There are too many people b****ing about the coaching and the QB play, and while they have not been the best over the last 5-7 weeks and I want to kick the **** out of Schaub for throwing to AJ 30 times a game and only to him on 3rd downs, they aren't the biggest problems. The Roster Depth is the Texans problem. I blame the GM, Head Coach, and O/D coordinator for allowing this team to put guys like Shilo Keo, and Brandon Harris on the field. The O-Line, especially the right side has been crappy all year. Meyers and Smith have just been okay. While Smith drafted two OL contributors, they have not been enought to make up foir the loss of Winston and Brisel. They should have brought in another decent OL man prior to the start of the year. Brandon Harris at the Nickle has killed us and the secondary's ability to play Man. He is assured to give up one major play and 15 yards and a 1st due to PI, he is horrible. Maybe it is coaching, but there is no way you can allow him on the field on 3rd and long (Nickel/Dime) situations. Keo should not even step foot on the field as a special teams player. Replacing Demeco with a older slower less athletic version of Demeco (James) was a poor decision, further proven when Cushing was lost. Dobbins is a decent back up, but Rudd isn't really. I have no idea who or what neutralized the OLB pass rush this year, but Barwin, Mercilus, and Reed have been total non factors.
Every single team in the NFL has weaknesses throughout the roster. It is impossible to build a 53-man team, and have every one of them be at an All-World level. Remember, the only reason why Harris is seeing the field so much is because McCain has been injured. Keo sees the field because Demps was injured, and is taking a while getting back to form. This team is actually regarded as one of the deepest in the league in terms of talent up and down the roster. The coaching staff's job is to put players in a position to succeed, and to cover up a team's weaknesses while playing to their strengths. The reason why the pass rush has been neutralized is because they lost one of the best linebackers on the planet in Brian Cushing. His injury is showing up all over the field. When he's out there, he forces the interior offensive linemen to compensate for his presence, which allows guys like Barwin and Reed to come around the edge and get to the QB. Now, QB's are able to step UP into the pocket because of the lack of push coming from the ILB position, which is completely negating our edge rushers. Mercilus is seeing some semblance of success because he has freaking athleticism and speed coming around that edge. The loss of Cushing AND DeMeco has been too much for Wade's scheme to handle this season, and that's a major factor as to why we're seeing more defensive breakdowns than last season, but the depth of the team is still amongst the best in the league. The criticisms for the team are getting out of hand right now. They are still a 12-4 football team after all. You don't get that way when you have a roster full of weaknesses.
This is definitely true. It seems like people are soon to forget the loss of DeMeco and especially Cushing. If Cushing never got injured I honestly believe we'd be 14-2 right now.
This. Every team has injuries, but our defense hasn't been the same since his loss. Jonathan Joseph's nagging injuries have hurt too.
I remember last season when linebacker was our strongest position. After Cushing went down it has become our most pathetic.
They were big losses from an emotional/leadership position, but at the end of the day they wouldn't be covering slot receivers, they wouldn't have been the ones giving up over 200 yds to Justin Blackmon, they wouldn't have been the ones trying to prevent Jordy Nelson from scoring 3 td's against us in our house. Their losses were big, I agree, but from a pure schematic perspective neither one of them were very good in coverage anyway. Our run defense has been very good this season, it is definitely the pass defense that's been the problem.
I agree that losing Cushing hurt us the most this year (in fact I see it as the major turning point/loss of momentum for the team this year), but compound that with the loss of McCain and Demps, and DeMeco during the season. I don't see how a guy like Harris is in the 2-deep. I understand he was a 2nd round pick but damn. I also think losing Dreessen hurt a lot, and Graham hasn't stepped up or at least wasn't until he was concussed. So my way of fixing the team in the draft is MLB, OLB, TE not WR, and then another OL. Don't be surprised if A. Smith is gone this year... (Salary Cap hit)
I don't think we need another TE, Last year Dreesesen had: 28 Catches - 353 yards - 6 TD's (16 games) This season Garrett Graham has had: 28 Catches - 263 yards - 3 TD's (15 games) How much can you honestly ask your 2nd string TE to "step up" (Besides maybe N.E.) Plus you say you can't believe that Brandon Harris made it to the 2-deep, yet you don't think we need to draft another corner? The biggest problems on this team since our "slide" has been the o-line, secondary, and the QB play. Yet you don't want to address any of those issues until the 4th round?
