There’s CPOE, Completion Percentage Over Expectation. That’s what that Dakota stat JR posted are based on I believe. It’s not good for Watson, I like most hope its system based and not ability based. Unfortunately at 40 mil a year he doesn’t get the benefit of doubt now.
Thanks. I'll see if I can pull the numbers for last year when he had an All-Pro wideout to bail him out of broken plays.
I hate these cliches. Bill O'Brien was getting paid $5 million a year and I am pretty sure he is still going to get paid even though he got fired due to the nature of contract guarantees. People acting like BoB was living paycheck to paycheck and now since he's out he will have to figure out ways to feed his family or some ****. Bill O'Brien is a millionaire, he deserves to lose his job and I don't feel bad about it whatsoever. BoB can kiss my a**
After Bill O’Brien’s firing, Deshaun Watson’s search for stability continues By Aaron Reiss 6h ago 6 Deshaun Watson is barely 25 and only in his fourth pro season, so he’s quick to say he’s still young and still learning. But the quarterback has already experienced a career’s worth of drama and change with the Texans. His time in Houston has featured multiple general managers, the departure of his favorite receiver via a controversial trade and the early-season firing of his head coach. With the Texans sitting at 0-4 and their playoff hopes practically dead, Watson doesn’t need to experience more to recognize the lesson in that upheaval. “If you have a lot of change and a lot of people that are not on the same page, regardless of how good your team is, or how good your organization is supposed to be, it’s not going to be where it needs to be,” Watson said Wednesday, in his first public comments since Bill O’Brien’s ouster. “There’s gonna be a lot of inconsistency. That’s the thing that we’re going through right now, and sometimes it takes a little time, but you got to have that solid foundation before you can pile on things that you want to pile on. “That foundation of whatever you believe in, and whatever you stand on, has to be solid.” What will the Texans’ identity be under their next head coach and general manager? It’s hard to say. Though Houston fired O’Brien early, team chairman and CEO Cal McNair said the Texans will wait until after the season to hire a general manager, and that person, along with EVP of football operations Jack Easterby, will work with McNair to identify the right coach. No matter who gets those jobs, their focus must be putting Watson in a situation that maximizes his elite skill set. In a league that is scoring more points than ever, building a top-notch offense with a great quarterback as its engine is the most reliable way to construct a consistent contender. Not only do analytics suggest this, the Texans’ best player ever on the other side of the ball does, too. “He’s the face of this franchise; he’s the future of this team in this city,” J.J. Watt said of Watson. “So we have to do whatever we possibly can to make sure that he’s in the best position to have success and to lead this place to success, not only this year, not only next year, but for the next 10 years. And so, whatever it takes to give him all the tools he needs to be successful, in order to flourish and build into the best possible version of himself he can be, that’s what we need to do.” Watt declined to comment on the heated exchange that a source confirmed took place between him and O’Brien during a Week 3 practice. He said he appreciated the success the Texans enjoyed under the ex-head coach and general manager, who Watt thinks “always did what he believed was best for this football team.” “But obviously, this year, we’re 0-4 and stuff wasn’t working,” Watt said. “When you have the talent that we have, specifically at the quarterback position, you can’t be 0-4.” With an assortment of new weapons around him and a new play-caller in offensive coordinator Tim Kelly, Watson hasn’t looked as sharp as he did a season ago. Though his net yards per drop back this season (7.06) is his best since his electric rookie year, his percentage of bad throws (18.9) is higher than each of the previous two seasons. Watson is also running less than ever before (17 carries for 58 yards), helping him produce a career-worst 57.3 QBR, which ranks 21st. O’Brien’s vision for Houston’s overhauled offense — Watson tossing bombs downfield with a speedy receiving corps, then letting pass-catching running