I understood the Lassiter pick better when we followed up with Bullock, That pair just works well in tandem with each having strength to cover the other's weakness. I was a fan as soon as I heard the second pick.
I want a traditional TE who can both catch and block well. We have too many who can only catch and wave.
Loveland is a good blocker. They ran behind him over 100 times last year. Teams dont do that when the TE is a bad blocker. He wasn't as good of a blocker in 2024 because he separated his shoulder. But he was still fine. Go look at his 2023 tape with Corum/Edwards running behind him? It's above avg.
Then he's one I would consider. About half are too polite to say bad blocker, so they say non-traditional. And blocking consists of both in line and protection attributes.
I think the Texans draft will end up looking similar to below. I didn't put the spot selections, because I believe the Texans will move around in the draft. Perhaps trading back from their 2nd rounder or one of the third round picks. What do you think? G Tyler Booker Alabama DT Shemar Turner Texas A&M WR Tory Horton Colorado State TE Jackson Hawes Georgia Tech RB LeQuint Allen Syracuse CB Jordan Hancock Ohio State MLB Easton Mascarenas-Arnold USC OT Carson Vinson Alabama A&M
There's not one difference maker in this draft besides maybe Horton who I like a lot. I'm not as high on Booker as most (Slow feet) Turner has an outside shot at being an above avg player. I agree with you the Caserio will probably be trading around quite a bit.
These are picks that I think the Texans will make. I prefer Zabel over Booker. I think the Texans really really like Booker. He's easily the strongest people mover playing Guard in the draft. Turner can play anywhere on the Defensive line and should be available at the end of the 2nd round or top of third round. Horton is the X wide receiver that has good speed and runs clean crisp routes. Horton's a tough cover and injuries have hurt his draft stock. Hawes is the best blocking TE in the draft. This will be key to the Texans offense this year. LeQuint Allen would be a great change of pace to Mixon and Pierce. He is one of the best pass catching RB's and is renowned for his route running as a RB. LeQuint is probably the best pass protection RB in the draft. Jordan Hancock will add depth to the CB room. A lot of analysts prefer Hancock at Ohio State over Denzel Burke. Easton at USC is a middle linebacker that has already met with the Texans several times. He is a little undersized at 6-0 and 230 lbs but has really good sideline to sideline speed. He was one of the leaders in tackles and was very disruptive. Easton's not a name with mock draft analysts, but is really popular with teams in the league. Carson Vinson is a 7th round project. He's an Alabama A&M OT that played in the Senior Bowl. If the Texans can find an injury for him they can redshirt him this year and develop him.
We don't have enough draft capital to move into the top 6 and the rest are too close to spend capital to move up or have others trade up to 25 so we can trade down. This may be a situation where we take advantage of the bias toward immediate gratification to pick up future picks when we will be spending cap space to hold this group together. This is particularly true since many think we are a worse team because of the OL changes. While I'm not predicting trades for future picks, it would not surprise me. The value seems to be there at the moment.
I am too heavily influenced by quick reports of evaluators to form my own opinions on player's likelihood for success. But I do have preferences based on trust in the evaluator's expressed opinions. Since we don't hear much credible information on Texans specific player evaluations, I'm not really expecting anything. All options are open.
