Because signing these guys costs money and for some reason , probably the Clowney extension the Texans org has chosen to hold onto their cap space for another season.
Well not just that, I think they want to keep some cap space open to do some bargain basement shopping once players start to get cut in camp.
Wouldn't you rather have one or two great players, rather than doing a bunch of bargain shopping in FA? Different philosophies, but give me the great players.
Depends on if those FA "great" players are in positions that are most needed. I would have liked to have picked up another corner, but it wouldn't be the best use of money when the needs are more at OT and a few other spots. If there was only one or two holes on the team, sure go all out for one or two guys, but that's not the case. I think a lack of talent in the FA pool along with missing out on their preferred OT target has caused their tactics to change.
If Watson hadn't got hurt, I think we would have challenged for the playoffs even with our lousy line and secondary. Remember, only Bob's late game blunders cost us both the Seattle and New England games. We were the best offense in the league for six games. We are suffering a depth problem, but we have, at least somewhat, addressed our secondary problems. Add a decent tight end and Watson stays healthy and we should be contending again and dangerous in the playoffs. No reason to tank. We still have a lot of young talent and a full draft beginning next year.
In the NFL a “great” player has a 3-5 year window where’s he’s at a level you would consider great. The Pats have made a killing the past two decades off the idea that, aside from QB, every other position on the field is fungible and every “great” player can be approximated by great coaching combined with young hungry players that can run fast, push hard, and most importantly follow orders.
That Watson to Hopkins show was leading the NFL in TD's, well tied for the lead in TD's...with Will Fuller. So that 'average' WR corp had two guys tied for the league in the NFL in TD passes. The running game could improve, and losing Foreman to the achilles injury was tough, but there were no RB's in FA that were worth breaking any kind of bank, especially with how deep the draft is at RB this year(potentially the deepest position). I'll give you TE as that is the clearest and biggest hole on the team, and although we'll need to figure out the OT position, we improved at OG and Nick Martin will continue to improve at the C position and we added depth without breaking the bank for average players(which again when they play average people will complain about). Also our defense should be healthy, and has potential to be the best in the NFL. When half your team is in the training room, yes you can get outmuscled and outclassed, but barring injury and a highly unlikely ultra regression by Deshaun I don't see what stops this team. What great FA this year did we miss out on?
So in hindsight you’d rather we kept Osweiler instead of drafting Watson? Right, our roster sucks. The only way to fix the roster is draft and time. But why would you want to put a question mark back onto the QB position for us? We had pushed investing in a QB into the next year every year for years... and we know how that puts a ceiling on a team. Our meddling owner finally forced our never-draft-a-QB GM to buy a QB in the first round... and we bought the cheapest one. But the small sample size says we’ve got a pretty good one. I don’t know why you’d want to be back in QB hell?
The DEFENSE cost us those games. Decisions aside, they got driven 50+ yards on in under a minute both times. Coach may have put them in that situation but come the f on
This is the epitome of an overtly optimistic fan. You are playing with a bunch of "ifs". Remember, at the beginning of the season, Watson wasn't counted on to contribute, let alone playing as well as he did. He was a rookie QB with no track record to speak of, and his supporting cast on offense was below average. Watson's early success was an anomaly, you'd be kidding yourself to say all of this had been pre-meditated. BOB's late game blunders notwithstanding, the fact is they were still losses. The fact remains that we can barely put together a starting OL, that we still have no quality TE to speak of, and our running game is average or below average. There are simply too many holes on the roster and expecting Watson to carry all that weight on his shoulder will only increase the chance to get injured. The Eagles won the SB with their backup QB, so you don't hear people say had Wentz not gotten hurt, they would have blah blah blah.
We have been outmuscled and outclassed on the OL front for years, and you don't fix that problem by bringing some underwhelming free agents. Injury is part of the game, every team goes through that during the season. Some teams can overcome it, like the Eagles winning the SB even without their MVP QB; some teams will automatically go into a fetal position, like the Texans. That's the difference between a team stacked with talent versus the one that doesn't. The Texans FO has for years been stripping talent rather than injecting talent, and the product on the field shows.
We are not there yet. Watson had obviously turned out great, so now people are saying that it's a no-brainer pick. All I am saying is that it wasn't a no-brainer pick. Despite what the fans may think, the opinions around the league at the time of his draft were more question marks than certainties. What if Darnold/Rosen/Allen turned out to be the next Brady? Then I bet ten years from now people would say we could have play the course with Os last year, get a top pick to draft a QB this year, and keep all our picks to fill other glaring holes on the roster. Remember, this is a team depleted of overall talent, and the best way to address that is by accumulating draft capitals. Instead, we have a history of throwing picks away like they have no value to us.
