments on Sunday. How about the moments you were handing off to RB Frank Gore?) – “Those are special. That’s something I’ll never forget. Watching a future Hall of Famer from the field level is pretty special. But, not just Frank but Kenyan (Drake) had a tremendous day as well. Both of those running backs were running extremely hard. The first guy wasn’t bringing them down. They were running through arm tackles, they were jumping over guys, they were stiff-arming guys. Those guys definitely played very hard and it was a lot of fun to watch.”
(I’m sure you were not one of them, but there were a lot of people out there thinking this moment may never come for you again. You don’t seem like one who’s going to show them wrong, but how does it feel to get to this point after the road you took?) – “I would say none of it surprises me. I think first and foremost as an athlete, no offense to anybody in this room, but we need to put earmuffs on, if you will, and drown out all of the outside noise. The only thing that matters is the belief in yourself and the belief your teammates and coaches have in you. Other than that, nothing really matters. Throughout my entire career, I’ve always believed in who I was as a quarterback, as a person, as a leader. So none of this takes me by surprise, but I would say its special because in this league, you never know how many opportunities you’re going to get, and every opportunity is different. To be able to come here to Miami and get this opportunity to start some games, now it’s all about making the most of this opportunity.”
(Was there a point where you kind of doubted this would happen for you again at some point?) – ‘No. There was no doubt. It’s just there are a lot of factors that are out of your control. You can control how hard you work, your effort, your attitude, how you’re training, how you’re studying; but whether you ever become No. 1 in the lineup or whether you get an opportunity to play on game day, a lot of times that’s out of your control. The key is I’ve been through some ups and downs and I’ve learned so much along the way. Now it’s all about making the most of these special opportunities because, like you just said, you don’t know when you’re going to get another one.”
(Talk about these ups and downs. The last few years for you have been busy, let’s just say. What have you learned the most through that period?) – “How to pack up a house and travel. (laughter) No, through times of adversity I believe there are great lessons that can be learned if you’re willing to learn them. That’s something I’ve done. Whether it’s been a good day or a bad day, I’ve always tried to learn something so I can be better so that when another opportunity came around, I’d be that much better of a player. I think that’s something I’ve done. I think the key is you can never lose belief in yourself. I think that this day and age we live in, too many people are too fast to place judgement. So many people want to bring you down rather than build you up. You need to have a very strong belief in yourself, your teammates, your coaching staff and like I said, you need to drown out the outside noise and focus on the things that do matter.”
(We’ve all kind of seen over the years, the GIF of you reaching for your helmet in the Raiders game and then going back out there. How often does that come back to your mind. You laughed about it just now, is it something that always come to you about how much you have to wait in Denver?) – “Yes, it does. That was a funny game, that was a funny year. (laughter) Once again that’s just a lesson to be learned. You never know when your opportunity is going to come. It’s all about preparing when no one is watching. What I mean by that is once again, focus on the things you can control. You can study as much as you want. You don’t have to be the first-string guy to be studying more than the first-string guy. How you study, how you work out, how you go about your business as far as being a professional, you never know when an opportunity is going to come and it’s all about being prepared and ready for when it does.”
(We say QB Peyton Manning at the game this past week. Did he say anything to you?) – “Yeah, we talked before the game in the locker room. I’m going to keep our conversations private, but needless to say, it was great to see him. It was great to have a conversation. We talked after the game as well and on Monday morning. Peyton and I shared four years together in Denver. As you can imagine, all of the time we spend together in this building and on the road, we really build a tremendous relationship. I think we both have a ton of respect for each other. He’s just a great person. To have him back in the locker room, it kind of took me back for a second. It was a lot of fun. It was good to have him around.”
(Did you have to make sure QB Peyton Manning didn’t have a helmet?) – “(laughter) I’m pretty comfortable those helmet day are done; but you never know with him.”
(While you waited during that time, what did you learn most from QB Peyton Manning?) – “How to prepare for a game. Not just a game, but for a season. It didn’t matter whether it was April, June, the middle of August, October. How every single minute in the day matters. How you go about your business matters and it’s going to rub off on your teammates, it’s going to rub off on your coaches. How to set a standard and hold people to it. Something that we say a lot in the offensive room is standard over feelings. I think that’s something that when you have a group of professionals, people understand that. You’re not always going to be somebody’s best friend, but if you’re all working toward the same common goal of winning, there’s a respect there. That’s something he definitely taught me.”
(You said Sunday that you first got a text, then a call that you were going to start and you became emotional. Did someone after that send you any type of message to say hang in there or wish you the best or anything?) – “After I talked to Coach Gase and knew I was starting, it was pretty much head to the stadium and get ready to roll. I didn’t talk to anybody specific. I had a few conversations internally with myself. This game is so mental. When you get to this level, there are so many talented guys, physically talented guys. We talk about in the quarterback room all the time that really one of the few places you can find maybe an advantage on your opponent is mentally. We have a couple of guys in this building that do a lot of … I guess you can call it mental performance work if you will. Those guys are tremendous and we work on that stuff all of the time. You have a little conversations with yourself and get yourself in the correct mind frame and get ready to roll and have some fun.”
(Is it part of your mind or is there one person or on one side saying you can do this and the other saying I don’t know?) – “No. It’s nothing like that. It’s just my confidence will never waver. It’s just something that is just naturally in me. It’s just something that’s been built over the years and I mean shoot your shot on Sunday. Sometimes you’re going to throw interceptions. How do you bounce back? It was nothing like that. It’s just there is a different mind frame that you need to have if you’re starting a game rather than you’re taking in some plays from the sideline and then the starter gets hurt and then you go in. Really it’s just getting ready to go from the first play and then go have some fun for it.”
(How different will this week be than last week for you?) – “It won’t be any different at all. I’m going to bed at the same time, eating the same food, doing the same routine, studying the same way. Absolutely nothing changes except I’ll get some more reps in practice and that’s really it to be honest with you.”
(Is it easier or harder to have a game thrust upon you kind of suddenly as opposed to you’re going to be there starter and you know it the entire week?) – “It makes no difference to me. It really doesn’t. I would say the only thing you get knowing you’re going to be the starter all week, is that you get a little bit of input on the game plan. ‘Hey, what do you think about this route?’ But really, for the most part in this building, Coach Gase, (Offensive Coordinator) Coach (Dowell) Loggains, Coach (Bo) Hardegree, they put together the game plan. We just go execute it as players. Even with that, nothing really changes.”
