Its funny how on the basketball forum with a football section, it was "Yates sucks lololol" while on the football forum it was "Damn look at this line...the right side especially can't block for Yates".
Yates was also holding the ball for an eternity. I think Brandon Brooks, Ben Jones (who played a lot of the first half at center in place of Myers), and Shelley Smith can all develop into good interior players. We definitely need better depth when it comes to the tackle position, though. I could see a right tackle being taken in the first three rounds of the next draft for sure either to start or to be the swing tackle behind Brown and Newton.
Yeah they can develop but as of now we have no depth. The rookies better develop quick. Brooks will be the starting rg soon enough. There arent any cutback lanes for Arian.
They have interior depth. It's just young and untested. I'll take that any day over no depth. Last year all they had was Caldwell behind all three interior spots.
I'm worried about the right side of the line with the starters. Every time they ran to the right to start the game it got stuffed in the backfield.
I've seen the Yates sucks on football only forums as well. I tend to think this being a football section in a basketball forum has made discussions better. Sometimes less is more.
New O-Line additions have a learning curve with the ZBS. Can't just plug and play. That said, Brooks is not having a good first camp and Newton has been straight up disappointing. I'm not encouraged and last night looked bad for both. It's not that surprising that the fumbles came from our two speed specialists. Those guys have ingrained habits of "chicken wing" running with the ball and have to learn that in this league it is a must that you cover with both arms. Graham did a good job with that. Fumbles aside, they looked fantastic....but those fumbles will kill your career before it gets off the ground. There are still too many Yatesucks knee jerk buffoons excited to knee jerk. Maybe he develops, maybe he doesn't, but last night was a "can't make chicken salad out of..." night for him. No one's delivering deep balls with 2 seconds to operate with and torn tissue paper on the right side of the line. On the flip side....lol at the newfound trendy "Shutdown Jackson does't suck anymore!" folks. So much for that. Captain Can't Turn His Head was on full display, and Brees knew to pick on him. The first Saints scoring drive especially was an embarrassment. Also did not like what I saw from James at all. He may know that defense...but he wasn't able to make his plays. I'm not that concerned over last night. You can't remove Watt, Cody, and Cushing and not expect a massive effect. Besides, it's preseason. I was satisfied as soon as we pinned 14-0 on them. The real goal is to not get hurt and too evaluate the younger guys. I think we did that.
They played basic vanilla D. Not much blitzing and when you dont get pressure on Brees he will carve anyone up. Kareem didnt play that bad. Bradie James was on Jimmy Graham much of the time.
Have we been watching the same game? Quin made some pretty good stops. Kareem made one and then got beat every play thereafter.
i saw a lot of improvement with Kareem. he doesn't get beat off the line of scrimmage. he doesn't fall down anymore. yes, he was getting schooled by Graham but i saw KJ with him stride by stride. when the WR is 9 inches taller than your CB, the CB isn't going to win many jump balls. and he was guarding Jimmy freaking Graham. do you guys realize how many CBs he makes look stupid.
does he turn around for the ball? I've heard often of Kareem's "baby steps" improvement, and the stats were there last year, but for me I just want to know one thing: does he turn around for the damn ball?
let's hope the few extra milliseconds having cushing and watt, along with Wade's full playbook will be the difference. I joked to my bro about Kareem getting burned and to watch his head not turn.. it happened a couple times but he was on his man at least. Then I said Trindons going to have to screw up real bad.. I didn't even get to finish my sentence before he fumbled. The game was so willy nilly. I hope it was all a ploy to not show Texans hand before the season and also to get the cb some burn. Keyshawn not tucking the ball scared me too. Where was Mercilus? did he play?
Jackson had a horrible game. He failed the test of being on an island versus a great QB. I am must upset with him giving up inside position. Him getting burnt deep will get fixed by having safety help and/or a pass rush, hopefully, that he didn't receive enough of last night. Turning his head is a work in progress to put it kindly. I do love his progress from rookie season on being close enough to WRs to commit PIs like a champ. I think Jackson is an adequate CB with help. If Jackson had an okay game last night with the scheme the Texans played, he would be a good CB. Unfortunately, he still is a guy that needs help deep. Hopefully, he gets enough help so he can do a better job of taking away the slant.
The defense did this. It was almost like Wade purposely put players in tough matchups to see if they could handle it. The offense may have hid new wrinkles, but for the most part, teams have seen what the Texans do as core offensive players are still there. I am very excited about Daniels, Johnson, Schaub, Casey, and Foster all looking healthy. I have not seen much from Daniels, but he could be back to near pre-injury self.
