Duane Brown

There's no doubt Duane has regressed a bit in pass blocking.

It's not entirely on him, though. The whole line has had issues in pass protection, and his issues are compounded by Fitzpatrick's lack of pocket awareness and the fact that the Texans offense blows so much goat that they end up in obvious passing situations.

He's still an absolute monster in the run game though. He was a TE in college, IIRC, and his athleticism is in total display with those runs off tackle.

Once our offense gets clicking, Duane's pass protection problems will probably become fewer and fewer. I think his struggles are more due to the offense than the offenses struggles are due to him, if that makes sense.

 

I've mentioned it before, and I don't know if it's the entire reason, but Paul Dunn is an awful coach. Atlanta fans were happy when the Falcons fired him. OB screwed himself when he pussyfooted around waiting for Mike Munchak and then Brian Ferentz to reject the job. By the time we looked elsewhere, only ****ty coaches remained. So we hired a ****ty OL coach and now we have a ****ty OLine. If there's one coach who would get fired after only one season on OBs staff, it would be this guy.

Former Texan Charles Spencer played under Dunn at PITT and here was his reaction when we hired him.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Terrible RT <a href="https://twitter.com/Zepp1978">@Zepp1978</a>: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Texans?src=hash">#Texans</a> RT <a href="https://twitter.com/alexmarvez">@alexmarvez</a>: Source tells <a href="https://twitter.com/FOXSports">@FOXSports</a> that Paul Dunn is <a href="https://twitter.com/HoustonTexans">@HoustonTexans</a> new offensive line coach</p>&mdash; Charles Spencer Jr. (@CSpencer77) <a href="https://twitter.com/CSpencer77/status/428009551049543680">January 28, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>he was there my senior year but coached? RT <a href="https://twitter.com/PatDStat">@PatDStat</a>: <a href="https://twitter.com/CSpencer77">@CSpencer77</a> did he coach you at Pitt?</p>&mdash; Charles Spencer Jr. (@CSpencer77) <a href="https://twitter.com/CSpencer77/status/428009920785817600">January 28, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Poor Duane...</p>&mdash; Charles Spencer Jr. (@CSpencer77) <a href="https://twitter.com/CSpencer77/status/428010024276074496">January 28, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>You? Yeah me too... RT <a href="https://twitter.com/jasonmcmeekin">@jasonmcmeekin</a>: <a href="https://twitter.com/PatDStat">@PatDStat</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/CSpencer77">@CSpencer77</a> now I'm really concerned</p>&mdash; Charles Spencer Jr. (@CSpencer77) <a href="https://twitter.com/CSpencer77/status/428011561849196544">January 28, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Spencer called it. "Poor Duane" indeed.

 

Could be the new scheme or it could be the coaching... Or it could just be Brown. He had his moments of not being so great last year as well.

 

Meh. Duane had already regressed badly last year.