backs eat defenses up underneath — has flopped so badly that he lost his job. But as interim head coach Romeo Crennel said, “you’re not going to come in and put in a new offense or a new defense just overnight because it takes time if you’re going to do that. We’re going to have to work with what we have.” So these final 12 games — whether they end in a playoff berth or the Texans’ top 10 pick going to Miami — must help Watson and Easterby figure out which pieces of the offense should stick. Will Fuller and Kenny Stills are both free agents after this season, and Brandin Cooks and David Johnson both have contracts that make them either cuttable players or renegotiation candidates. And from a schematic standpoint, Watson might now have more freedom than ever to shape the offense while working alongside Kelly, who had been under O’Brien since their days at Penn State and could use the remainder of the season as an informal audition for other jobs. “Now, Tim Kelly has the open book for him to just do what he wants to do and how he wants to control this offense with me,” Watson said. “We’re gonna do it together.” Watson believes the offense still has explosive potential, but like the rest of the Texans, it has failed to find consistency. The passing attack enjoyed a big first half against the Steelers in Week 3, then the Texans didn’t score in the final two quarters. Houston’s defense held Minnesota’s rushing attack to a respectable yards per carry average for much of the Texans’ Week 4 game, but it failed to make tackles in high-leverage situations. Crennel said he’ll try to fix this by harping on fundamentals and reminding players not to overextend themselves in hopes of making a play. He senses the 0-4 start has worn down some on a roster that entered this season with playoff expectations, but he said players must “bring their own energy.” “They have to be excited about playing, excited about the game, excited about the game plan,” said the 73-year-old Crennel, the oldest head coach in NFL history. “If those things are in place, then they can be excited about playing and they can look forward to the game and what they’re able to do in the game.” On Wednesday, following a practice in which he thought his teammates displayed good energy and communicated well, Watt was noticeably more enthusiastic than he had been in some of his other recent news conferences. He said he was excited about “getting on the same page with our fan base again.” “There’s certainly been a bit of a tension there in the last months and years,” Watt said. “I can’t wait to have us all pulling in the same direction.” If all goes as Watt hopes, that direction will lead the Texans bringing the best out of their young quarterback.
Texans thoughts: Even the best version of Deshaun Watson can’t carry this team By Aaron Reiss Oct 19, 2020 6 Had the Texans escaped Nashville with a win over the Titans, they might still be holding onto a glimmer of playoff hope. But interim head coach Romeo Crennel’s decision to go for two flopped, and Tennessee won in overtime. Now the Texans are 1-5, tying the inaugural 2002 squad for the franchise’s worst record through six games. Still, the past two weeks have offered reasons to believe this team can be competitive during the remainder of this season — which it might as well be, seeing as Houston doesn’t have its first- or second-round picks. The Texans have cracked the 30-point mark in each of their two games since Bill O’Brien’s firing. The first time could be attributed to playing the Jaguars, who entered Week 6 ranked last in defensive DVOA, but the Titans ranked 12th in the same metric. Houston seems to be rounding into form as the team it was always supposed to be when O’Brien overhauled the roster: a squad capable of competing in shootouts, but unable to win in any other fashion. “We have to see what we can do to cut down on the yardage that we give up to give ourselves the best chance,” Crennel said Monday. “Because if the offense keeps going in the direction they’re going, if we can do anything defensively, then that’ll help our chances.” Next week could be even uglier for the Houston defense, as it’ll take on Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. Though Green Bay is coming off a big loss to Tampa Bay, the Packers still rank fourth in points per drive as of Monday afternoon. Before turning our focus to that matchup, here are some day-after thoughts on the loss to the Titans. Deshaun