Right, but the last no brainer QB was Andrew Luck. And for the record, we had deals in place to move up to #6 and #12 for QB. What if two bust and one is just above average? You want a one in three shot at those outcomes? What if Baker Mayfield is the best QB in this class? And he was drafted ahead of our pick? There’s all kinds of what if’ing we can do. Yes, the roster sucks. No, draft picks in and of themselves are useless. It’s who you select, then how you develop them, then retaining your own that builds/maintains a roster. We’ve fallen short on fulfilling those. Anybody can trade back and accumulate picks and tank, like Sashi Brown did. That’s easy. What’s difficult is identifying and acquiring quality talent, and he got replaced by a football scout for that very reason. Moneyball thought Carson Wentz “wasn’t top 20” QB material. We sold our second round pick. That was historically dumb. But we’ve thrown a lot more good players away than pick value. We have a history of letting good players leave.
I agree So my question to you is do you trade up for a guy you like that you think is the LT of the future and maybe have to start that guy out at RT to begin with. Or do you sit and wait? What if a guy like Goedert is sitting there at the bottom of the 2nd do you trade the your 3rd and 4th to get him and then use the your two 3rds to trade up and get the best OT that falls into the middle of the 3rd?
We agree on two things - 1. the roster sucks, multiple weak spots in OL, RB, TE, DB, and an injury prone DL, plus ST. that's a lot of wholes to fill. 2. reason for our shitty roster is due to poor player management by the FO. we don't draft particularly well, seldom accumulate draft capitals, and we do poorly in free agency. we let the good ones get away and instead replace them with worse talent. Like i've said before, winning in sports requires obtaining top end talents, and the best way to do so in the NFL is to draft near the top. i am certainly not unhappy with Watson, but i was merely presenting another scenario where we could have kept Os on the roster last year, which practically guarantees us at no worse than a top 3 pick this year, and address the QB position with what experts considered to be the best QB class in a long time. This will allow us to keep all of our picks, but instead, we essentially used up 3 draft picks to address the QB position, while all other glaring holes remain. I just don't think this is how you build a SB contending team. Accumulating assets and turning those assets into real contributors is what differentiates good teams from bad ones. A good example is the Astros front office. They are always looking for ways to better their roster, either through draft, free agency, international signings, or trades. Get the feeling that the Astros are always ahead of the game? The Texans, on the other hand, seem to always be behind the 8 ball. I see other teams in the division improving, while we are doing the minimum, and that's just deflating.
The fact that you’re trying to argue keeping Oz and aiming for this years QB crop vs Watson because of ‘experts’ is a bad argument, especially in hindsight. It doesn’t take that much knowledge to know Deshaun was over analyzed vs Mahomes and Trubisky. He played more, had more game tape to go through, and thus people were able to harp more on his bad vs good. I’d take Deshaun over any of these QBs coming out this year and wouldn’t even have to think that hard about it. If Deshaun stayed in college and had a similar year to his last year in college, I’d still take him over every other QB in this draft. Yes you need talent to win in the NFL, but you’re not going anywhere if you don’t have a QB. For all the talent Jacksonville has, as long as Bortles is their QB they’re not winning anything. Same for a lot of these teams who broke the bank for average FAs(no one who’s complained about the lack of big money FAs this year signed by us has actually said who they’re upset about missing out on), in the NFL you need talent, but you pay premium for a QB because you must have one to win. If we had kept Oz and Deshaun does what he does for another team you’d be complaining about how we should’ve gone out and gotten him.
You are over dramatizing our weaknesses other than the OL and TE. Our DL is strong and fairly deep. With the additions in our defensive backfields we have grown better and deeper and will probably add a decent young cb in the draft. Lamar Miller is a good running back and that is another position pretty easy to re-staff in today's NFL. There is no reason to think our defense won't be significantly better this year even if Watt does not return to form. Mercilus, Clowney, Reader, McKinney, Honey Badger, and Colvin have pedigree and a high likelihood of doing well this year. I also thought Cole and Cunningham showed signs of being very good and should improve in their second year. Our OL will probably be better, but that's not saying much. TE is still a hole, but will probably be addressed with a strong blocker in the draft. We don't have to have a weapon at every receiving position to be good on offense as long as Watson is healthy. We sucked last year, because of injuries and the team's failure to address the offensive line. Not saying we will be world beaters, but with a reasonably healthy roster and Watson we will challenge for the playoffs. You are the epitome of an overly pessimistic fan.
Agreed about Watson. I will name a couple of FA's I would've liked to see on the Texans. Suh/Norwell/Graham/Gaines. Guys still out there who could be signed as of today. Suh/Boston/Watson/Darkwa
Over all I agree, but championship contenders have weapons at all receiving positions and multiple RB's. Look at Philly/New England/Jax/Minny and compare them to the Texans playmakers. Other than Hopkins the skill position guys on the Texans fall way short. I would like to see how good Watson could be with a good OL and a full compliment of playmakers. Hopefully the upcoming draft is focused on the offensive side of the ball and these playmakers can be found. Along with upgrading the ST's.
Not sure there is an avenue for upgrading ot this year unless we get lucky with one or more flyers we just took. Not sure why everybody forgets that we were the best offense in the league when Watson started in spite of the offensive line. It would be nice to upgrade those skill positions but not by gambling with your limited draft picks. I'd go with best players available at TE, ol, and db before wide receiver, rb, or even backup qb.
