I disagree because that is rationalization at best and just plain wishful thinking at worse. From everything we've read and been told, the QB position is supposed to be the most important position on a team. Now that appears to be true everywhere else in the NFL except here where we are being told that is not the case. Only in Houston can one expect the play at the QB position to be nonconsequental to the overall success of the team. Now it would be a different matter if they had a defense on the level of the old Steel Curtain or even that of the Baltimore Ravens when they won the Super Bowl but they don't so that, I suppose, is that.
I'm with you here. People will cite examples where it's not the case...but they're examples where teams have over-the-top great defenses.
Who is to say that building the team around a great defense isn't the Texans long term plan? Did you notice that the first 2 picks (including the #1 overall) last year were defensive players? I know, I know...it's the Texans and they're going to suck forever.
we weren't talking in the context of long-term plans. someone mentioned being able to turn it around in one season. every team plans on building a great defense. it's not like there are teams out there saying, "we really don't need good defense. we're fine giving up lots of points." that may be their long-term plan. i think people are losing patience. wait..i know people are losing patience.
All I'm saying is that I don't buy into hillboy's doomsday scenario if the Texans don't figure out the QB problem THIS YEAR. We're not going to be a "contender" this year no matter who is or who isn't taking snaps from center. And I disagree with the belief that you can't win without a great QB. Does that mean I want Carr back this year? Um.....no. I just get tired of all the hyperbole in this forum about how the Texans will NEVER recover from their boneheaded decision to extend Carr. It's silly. I'm impatient too, but what kind of season did you expect a year after going 2-14??
I don't think they missed on any of their draft picks. Whatever the excuse from '05 they had a turn-a-round to point to, and the Texans need to aspire to match it.
This drives me crazy- "We're going to suck next year anyways so who cares...." You're going to suck forever if you don't change this way of thinking
It's not that. There are so many other positions we can and need focus on. We have more opportunites to makes improvements there right now. The QB isn't our only problem. Do what you can now, and go back to the other later. Kind of like taking the SAT...
1. it's a lot easier to win WITH great QB than it is to win without one. but i'm not asking for great, even...not at this point. i'm asking for better than David Carr. someone who doesn't typically trip a couple of times a game, throw into quadruple coverage or fumble like he doesn't want the ball. 2. i'm not saying they'll NEVER recover. but you threw out your response in the midst of a discussion about them turning it around "in one year." 3. my point is i'm tired of the argument that says, "eh..we can keep Carr. it doesn't really matter." and then cites a host of reasons like, "we won't be good anyway" or "teams like the 2000 Ravens or the 2006 Bears showed us we can win with a marginal QB." Those teams depth in other areas so far surpassed anything the Texans have right now that it's not even relevant.
I didn't say we're going to suck next year. Hell, I'm one of the few weirdos on this board who didn't think we sucked LAST year. But I will go out on a limb and say that we're probably not going to be anybody's preseason pick for the SB. Just being realistic, man.
I'm with you here, but who else is out there now? I wish we could go back in time and pick Leinart or Cutler instead of Mario, but we can't. Would you be happy if we picked a QB like Kolb in the 2nd or 3rd round? I would. I hope we do. I know you didn't but there are several people here who subscribe to this belief. And I wasn't responding to any of the "turn it around in one year" posts. I'm saying that we shouldn't get rid of Carr THIS YEAR if there isn't a better option out there THIS YEAR. Believe me, I lost faith in Carr last year and I acknowledge that my belief that Kubiak could turn him around was WRONG. If we have to pay the guy, why not at least leave him on the roster? Let him try to earn the job (for the first time in his career) during camp. If he sucks as bad has people think he does, Sage will beat him out. To be clear, my ideal scenario would be to draft a QB this year in round 2 or 3 and let Kubiak teach him from from the get-go instead of after 5 years of sucktitude like with Carr. Frankly, I wouldn't mind going to war next year with Sage starting and a rookie holding the clipboard.
