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Broncos General Manager John Elway didn’t expect the reaction the team got from quarterback Brock Osweiler last year when Osweiler was benched in favor of Peyton Manning in Week 17 and for the playoffs.

Elway told the Denver Post he wasn’t crazy about Osweiler’s response to the team’s decision, which resulted in Osweiler spending the playoffs on the sideline and Manning starting as the Broncos won the Super Bowl.

“I can understand that he didn’t want to sit down and have Peyton come back in that San Diego game, but it wasn’t the fact that Brock was playing bad,” Elway said. “We needed a change of something. So I was a little surprised just how he seemed to be a little bent out of shape about that. But he had an opportunity to make a tremendous amount of money in Houston, and for us, it just didn’t fit.”

Elway shouldn’t have been surprised because no player ever wants to get benched. Of course Osweiler wishes it had been him, not Manning, starting in the Super Bowl.

But if Elway didn’t like the way Osweiler reacted, then Osweiler shouldn’t be surprised that the Broncos weren’t willing to pay him the kind of money that the Texans paid. It’s probably better for all involved that Osweiler and the Broncos went their separate ways.