Good comments on the TE. As far as Harris goes, there were CB available as UDFA's or on the FA market that are better than him at Nickle CB. I can't believe they spent a 2nd on a Nickle CB that was as much of a bust as this guy. I also do think that the right side of the OL is pathetic, and I also said that Meyers and Smith have been playing like crap. I do believe that Ben Jones will be a good Center, and I guess that B. Brooks will be better. But I can't believe there isn't a guy on the practice Squad on one of the other 31 teams that could be a better job than Newton or Ryan Harris? We could draft a OT high in the draft, or we could wait a round or two draft a good Guard and then find an OT on the FA wire (maybe Winston will be available again). How do the Texans afford these FA's? It is time to cut ties with guys that can't stay on the field, or high draft choices that suck. Guys like Sharpton, Tate, Harris, the right side of our O line. I am not a cap guru but I understand that the Texans are 21st this year with a $103,440,468 team salary (per fox sports: http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/team/houston-texans/salary/67071?q=houston-texans ) It may be time to let some of the more expensive guys go. OD is the 5th highest paid Texan @ $5.25 Mill, do you not think that we could find a more productive TE in that range? FYI Rob Gronkowski makes $2.6 Mill. On the Nose Cody is #9 @ $3 Mill, Walter is #9 with $3 Mill also. Is that money spent wisely?
I might be inclined to agree on safety depth because I don't like anybody past Quin and Manning. The problem there is they went with backups they thought could contribute on special teams. Well, special teams sucks and we have subpar backups at safety. Some of that is on Cushing getting injured though. When we went dime on 3rd and 23 in Indy, Quin came up to play linebacker and Demps took over at safety. But Brandon Harris is our #5 corner. Yeah, he kind of sucks, but I can't imagine many teams are going to be pleased by the play of their #5 CB if he sees a lot of playing time. We've been suiting up 4 CBs so if McCain and Ball are healthy, Harris doesn't even make the active roster. It's hard to get upset about that if the guy is forced to play due to injury. I can get upset about them going out and getting a guy like Routt and benching him while Harris and Carmichael suit up. I haven't seen him play this season, but he can't be worse than those two. Dressen was our best blocking TE. OD and Graham are primarily pass catching TE's. A lot of the blame for the decline in the running game has been attributed to replacing the right side of our offensive line, and rightly so. But when over the course of a few years you get rid of your your best blocking TE and your best blocking FBs and all you're left with are guys whose strengths are catching the ball, then you're bound to see an effect on the running game. I wouldn't spend a high pick on a TE, but if you can find a guy later who can serve as a 6th OLineman better than Daniels or Graham, it's something that might be worth looking at.
Round 1: Corner/or Best Available DL(ie NT) Round 2: ILB - Ogletree(please!!!!!! going to be a really good player) Round 3: OTackle Round 4: DT/Corner Round 5: WR Round 6: FB(Time to get Casey to play his true position as the 2nd TE) Round 7: WR/KR/Special Teams talent
1. Their hands were forced by the sins of contracts past. The only way they keep Winston, Briesel, and Myers together is if they let Foster walk. Given the year Tate had, that would have been just as big a disaster. 2. Decent OL guys don't just fall off trees. Saying they just "should have brought one in" is a typical line that's easy for a fan to say in ignorance of how hard it is to do. They were going to fetch FA replacements that cost less than the guys they had to drop, but were still on par in terms of ability? Just that easy? 3. Offensive line is not a plug and play position. This isn't a video game. The O-Line has to work as a unit. Guys have to develop chemistry and sync. Our ZBS also takes time for guys to learn - it's almost akin to players learning Phil Jackson's triangle - for many, you need a full season to get comfortable with it. Kubiak did the right thing starting off with Caldwell and Newton, since they have been practicing with it for a year+. 4. Ben Jones hasn't received enough credit on this board for his season. He supplanted a woeful Caldwell by the break and has more than held his own as a rookie. He's extremely promising and well ahead of where he should be. Right now, he was our best 2012 draft pick. 5. Newton was coming along and starting to become a solid RT before he hurt his knee. The O-Line went into the tank with Gardner and Harris attempting to plug the gap. He's back, but hasn't looked like himself - I assume the knee isn't 100% and probably won't be until the offseason. -->The starters look like a good unit going into next year, and the FO has done a reasonable job fishing for new guys to put in the mix each draft. You have to be patient: especially with our ZBS, you can't expect rookies to jump in and be starters year 1. For example, I won't try and rate Brooks yet, because his clock shouldn't start ticking until next July. No denying the turnover