Props to Saint Louis for postin this earlier..... Texans smart to pick Mario, not Reggie RBs are routine, while impact DEs can carry teams to Super Bowl By Mike Celizic MSNBC contributor Updated: 9:07 p.m. ET April 28, 2006 If the Houston Texans wanted to make their fans do the happy dance on draft day, they would've picked USC's great running back, Reggie Bush. But they wanted to make their defense dominant. So they they'll take the man who can anchor their defense for the next dozen or more years, Mario Williams. We all know who Bush is and what he can do. Winning the Heisman Trophy and being number one on just about every Saturday's highlight reel does that for you. And nothing generates excitement in football like a great running back. But when you build your team on great running back, you're building on quicksand. No runner taken at the top of the draft has ever taken his team to the Super Bowl, let alone won it. And, when you look back at the college season that was, you may remember that Bush couldn't take his team to a second consecutive BCS championship against Texas. Defense isn't nearly as exciting as offense, and it's hard for fans on draft day to get cranked up about getting a defensive player with the first pick in the draft. But defense wins championships, and great defensive ends who are big, strong, fast, agile, athletic and genuine difference makers are one of the rarest commodities out there. Think about it. Think about having someone like Reggie White anchoring your D-line for the next football generation. Think about all the Super Bowl teams and all the great defenders who defined them, from Bob Lilly to Mean Joe Greene to Lawrence Taylor to Ray Lewis to Richard Seymour. N.C. State’s Mario Williams, the scouts agree, could be that kind of player. He's huge — 6-7 and a Happy Meal short of 300 pounds. He's fast — turns the 40 in less than 4.7 seconds. He's strong — 35 reps at the combine with 225 pounds in the bench press. He's athletic — a 40 1/2-inch vertical jump. You've probably only really started hearing about him in the past couple of weeks as the draftniks — blinking against the light as they emerge from caves in which they spend the year sorting through thousands of players, pondering Wonderlic scores and conducting mock drafts — start to take over the sports talk shows. He had 14 1/2 sacks last year for North Carolina State, after which he declared for the draft after three years of college ball. Just about every draft board has him rated at the top of the list of defensive players. More important, according to Dan Patrick on ESPN radio, at least half a dozen NFL teams have Williams at the top of their draft charts, ahead of Bush, ahead of Matt Leinart, ahead of Vince Young, ahead of everyone. It was tough call for the Texans. On the one hand, there was Bush, the pick the fans want and a player who can do some electrifying things rushing, catching and returning the ball. Bush is so very, very good, that even I have been sorely tempted to break my first rule of drafting, which is to never throw away the top pick on a running back, and instead go with something more useful and harder to come by. But a running back’s shelf life is generally short. And if they do survive the pounding of the game, they don't win titles, especially for teams like the Texans who have neglected to assemble an offensive line good enough to be called mediocre. An awful lot of Super Bowl teams have done just fine with running backs picked up further down in the draft. But few Super Bowl teams have arrived at the big game without a stout defense. (The St. Louis Rams come to mind, but darned few others.) By taking Williams, the Texans' defense is set. Put him at end and fill in with complimentary pieces. They go from a so-so defense to one that makes offensive coordinators tear their their hair out, just like that. After that, Houston should start collecting offensive linemen, the more the better. If there's a wide-out they think could develop into a top player, toss him in the shopping cart, too. But they have their quarterback, David Carr, and they have Dominick Davis at running back, a perfectly serviceable ball carrier who averages better than four yards a carry and 1,000 a season. He's not Bush, but he doesn't have to be. They may think they need Bush, but, if he couldn't really bust free against Texas in the Rose Bowl — he did have one big play, but he tried to lateral and turned it over — how's he going to do it against bigger and faster defenses behind a bad offensive line? And what happens if he blows out a knee? What Houston needs — what every team needs — is somebody who can control the line of scrimmage on defense, somebody who strikes terror into the hearts of opposing quarterbacks, somebody like White, the person Williams is most often compared to, who can dominate the opposing offense. You can't win if you can't stop the other guys. But if you can stop them, even with a challenged offense, you have a chance. For illustrations, think back to the Lions during Barry Sanders' days — exciting as all get out to watch, but basically a failure as a team. Then think about last year's Bears — an offensive game plan that consisted of three-play sequences, nearly every one of which was succeeded by a punt, but they through one round of the playoffs on the strength of their defense. Then think about the Super Bowl champion Ravens. Again, they had no offense to speak of, but they won because they had one of the greatest defenses ever to take the field. New England won its first two Super Bowls without a premier running back. The Giants won their second title with a superannuated O.J. Anderson, who had lost so much speed he couldn't outrun the Lincoln Tunnel, grinding out three and four yards at a time. Much as everyone loves Jerome Bettis, he wasn't exactly O.J. Simpson for the Steelers last year, either. I've already said that Bush is one of the only running backs I've ever seen worthy of the first pick. That doesn't mean he's the right pick for Houston, though, not when the Texans can have anybody they want. Bush is the best back in the draft and one of the best that's ever come into the league. But Mario Williams is the best player.
with that article there's 10 others that say this was a huge mistake that will haunt the franchise forever. you know...the exact same kind of language that VY fans like me were throwing out a while back.
I'm one of the few that actually like the pick. I sort of made all of the same points as this guy in the other thread. I should be a sports writer.
Our defense is now "set"? Surely you jest. They went from a "so-so" defense? Doesn't "so-so" imply that there are some good parts and some bad parts? Could you pls point out the good parts from last season's defense? We were LAST IN THE LEAGUE. I've warmed up a little bit from my initial reaction to the Mario signing, but to say that our defense is now going to strike fear in opposing coaches might be a stretch.
who didn't have nearly as good a season in year 2 as he did in year 1. but even if that's your answer...that's it, man. the defense was a freaking joke. the implication that adding this one piece to that defense will change everything is laughable, at best.
Injuries decimated our defense's starting lineup last season. Team M.Williams up with Peak and others returning....should be interesting. Throw in the additions in Free Agency .....I dont think its such a stretch. This defense will be much improved...
honestly, i don't know how it could do anything but improve after last season. they could play with blindfolds on and have a 50/50 shot of being better than last season.
The cornerbacks on this team will appear drastically improved because they won't be asked to hold receivers for 6+ seconds per play like they were for much of last season.
It's almost pointless now to compare last year's defense with this year's. We're playing in the 4-3 now. We signed a bunch of new guys. (Anthony Weaver, ND Kalu, Sam Cowart) We get back Kylie Wong (who's only serviceable but still an upgrade) and Travis Johnson should be much more effective in the 4-3. Our defense was pitiful last year and will only get better.
Exactly, which is why I think this was the better pick. It's a step in the right direction. There's no doubt that our already average offense will be markedly improved regardless of whether or not we had gotten Bush. For that reason, I think they chose to try and find a balanced attack between offense and defense. I'd expect almost every pick in the draft to be defense except our 2nd, and maybe one of our thirds should be used on lineman. Other than that, the only way I'd use another pick on offense is if the TE Thomas from UT is still available in the late 4th (then, MAYBE I'd think about it), or if Reggie McNeal is available in the 6th. Otherwise, straight D.
We need a cornerback first and foremost, then we need a couple offensive linemen, then we need to pick up Reggie McNeil in the later rounds and use him as our split end/speed runner. Let Kubiak go to work with those tools. Then next year, figure out how to get the next Jim Brown in Adrian Peterson, and get some backers and we could be contending for the SB.
