If we could pull a mid first rounder for DD, we'd have to do that deal in a heartbeat. Then if we get the #1 pick, trade it down for like the #4 or #5 pick and a later first round pick. Then we get a couple starting tackles plus another good pick in the first round to add another weapon. The two tackles are the key though. We gotta get 2 starting tackles out of this draft. The running back position can be shored up through the 2nd and 5th rounds and through free agency. I really can't see anybody giving us a mid first rounder for DD though. A third rounder....possibly. If we get the #1 pick, we've got to trade down with it ala San Diego with the Vick-LT,Brees trade. Brees was essentially a first rounder, the first pick of the second round.
How many "franchise left tackles" have the Patriots taken in the Draft while having won the Super Bowl 3 of the last 4 years? The Eagles? The Colts? Leonard Davis seems to really be anchoring that hearalded Cardinals line. The only "franchise left tackles" of recent memory taken at the top of the draft that I can think of are Pace, Ogden and Jones; and there are alot more teams with good offensive lines than the Rams, Ravens and Seahawks. This draft will be littered with solid offensive tackles and if the Texans are fortunate enough to draft Bush at the top, then a trade could be made to move up into the latter part of round one to snag a solid tackle.
they need everything. DD plays & runs hard; but he doesn't strike fear into the opponents. he's able to grind up yardage between the 20's because teams know that, ultimately, he can be contained. notice how, once they move into the red zone, DD is instantly neutralized? sanders - and i'm not comparing bush to sanders - but sanders always had subpar OLs in DET. payton did as well in CHI. hell, everyone in creation knew when and pretty much where earl campbell was going to carry the football. the key is that those players couldn't be stopped. they had an extra gear, an extra move, insane field vision, etc. they found holes, created holes, hit their marks, made people miss... like i said, DD plays and runs hard. but bush may very well be one of those elite backs who breaks games open, makes plays on his own, turns garbage into diamonds. drafting for need on a team with needs everywhere but WR and CB (and they only have one of each) is a big mistake. this team is too far away to be drafting for need. long way of saying i'd take bush in a heartbeat if you're convinced he's a gamebreaker.
I'd agree with you if you can ever be convinced that someone's a gamebreaker. A lot of people thought that Peter Warrick and Desmond Howard were going to be gamebreakers too. Barry Sanders may have played behind a crappy OL, but he also never won anything. Comparing Bush to either of those guys is way too premature, IMO. I think our OL's bad enough to where to are forced to take one with your first pick.
On any given year, an amazing college left tackle IS the best player in the draft. That is the ONLY proven high pick position in the history of the NFL that teams can actually BUILD a franchise on. I've seen three teams in just the last 10 years that have won consistently with multiple QB's, multiple WR's, and even multiple coaches... but the ONE constant in all those equations was a solid O-line (or just one stud tackle). Passing on Reggie Bush would not be the biggest mistake ever, especially if this team is in position to get a franchise LT. You look around the league, and there's a new stud fantasy WR, or RB every year... but you rarely see a LT all of a sudden "become" an amazing player... you're either born with it, or you're not. Orlando Pace is not going to fall into the Texans lap... neither is Tony Boselli, Jonathan Ogden, or even Bruce Matthews. They're going to have to draft there eventually... no matter who comes out any given year at the skillz positions... because it simply is not going to get better by having retreads like Wand, Wade, Pitts, McKinney, and Riley just shuffle in and out... hoping something works.
I could not disagree more with that statement. How many good offensive lines are out there without a "franchise" left tackle? "Franchise" meaning, top 5 selected left tackle. Off the top of my head, there's alot.
why are you convinced the LT is the next jonathan ogden? he could be the next tony mandarich. and what i mean is: the draft as a whole is a crapshoot. you will NEVER know. EVER. tom brady was, what, a 5th round pick? joe montana went in the third round! personally, i put my stock into what i see. GMs and coaches, IMO, get too cute; their egos get too big and they try to outthink and outsmart one another and good god, they've turned combine numbers into the gospel. maybe bush is a great college back and nothing more. but all i can tell you is the guy makes big plays with an alarming consistency and i'd rather fail taking a chance on him than some other guy who didn't produce in college at the same level as bush but had a great 40-time, or whatever. i feel the same way about lienart, btw. they can tell me all they want about his lack of strength, mobility - whatever. all i know is when USC has needed him to come through, he's done it each and every time on the biggest stage imaginable.