Watson is jelling with his new weapons The Texans’ record doesn’t reflect it, but Deshaun Watson is playing arguably the best football of his career right now. Though quarterback rating is an imperfect stat, it’s telling that he’s on a four-game streak of posting ratings over 100 — the first time that’s happened since his electric rookie year. The inconsistency that’s dogged Watson at times — and was partially responsible for last year’s Texans never winning more than two games in a row — hasn’t been an issue. But Houston’s defense is so bad that the Texans are losing anyway. Deshaun Watson, Weeks 3-6 STAT WATSON'S NUMBER RANK Completion rate 69.70% 7th TD rate 8.3 1st Sack rate 7.70% T-7th highest INT rate 2.30% T-17th highest Yards/attempt 9.5 1st Yards/completion 13.7 1st Net yards/dropback 8.38 1st Air yards/attempt 9.5 4th (Rankings as of Monday morning) The Titans and Jaguars were the bottom two teams in the league in terms of Football Outsiders’ adjusted sack rate heading into Week 6, so it’s unrealistic to expect Watson to continue to be so efficient on a per dropback basis. He’ll produce more negative plays against teams with better pass rushes, and his touchdown rate during this stretch is also unsustainable. But Watson’s 9.5 air yards per attempt and league-leading 34 explosive pass plays (16-plus yards) during this stretch indicate he’s finally adjusting to his speedy personnel. Sunday marked the first time Will Fuller and Brandin Cooks both caught at least five passes, with each recording at least one explosive catch. They and the rest of Houston’s receivers made life relatively easy on Watson, who threw into tight windows on just 10.8 percent of his throws and got rid of the ball in 2.71 seconds on average. How much longer can this hot streak last? It could be a while. The schedule looks favorable. Texans' upcoming schedule WEEK OPPONENT PASS DEFENSE DVOA RANK 7 Packers 25th 9 Jaguars 32nd 10 Browns 19th 11 Patriots 22nd 12 Lions 16th (DVOA rankings through Week 5) The Texans should try to justify a different RB trade This season, The Athletic’s Mike Sando created The Cook Index, which measures how frequently teams pass on early downs in the first 28 minutes of games, before time remaining and score differential influence play calling. In Week 6, the Texans tied for 14th at 44.4 percent. Given how well Watson is playing, and how poorly David Johnson continues to perform, offensive coordinator Tim Kelly should take the ball out of his best player’s hands less frequently. This isn’t really debatable when you consider each player’s first-down stats from Week 6. PLAYER 1ST DOWN PERFORMANCE Deshaun Watson 13/16 (81.3%), 187 yards (11.7 YPA), 76.5% success rate David Johnson 9 carries, 35 yards (3.89 YPC), 55.6% success rate Exclude one 11-yard first-down run by Johnson, and he averaged just 3 YPC on his other eight first-down runs. Yet he still played 78 percent of offensive snaps. Duke Johnson played just 26 percent. The broadcast crew for this game and others have said the Texans need to keep feeding David Johnson the ball in order to get him in a rhythm and justify the DeAndre Hopkins trade. But there’s a few issues with this line of thinking. Let’s unpack them. The man who executed that trade, O’Brien, was fired because owner Cal McNair recognized O’Brien’s plan didn’t work. Kelly’s reputation is not tied to David Johnson; it’s tied to how the offense performs during the remainder of the season, and the best version of this unit does not involve the former All-Pro running back gaining minimal yards on early downs. If nothing else, Kelly should be looking away from David Johnson to improve his case for a job elsewhere after this season, assuming he’s not retained by the next coaching staff. If the Texans insist on “justifying the trade,” how about getting David Johnson involved in the passing game? His receiving ability is what set him apart at the height of his career, and it was supposed to make the Texans unpredictable on offense. Yet the running back is averaging career-lows in receptions per game (2.0) and receiving yards per game (19.8). Every touch given to David Johnson is one less touch for Duke Johnson, whom the team traded a third-round pick for last year. He’s not received near enough opportunities for that deal to even have a chance at appearing worthwhile. Duke Johnson, who is under contract next season as well, is averaging a career-low 1.3 receptions per game and just 