The three-step drop is a fundamental part of any quarterback’s toolbox. After the snap the quarterback opens up their hips, takes a backwards crossover step with their front foot, and then plants on their back foot.
As the coaching wisdom goes, as soon as the back foot is planted, the football should be out of the quarterback’s hand and on its way to a receiver.
But when a middle schooler steps up to throw in a three-step drop drill, you never know quite what you’ll get.
Uncertain footsteps might conclude with a laser to the receiver, or a series of precise movements could lead to a wobbling pass fit for the birds. The possibilities aren’t exactly endless, but the rawness and inexperience of youth can sure make them feel that way.
But everyone has to start somewhere. Even former pros like Brock Osweiler know that.
Last week, Osweiler was back on the turf at Legends Stadium in Kalispell—where he once played for Flathead High — to help guide the next generation of Flathead football players through some of the game’s fundamentals as part of his third annual “Win the Day Camp,” a free event for fifth through eighth graders.
The camp brought together Flathead High School football players and coaching staff, including new head coach Mac Roche, to preside over more than 100 campers and put them through a range of position drills.
Before he ever stepped foot onto an NFL field, Osweiler was once a camper at a previous iteration of the camp, called Flathead Braves Football Camp. Back then, the head football coach was Bob Applegate, and Osweiler said that he still remembers how much fun he had, and how much it meant at a young age to be coached by the high school staff.
“Some of my fondest memories of playing football, regardless of level, was coming to Flathead Brave Football Camp in the summer,” Osweiler said.
He guessed he was in second or third grade the first time he came out to Flathead Braves Camp, and while the camp doesn’t currently cater to those younger demographics, he indicated that it could once again in the future.
It was at the Flathead camp where Osweiler learned the quarterback fundamentals, like the three-step and five-step drop, that became the foundation of his career.
“I’d go home and practice them in my yard the rest of the summer,” Osweiler said, his mind drifting back over the years.
The set of drills he cooked up for campers this year, which included working on throwing some basic routes, and footwork exercises, are what he calls everyday drills, which he said kids can take home with them and practice in their own yards all summer long.
“Those are the drills that pro quarterbacks do every day at the start of practice. So no matter how far along you get in your journey, the same fundamentals are going to carry you,” he said.
While developing skills was a big part of the day, Osweiler also made sure to try to impart some life lessons to campers, who listened intently while taking a knee at the center of the field.
“Believe in yourself. You guys can accomplish anything you want in this life. So if you remember anything today, remember that. Have fun, be leaders, do the right thing in the community,” he said.
Those words of wisdom didn’t just mean something to the campers. Roche, the new head coach and a former quarterback for Caroll College, praised Osweiler’s humility and desire to give back.
“To have role models like that — not just for the high school kids, but for the young kids — is pretty awesome,” Roche said. He added that on a coaching level “it hits a little harder” for kids to hear that the drills they’re doing are the same ones that Osweiler once did beside legendary NFL quarterbacks like Peyton Manning.
As a coach, Osweiler was focused and detailed, but not without a sense of humor — he applauded the lettuce-like flowing head of hair on one camper — nor was he without genuine enthusiasm upon seeing campers succeed, sometimes in the most unexpected moments. And he applauded camp attendees for taking the time to make themselves and their teammates better, while also urging them to take the chaos and find the calm within it.
It’s not hard to imagine Osweiler finding some value in that same wisdom off the field, given how his fall schedule tends to play out these days.
Since 2022, he’s been working for ESPN as a college football analyst, appearing on broadcasts to offer his commentary on the game he once played for Arizona State and then in the NFL for seven years.
“Every single week you’re going somewhere different,” Osweiler said of his work for ESPN. “I think there was one month last season where I was in Pittsburgh one week, and then Orlando, the next week was in Waco, Texas, and then the next week I was at Cal Berkeley. So that’s one month in the business.”
In the fall, he considers Sundays to be “Football Christmas,” because of the way he gets to figuratively unwrap the email he always gets delivering his latest assignment. “It’s a lot of fun to be able to stay around the college game. The energy that major college campuses produce on a college football weekend is just so special,” Osweiler said.
Prepping for games involves immersing oneself in a huge amount of information over the course of about five days, he said. There’s a ton of reading, and a ton of studying, just to get to know the teams better ahead of the broadcast. And then there are the name pronunciations.
“But it’s fun. It’s a good challenge,” Osweiler said of the broadcast prep workload.
Osweiler retired from the NFL in 2019, and said that these days it can be tough to keep up with the pro game. But he tries to watch as much as he can and keep up with the headlines, while balancing his role as a father.
“When I get home from my college assignments, it’s usually Sunday morning or afternoon, it’s time to go be a dad and play with the kids,” he said.
Once the college football season ends, Osweiler coaches his daughters’ volleyball team in the winter and spring. He and his family live full-time in Arizona, and he said that he doesn’t make it back to the Flathead often enough.
“Every time I come back, I just have a smile on my face,” he said.
When he’s back in Kalispell, he said he makes sure to get to Moose’s Saloon and Sweet Peaks ice cream.
“Keep it simple, Moose’s and Sweet Peaks,” he said of his approach to his homecoming.
But Fatt Boy’s Bar and Grill has a way of sneaking its way onto the agenda as well, owing to the Osweiler Burger they keep on the menu. As Fatt Boys describes it on their menu, the Osweiler Burger is “loaded with fried egg, avocado, bacon and your choice of cheese.”
When Osweiler’s daughters found out about it, he said that they insisted on grabbing one on the way out of town.
“I was looking at what’s on that burger and I was like, ‘I might need to amend that,’” Osweiler joked. “That was awhile ago that I used to put avocado and eggs on a burger.”
