Name: Danny Shelton College: Washington Position: DT Height: 6-2 Weight: 343 CBS Draft Profile This dude will be a BEAST. Adding him to a front with JJ, JD (I still believe...), and Merci will give the Texans as good a chance as any against Luck. I know that Louis Nix should be healthy, but he's the only DT that will be under contract going into next season. Not to mention he's unproven at best. Powe is just a guy and I see no reason to bring him back. And the fountain of youth will eventually run dry on Pickett. Assuming he's still there, this is the pick IMO.
It seems to me that at some point we need to start spending first round draft picks on a position on than defensive line. We need to be a bit more creative filling out that part of the team after giving Watt huge money and drafting Clowney #1 overall last season. Nix really needs to work out. If he doesn't, I'm not sure it's wise to use yet another first round pick on that part of the team.
Yeah I still can't see using a 1st on a DT, I think it has to be ILB or DB unless they just fall in love with a prospect at a different position.
Who was bogged down by injures his last year at Notre Dame and couldn't get on the field last year. One of things Rick Smith does that deserves a lot of criticism is that it seems like he always assumes the best case scenario when assessing the team for needs. So they operated as if Cushing, Foster, and Schaub were always going to recover from whatever injuries they had and were going to be at their best for 16 games. I'm sure Rick is making plans as if Clowney is going to be ready to play next year. Same for Mallett and same for Nix. And it's bull****. Things don't work that way. I get why people would be hesitant to draft an NT a year after spending a 3rd on Nix, but I don't think you can assume Nix will be healthy and/or will be any good. I'd be proactive about it. I'd still consider NT a position of need. And if the best player available when we pick happens to be an NT/DT, I wouldn't hesitate to pick one.
You're not wrong necessarily; but you have to remember that there's a cap and only a finite amount of money available to stock the roster. If you're paying... Schaub $15MM/year, you've pretty much sunk all your eggs into his basket and can't afford to spend additional money on the position. Not unless you want to weaken another area on your team.
But what Cannonball is saying directly relates to the money that's tied up as well. The Schaub and Cushing contract extensions came AFTER catastrophic injuries because Smith was assuming they'd bounce right back and continue playing at a high level for the duration of their days.
No; Smith was leveraging the injury to sign them to team-friendlier deals. If he doesn't extend either and they have huge seasons, he's paying *a lot* more with far less cap flexibility. I'm not arguing it was the right play; but it was certainly a defensible/understandable one. He didn't irresponsibly throw money at players.
If Shelton's there then take him. The defense needs to be this team's priority, ala Seahawks. If not then I got DB, either FS or CB. The one thing this year's draft has plenty of is D-line depth. You can fill in the line later in the draft. If I could, I would draft only D-line, O-line, DBs, and LBs in this draft. Save for one very fast slot receiver not unlike Devin Smith or Philip Dorsett.
I can't recall, but were Schaub and Cushing's deal team-friendly? Here's the thread from when the extension was signed. http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=225993 Probably more people ok with the move than not. No one was really saying wow, what a team friendly deal. Plenty that didn't understand it, especially the timing. Recognizing you can end up with "Flacco" deals that perhaps hamper the team otherwise... isn't this exactly what you want to happen? Guy performs at an ELITE level.. you pay him. Regardless, I think it's not exactly easy to determine what is fair value in the moment, absent your players being elite. The argument to be made is that Smith timed the extensions poorly/beautifully and overpaid/underpaid. Hindsight is 20/20, but he appears to be on the losing side of the equation in retrospect.
What happens if Nix comes back and plays well? He'll ride the bench? You can't play two NT's at the same time, and they typically come off the field during passing situations as well. At least with a CB or WR they have packages where they can get on the field.
Gimme gimme :grin: Would love to have that dude in Houston. http://walterfootball.com/draft2015.php I think he'll be gone before the Texans draft though.
Our D ranked 5th and our O ranked 24th. I know where I would rather concentrate our off season efforts.