4.3 rushing attempts per game, the second-fewest of his career. And unlike his counterpart in the backfield, he’s proven he can be productive in the Texans’ offense. He averaged 6.5 yards per touch last season, the third-most among running backs. How will Darren Fells’ strong play alter the tight end depth chart? During the first four weeks of the season, tight end Jordan Akins was a rare bright spot for the Texans. He caught 14 of 15 targets for 168 yards and a touchdown while supplanting Darren Fells on the depth chart. Akins played 64.2 percent of offensive snaps in the first four games, compared to 54.6 percent for Fells. But with Akins out the past two games because of a concussion and an ankle injury, the 34-year-old Fells has stepped up to supply the Texans with just as much production at tight end. The sample size is small and inflated by a 44-yard touchdown Fells scored in Week 5 off of busted coverage, but so far, he’s performed better than in his first season with the Texans, which was a career-year for the former basketball player. Darren Fells' Texans tenure YEAR TARGETS RECEPTIONS YARDS TDS YARDS/RECEPTION YARDS/TARGET YARDS/ROUTE 2019 48 34 341 7 10 7.1 1.22 2020 19 14 205 3 14.6 10.8 2.09 This raises the question of what the Texans do once Akins returns. Will the gap in playing time between the two be as wide as it was before Akins’ injury? Will Fells remain the top tight end? Houston is one of the league leaders in 12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TEs), using it 24.9 percent of the time, the NFL’s sixth-highest rate. So no matter how the depth chart shakes out, there should be plenty of snaps for both of them.
Even with playoffs out of reach, Crennel not focused on the future Rookie defensive lineman Ross Blacklock played a season-high 32 percent of defensive snaps against the Titans and logged one tackle for loss. But the Texans’ other first-year players who were active, edge defender Jon Greenard and slot corner John Reid, only appeared on special teams, continuing a trend of the Texans getting little out of their rookies. Houston ranks second-to-last in rookie snaps, ahead of Arizona by just one, and the Texans are the only team yet to have a rookie play on offense. Receiver Isaiah Coulter recently began practicing but has yet to return from IR, and offensive tackle Charlie Heck hasn’t been active for a game. In fairness to the Texans, their five-man 2020 draft class limits how high they could rank in terms of total rookie snaps, even in the best-case scenario — but this is far from that. Rookies around the league have shown it’s possible to contribute right away this year, and six weeks into the season, the lack of an offseason program becomes less of an excuse for why the Texans aren’t getting production out of these players. With the playoffs no longer a realistic goal, some teams in this scenario would look to give more reps to young players, in order to aid in their development. But Crennel indicated that won’t be the case, so don’t expect to see much of the rookies, or second-year pro Max Scharping back on the field at left guard. “The objective is to try to win as many games as we can win,” Crennel said. “Generally, you win with whoever you consider to be your best players. Now, I know that there are young players on the roster and people want to see what they can do, but a lot of times young players are still developing. When they are still developing, they are trying, but they make mistakes.”
Exactly what is Watson's elite skill set? As of right now this thread should be renamed Deshaun the Average.
Yeah let's breakdown average. For every QB in the NFL that has attempted over 100 passes. The averages are: Pass Yds: 1401 Yds/Att: 7 Att: 188 Cmp: 124 Cmp %: 66% TD: 9.6 INT: 4.1 Rate: 96 1st: 71 1st%: 37.5% 20+: 17 40+: 2.9 Lng: 59 Sck: 11.4 SckY: 75 Deshaun is Pass Yds: 1786 Yds/Att: 8.9 Att: 200 Cmp: 137 Cmp %: 69% TD: 13 INT: 5 Rate: 108 1st: 85 1st%: 42.5% 20+: 27 40+: 3 Lng: 53 Sck: 19 SckY: 93 Interceptions aren't great, getting sacked a ton. What else is "average"?
The only problem I have with this statement is, you aren’t elite if you need elite players to make you elite. Elite QBs make marginal receivers better, they make marginal Olinemen better. Past couple weeks he’s looked a lot better than earlier, hope it continues.
Don’t waste your time on troll. Deshaun doesn’t look a certain way so he will always have something negative to say about him.
