Eighteen months ago, Osweiler was the heir apparent to Peyton Manning but he went a different route. Now he’s back in a different role and he doesn’t mind.

Brock Osweiler would have played again in Denver in bare feet and for just $1 if he had to.

“I’d come back here to be the water boy,” Osweiler said Monday morning at Dove Valley. “I was getting fitted for cleats today, and they asked me what I wanted, and I said, ‘I don’t care. Just give me something. I’ll go out there in bare feet.’”

Oz also noted that when he got cut from the Browns and was entertaining other offers, he told his agency to consider anything from Denver.

“There were some other offers, but I told my agency, ‘I love what you guys do, but if there’s an offer from Denver, I don’t care if it’s a dollar, that’s where we’re going.’”

Luckily for Osweiler, the Broncos are going to let him have cleats and a little more than a dollar - signing him to a one-year contract for the NFL vet minimum of $775,000 while the Cleveland Browns pick up the remainder of his $16 million 2017 contract.

Speaking to Denver media today after a workout with Broncos coaches, the former Broncos quarterback who helped get Denver to the Super Bowl and then left for greener pastures in Houston could literally not be happier to be back with John Elway and the Broncos franchise.

Even as a backup.

“My role is to be the backup of this team and that’s what it should be. Trevor has earned the right to be the starter,” Osweiler said. “This is Trevor’s football team. I completely understand that. ...I’m just here to help him prepare and win football games.”

The former Browns quarterback who was cut from the team who had taken him and his expensive salary off the Texans’ hands earlier this spring noted that after a quick look at Mike McCoy’s playbook, he can get it down pretty quickly.

“Today was the first time I had an opportunity to see the playbook and there’s a lot of new things, but there’s some similarities,” he said. “I think we’ll be able to put together a package come Monday night if something unfortunately was to happen to Trevor where I could step into the game and feel very comfortable.”

Head coach Vance Joseph didn’t have much to say but noted that Osweiler looked fine today - and tall.

“He looked fine. He looks tall - very tall. He looked fine,” Joseph said. “He’s been with Mike before, so the terminology wasn’t that different for him. He looked fine.”

Osweiler insists he certainly has “no hard feelings” toward Denver, noting he had thanked the coaches and Elway multiple times today for bringing him back.

“It’s hard to describe in words, but being back here today, practicing as a Bronco, being here at Dove Valley, this is probably a top five if not top three day of my life,” he said. “I don’t think many people could have seen this situation taking place, but I am beyond excited it did take place. This is home. I’m so thankful for this opportunity. ...It’s so great to be a Bronco again.”

Osweiler had a “very welcoming” reception from his “new” old teammates, but he is very aware of the reception he may get from fans - and he understands it. But he hopes fans will give him another chance.

“I’ve never had anything but love and appreciation for this city and this organization,” he said. “I just hope in time the fans who feel that way let me earn back their trust and get a great relationship again.”

But Osweiler doesn’t live in the past and has no regrets about leaving because he’s learned some things in the past 18 months.

“A lot of things have happened. A lot of negative things, but a lot of learning experiences,” he said. “So because of that, I’m a better player. ...I’m just trying to constantly evolve, constantly trying to learn and develop as a person and an athlete.”

Elway, too, has no regrets and is happy to have back his old backup-starter-backup again.

“It’s just kind of funny how these things worked out with our situation and Brock being available - funny how everything aligned,” Elway said. “We know that Brock can win football games with us, he’s got a lot of experience...”

Earlier Osweiler compared his hiatus to putting your hand on a hot stove even when your mother tells you not to do it.

“So you have to touch the hot stove, but you learn real quick how nice that stove is when it’s not hot,” Osweiler said. “Needless to say, I’m thankful to be back here.”

And while Osweiler knows exactly what he has been brought back to do while Paxton Lynch is injured and the team needs a backup to Siemian, he most definitely sees himself as a starter in the NFL some day.

“I do see myself as a starter in the NFL,” he said. “I feel like I proved that in 2015. However, this is Trevor Siemian’s team. And right now my job is to be the backup and do it to best of ability – get the scout team running, get our defense ready – and I’m going to embrace that role because I’m so happy to be back here. There’s no better place in the NFL.”