How many horrendous offensive lines are there on teams that will make the playoffs this year? Off my head, there's not a lot. The teams that have taken a LT in the top 5 aren't horrible because of the OL. We have the talent at the skill positions (is TE a skill position?) to be a good team. If we upgrade our OL, add a TE and 2nd WR, this is a playoff contending offense.
can the coaches, revamp the defense.... regardless, i disagree. i'm not even completely sold on AJ, though i think he's merely suffering from a lack of coaching. but it bothers me that he's so easily neutralized. DD will not be the team's starting RB when they finally hit the playoffs and the jury is still deliberating on carr. i think this team is light years away. reaching for a LT will set it back further. btw, to piggyback on my last post - if the LT in question is reggie bush good.... then yes, i'd go for the LT. but if he's merely the best LT - not the best player - and you pass on bush to get the LT, that, imo, is the mistake. but yes, all thing being equal, you take the LT... though i'd still hesitate to pass on bush. in fact, i live by that motto. have a bumper sticker.....
I want to go ahead and point out that I won't be too terribly disappointed if we take Bush (upon further reflection).
I agree. I'm not advocating ignoring the offesive line. I feel that with the deep talent at OT in this years draft, we could draft Bush at the top and move back into the latter part of the first or possibly stand still in the second to get a tackle.
Food for though: Think about Reggie Bush and DD in the backfield at the same time and motioning Reggie into the slot with Johnson and Mathis wide. Scary.
This is the kind of thinking that has Carr scrapng himself off the field every week. LT is one of the hardest positions to fill. It is very difficult if not impossible to obtain via free agency and most franchise LT's are gone by he top ten picks. Jonathan Wells who was a fourth round pick looked great out there as did Mathis as the line was great in run blocking yesterday. I understand the infatuation with the "gamechanger" that Reggie Bush is and I'm not bickering at you in particular gunn, but the Texans need to have that franchise LT in there. IMO, you have that LT in there after Hodgdon goes down and there is no shuffling of the line and there is no Seth Wand getting beat on that play.
You don't need a first overall selection tackle to keep your quarterback right side up. I can guarantee you that the Texans could move back into the first and grab a tackle that would be a nice player in this year's draft. And having the top selection in the second and an extra third rounder would go along way towards obtaining that.
With so many needs, why are you trading valuable second and third round picks for one player? I vehemently disagreed with the move that Casserly made for Babin and would srongly disagree with another move like that. The Texans need to keep all the extra picks in the second and third rounds because players who should have gone in the first usually slide into the second. With their current record the Texans would have a very high second rounder which is almost as good as a late first. The most pressing need for the Texans is LT. Davis is not Barry Sanders, but neither is Reggie Bush. Bush is amazing, but so was Ki-Jana Carter at Penn State and where is he at now? The Texans are no longer an expansion team, they need to draft for need not BPA. With a top two pick, the Texans could probably trade down in the top five and still secure a LT and have an extra first, second or third round pick. To trade away those picks (2nd and 3rd rounders) would be a mistake. You can find plenty of RB's later in the draft (Clinton Portis was a second rounder). But after five years of drafting and not making the OL your top priority the team has suffered and your offense has sputtered. Casserly's initial intention was to build a great OL with Boselli and Young as his bookend tackles and in didn't work out. Maybe its time to go back to that plan.
If there is a pass blocking LT still around with the top pick in the second then I'm all for using that pick on him. Trueblood may make a nice pick there. You don't pass on the concensus "best player in the country" to fill a hole on a team with so many needs. I'll take the "potential" to be dynamic over the "potential" to be good every day. You can draft a tackle first overall and hope to be good in a couple of years, or you can take Bush and find a pass blocking tackle later in the first or top second and hope to be unbelievable in a couple of years. I'll take the latter.
So if hypothetically the Texans take Bush this year and find themselves in this same quandry as next year and have the chance to take a franchise LT or Vince Young, who should they take? If VY is the consensus "best player in the country" then we should drop Carr and take VY instead because of his potential. I would rather take the franchise LT and look for another RB in the draft because LT are hard to come by and RB's come a dime a dozen. As impressive as Bush is, he probably wouldn't fare much beer than Davis behind he Texans' OL.
There will be a glut of OTs going off the board in the late 1st early 2nd round area because the position is so deep this year. We should be able to find a top notch RT in that spot with our 2nd round pick. As far as the LT position goes, I'm comfortable with Pitts playing LT. He plays that position much better than guard IMO. If Bush is there you should take him if the scouts think he is something speicial. Plus, he'll help sell tickets, and Bob McNair will like that.
That's purely hypothetical, I'll give you that. But I'll follow that up by saying that if the Texans draft Bush and use our second selection on a pass blocking tackle, we won't have that situation next year. The Texans have been fairly solid run blocking this year, and Reggie Bush can do things on a football field that DD can only dream about. Those 25-30 yard runs by Davis, could be 45-50 yard TD runs by Bush. Bush has another gear that 98% of the players in the NFL don't have.