has hampered us all season. Nothing we or they can do about it but keep plugging away. I'm really unhappy that they signed Routt just to stash him and throw Harris to the wolves. Extremely difficult for me to buy that Harris gives them a better chance to win right now. Smells a lot like the coaching staff decided they'd rather throw him into the fire to take his lumps and develop (long term big picture). He's effective on ST. He's an abject disaster as a safety. Wade fell in love with him when he coached the East-West Shrine game and that's been that. I don't get it, I don't like it either. I mentioned before the season began that I was terrified at the thought of losing Cushing. Their hands were forced on this situation too: you go on to call the Texans to dump guys making $5M to $3M - Ryans contract was set to go for almost $6M, and Wade was already going away from him on 3rd downs. I hated that they moved him, but they got a nice return from the Eagles and James honestly has been a good bargain if you consider his pricetag is 1/6th the cost. Fact is, no one was going to replace Cushing. No one. He's one of the truly special talents out there, a guy that was able to by himself handle the responsibilities of both ILBs and allow Wade to rush 5 and put 5 DBs in coverage at the same time. That was an incredible luxury, and without it, our defense has taken a step back. As a pure pass rusher, Mercilus has actually been very effective, especially when you consider how few snaps he's seen relative to the other two. Reed is a SOLB, which means he's not supposed to be a sack specialist. As I mentioned above, Cushing's absence has forced Wade to back off on his hallmark Tiger blitz, meaning Reed stays back more often. Barwin....I have no answer. Partially, we set the expectations too high - he enjoyed a flukey 4 sack game at Jacksonville last year which accounted for over a third of his sacks. He switched to SOLB during Reed's injury, which removed him from the sack specialist role. But he's been ineffective no matter how you dice it. Hard to figure out. Good stuff - very much agree Gronk signed a 6 yr, $53M extension, so forget about using his rookie deal as a benchmark. Walter is almost certainly a goner this offseason. Cody is a FA this spring. It's my assumption that they will let him go (along with Barwin) and dip into the draft for another NT. I don't think you mess around with OD - he's too critical in the pass game (9th among TEs in receiving yards). Agreed. I still don't get how Nolan didn't stick but Keo did. That last bit is what has me frustrated. It seems like a case where they are more "invested" in a guy and aren't going with the one that gives them the best chance to win right now. There's merit to that approach, but that's exactly what kept Jacoby Jones on the roster last year. Yep - I've been pushing that the O-Line alone isn't the entire source of our struggles. A retooled line also spread thin with a lack of help by ancillary blockers has been too much to get away with. Graham and Casey are nice guys and contributors in the pass game, but we don't have a serious blocker at TE or a real FB. Both need to be addressed. You can get the TE on the last day of the draft, and FBs are almost as abundant as kickers in the undrafted pool.
True, but it's different when that guy was a 2nd round pick a couple of years ago. I know that CB is probably the toughest transition from college to NFL, but our talent evaluation at that position has been downright awful over the years. It's like all they look at is the measurable - but maybe that's all you really can go by unless they play in a big conference against marquee receivers in college.
Does anybody have any real information on why Routt isn't seeing the field more?? If it's simply that they are more invested in Harris for the future, then why did we even bring Routt onto the team in the first place?? If the idea was for Routt to tutor Harris at practice while Harris gets all the PT in games, then that's going to irk me to no end. This team has a chance to do something special if they can just realign themselves, but having weak links on the field when there are better options on the bench is not the way to do that. Trial by fire does not work in the playoffs.....especially when you're set to face Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.
Keep in mind, when they released Winston and let Briesel walk, they thought they had two capable replacements already on the roster (Butler and Caldwell) with two promising kids behind them (Newton and Jones). First they lost Butler for the year during camp, which forced last year's #3 (Newton) to start. Then Caldwell struggled and finally got hurt week 4 (and again weeks later), which thrust Jones into not just more playing time (which he was earning anyway) but extensive playing time. With no capable fill-in, Jones, even as well as he's played, has probably logged far more hours than the coaches would like for a rookie. Unfortunately, the Texans identified two areas they thought they could attack to get under the cap and those areas have been devastated by injuries. Losing Winston and Ryans - sound decisions - were amplified once Butler and Cushing got hurt. Injuries in this league are killers.
