I know this subject has been beaten to death on this board, but I would like to open what could be an insightful discussion on our failure in the mid-round draft selections over the past few years, a topic that many of us Texans fans believe to be the most essential failure that has landed us in this rather strange transition period of vastly diminishing great talents combined with absolutely no depth: A top heavy team if you will. Now just for a quick moment I'd like for us to revisit our 2nd-5th round picks over the past 5 seasons... 2010 2nd- Tate: Promising rookie year, followed by injury plagued seasons and inconsistent play, we did not retain him after his contract ran out. 3rd- Mitchell: Pretty much an experiment at nose tackle gone wrong, he was never what we hoped he'd be from the position. 4th- Sharpton: Promising flashes, but injuries always limited him from being a contributor. 4th- Graham: Pretty solid pickup, our current TE. 5th- McManis: Do I really need to? 2011 2nd- Reed: Flashes here and there, but the pick could've been used to give us a pass rusher to complement Watt. 2nd- Harris: Bust that simply couldn't make the roster. 4th- Carmichael: Never expected much from him, he got in on certain sets but never contributed much. 5th- Shiloh Keo: Special teams, nothing more. 5th- Yates: Led us to our first post-season victory, couldn't expect more out of a 5th round backup QB 2012 3rd- Posey: Can't blame the guy for tearing his achilles, but hes been a non-factor in his tenure. 3rd- Brooks: Can't really knock him too much, injuries have set him back, but he still has room. 4th- Martin: Failed experiment at slot and special teams specialist. 4th- Crick: Solid for a late 4th round pick, still has room. 5th- Bullock: A lot of people are pessimistic, but hes really picking it up. 2013 2nd- Swearinger: Time will tell whether this guy can be a difference maker, he is extremely inconsistent and has some horrible habits as far as form tackling goes. 3rd- B. Williams: cut... 3rd- Montgomery: cut for left-handed cigars 4th- T. Williams: cut... 2014 2nd- Su'a-Filo: Still too early to tell what we have in this kid, but for the 2nd guard taken off the board he should be contributing more. 3rd- Fiedorowicz: The self-proclaimed "Gronk" has one reception for seven yards... Again, its too early to tell, but a little flash would be nice. 3rd- Louis-Nix: DNP... BOB said he's not ready, not a good sign for a guy we traded up to get. 4th- Savage: Meh So out of the 23 mid round picks we have drafted over the last 5 years, 4 of them gave us solid, consistent production... And we wonder why we are in the current state that we are in. For the sake of providing a control group that shows how good team-building through the mid-rounds builds contenders, can somebody point out a team that has better than 17% success rate in these picks? Discuss.
I think I read somewhere that the Texans are actually average to above average when it comes to drafting. Not sure how true it is or what metrics they use to determine draft success. The problem with the Texans is that they have lost a bunch of good players over the past 3 yrs (Williams, Ryans, Winston, Quin, Barwin, Briesel) only to replace them with players that are either worse or maybe as good. No upgrades. Rick Smith adheres to a 20-70-10 system which is okay. But right now Cushing, Johnson and Brown are not playing up to their level. And the 70 percent has seen a major downgrade.
Well this was a big debate at the end of last season. Is Rick Smith to actually blame for the bad drafts, or was he just drafting according to bad coaches. I would say 2010 was solid, Tate always had a high YPC he just had injury problems, and still does. He's doing pretty good in Cleveland when not injured. But it's week 8 and feels like we didn't even partake in the 2014 draft, which is pretty sad considering we had the #1 pick. So I think we have our answer.
What's *really* depressing is how many of those guys are out of football. That 2010 class should be, what? 25-26 years old; ie in the prime of their careers, right? And I do believe, other than Tate and Graham (who I think you're vastly overrating - he's a spare, IMO), the other three are currently unemployed. The strange thing is: this has been a problem since literally their first draft as a franchise. I used to beat this drum all the time but they had a third round pick not make their expansion roster in 2002 - that may very well be one of the five worst picks of all-time and should havem frankly, gotten Casserly fired on the spot. The list of 2nd and 3rd failures under Casserly was staggering. It's baffling that it has continued. (I'm less critical of 4s and 5s - especially 5s, btw. You certainly can, and hopefully will pluck a few starters/contributors from those rounds - but the degree of difficulty increases tremendously. But you should absolutely, positively nail picks 1-3. You *have* to.)
He's on IR for a reason, we all knew about his knee problems in the draft, it's why he wasn't a first round pick, but he also injured his wrist which required surgery and landed him on the IR. It's not that he "wasn't ready" so much as he wasn't healthy. If he can get healthy this season and provide a legitimate NT for us next year, all will be forgiven.
I would absolutely love to see a 5 year draft analysis of every team in the NFL with grades that show who sucks an who did well.
http://houston.cbslocal.com/2014/08...-totally-get-it-yet-has-got-a-long-way-to-go/ Sounds more than issues just coming back from injury.
Every team has hits and misses. I'd say we are definitely below average, but I don't think other teams are miles ahead of us. You could do this with most teams and it would be similarly damning. It seems like most of the consistently good teams are good because of cap management/free agency, not necessarily drafting well.
No... it's drafting - look at the Seahawks. Hitting on 2-5 not only provides depth, as well as a "next gen" nucleus, it also provides maximum cap flexibility. Seattle's gonna have to cash its check soon - but right now, they have elite players being paid pennies, including their QB.
JR had posted something along those lines during the off-season... I don't remember the thread though. Oh Mr J.R....!!!!!!
Feel free to bet on them if you like. That defense isn't what it was last year and that was the ONLY reason they got where they did.
I thought of Seattle while I was typing that, but besides them, what other teams build through the draft more so than through free agency? Can't think of one right off the top of my head.
