We are a week away from the first practice of Texans training camp, which means the season is on the horizon, yet we are still in a bit of a content vacuum. A dead time, if you will. It’s times like these when we welcome documentaries that get us excited about the sport of football and the upcoming season. The Netflix series Quarterback, produced by Peyton Manning’s production company, accomplishes this.
Released on Netflix back on July 12, the series follows the 2022 seasons for three quarterbacks — Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, Minnesota’s Kirk Cousins, and Atlanta’s Marcus Mariota. It tracks their lives at home, behind the scenes in the facility, and on game day. It’s a compelling watch, where the best quality is the access the film crews were given. We see nearly everything that goes into these guys getting ready for game day, and going through life.
The seasons all ended very differently for these three subjects. Mahomes, of course, was the MVP of the regular season and the Super Bowl, and might be the best player on the planet. Cousins led the Vikings to a division title, but got upset at home in the first round of the playoffs. Mariota was benched in December, and essentially quit on the Falcons.
Personally, I’m a bigger fan of the adversity-based stories like Mariota’s and Cousins’, as opposed to the celebration infomercial for Mahomes, so with that in mind, if Netflix decided to do mini “Quarterback” series for individual seasons of quarterbacks from each team, which Texans QB seasons would I request? Glad you asked! It’d be these four:
Matt Schaub, 2013
If you’re a fan of schadenfreude, this is the season of “Quarterback” for you! If you recall, the Texans came into 2013 among the favorites to get to the Super Bowl. Instead, they slid into a 2-14 toilet as Schaub made throwing pick sixes a literal weekly occurrence for the first two months of the season. Schaub was eventually benched for Case Keenum, but even that dynamic wound up on an indecisive Gary Kubiak yoyo, with Schaub and Keenum constantly replacing each other. Among the lowlights would be Schaub getting into a spat with Andre Johnson at the end of the Raiders loss, Schaub’s growing a strange beard during the season, and finally, Texan fans stalking Schaub at his home, allegedly.
Ryan Mallett, 2015
First thoughts and prayers to Mallett and his family, as the former Texans signal caller recently passed away in a tragic drowning on the Florida gulf coast. As for this Netflix series, Mallett’s 2015 season will forever be remembered for him oversleeping once in the preseason, and again in the regular season, missing the team flight to Miami. Eventually, he was cut in Week 8, so this would be a mini season, for sure.
Brock Osweiler, 2016
This is probably the one that I would be most interested in, and simultaneously the one that would induce most Texans fans to throw a shoe at the television. Don’t get me wrong, Brock Osweiler was an abysmal quarterback, and reliving his various foibles — interceptions that all “their own story” (his words), the throw-fumble against Denver, getting a laser beam shot into his eyeball in Mexico — would come with some degree of PTSD. However, I would sit through all of that to see the footage of Osweiler and Bill O’Brien reportedly beefing in the locker room at halftime of the Week 17 loss to the Titans. Those five minutes would make sitting through the other 55 minutes or so worth it.
Deshaun Watson, 2018
If I want to keep the streak of miserable, vomit-inducing seasons going here, I’d pick Deshaun Watson’s 2021 season. You know, the one where he was in the building every day, but not really participating in anything because he was demanding a trade and being sued by 24 women for sexual assault? Remember that? Instead, I’ll choose Watson’s most compelling season content-wise. In 2018, he was coming off an ACL injury, stumbled to an 0-3 start before leading the team on a nine game wining streak, during which he had to travel to the Jacksonville road game on his own bus because his lungs were pulverized so badly from hits given up by a crappy offensive line. That will be the Watson I choose to remember, via documentary series.
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This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