I must be losing my mind, because I agree with everything Richard Justice just said: http://blogs.chron.com/sportsjustice/archives/2007/03/the_texans_know.html Texans have funny rules. HBO nails Andre Johnson, too. I'll give the Texans credit for concealing their off-season blueprint. That is, if they have one. At some point, I'm assuming the pieces will start fitting together, and one day we'll all look at the plan and say: ''Oh, now I get it.'' Right now I don't get it. Maybe the plan all along has been for Sage Rosenfels to be the quarterback next season. Or maybe the plan is for David Carr to return. Maybe they're just trying to scare Carr, hoping this tactic will work after all the others (coaching, screaming, pleading) didn't. In hindsight, it's clear they had very little interest in either Jeff Garcia or Jake Plummer. They made no more than a halfhearted attempt to get either one of them. Now, John McClain is reporting they'll use the eighth pick in the draft on Brady Quinn if he's available. But, McClain reports, they won't surrender a draft pick to move up to get him. This makes no sense. I've covered the NFL on and off for almost 30 years, and I've never heard of such a thing. No competent front office makes that kind of hard and fast rule. If they're that inflexible, they're not nearly as smart as I've given them credit for being. This kind of thing is a reminder than Gary Kubiak and Rick Smith are out from under the big shadow of Mike Shanahan for the first time, and it may take them awhile to figure out what they're doing. This is where the owner, Bob McNair, is supposed to step in and challenge his people, make sure they've thought through their decisions. McNair doesn't seem to be very good at this. He was far too late in challenging Charley Casserly (a lot of the rest of us were just as guilty of figuring out Casserly too late). At the moment, the Texans seem to be reacting rather than acting. Their one impact move was overpaying for a 30-year-old running back, Ahman Green. And then again, maybe they do have a blueprint, and it's just hard for those of us outside the walls to understand it. Yes, draft picks are valuable currency in the NFL of 2007. Yes, the only way to succeed is to make good decisions on draft day. To pass on a quarterback to save an extra draft pick is wrong. If the Texans think Brady Quinn is worth using the eighth pick on, that means they think he's got a chance to be a difference-maker. In other words, they think he might fill their largest hole. If they're right about him, they could surrender multiple picks and still get a good deal. Yet the Texans are saying they don't really want Quinn very badly, either. Based on the latest mock drafts, he'll go anywhere from second (Detroit) to seventh (Minnesota). He seems to have slid up and down the mock draft boards more than any other of the top players, and it now seems he won't be there when the Texans pick eighth. There could be someone else they like almost as much in the second or third rounds. Maybe it's all a smoke screen with Brady Quinn anyway. All these other moves are fine, but quarterback is the most important position and the most significant thing they'll do this off-season. They're not going to the playoffs until they get a productive player are that position. Maybe they'll get it figured out. Maybe they wanted Rosenfels all along. Until the picture becomes clearer, it's impossible to know what they plan to do. Let's hope there is a plan.
In all Fairness to Quinn, I thought he did admirably considering he only had 1 WR and a piss poor OL at ND. An he did drop 2 tds on LSU which in the Sugar Bowl. That in itself is more than anything Carr has or will do. I mean do you honestly think Carr (present or past) could do what Quinn did with the Domers??? But I'm still of the opinion that we go all D with the first 2 picks. Might as well help the one side of the football that's respectable.
Indeed, if anything can be gleamed from what we've seen so far, that appears to their long-term plan: put together a superior defense and assemble a pedestrian offense that doesn't get in the way and screw things up. If you were to take that scenario, then it would make some sense that your QB just be another guy named Herb who is not asked to make plays or win games for you. The problem with that approach is that your team plays in the AFC which is loaded with teams playing quality QBs who don't share that philosophy. I honestly don't know how this will work out for the Texans in that sort of competative environment.
While I admit that my expectations aren't all sunshine and roses, they certainly shouldn't be categorized as "doomsday" either. In essence, all I'm saying is that given their current situation, particularly at QB, I simply don't expect some sort of miraculous turnaround anytime soon from this franchise. Usually when that is the case as it was for New Orleans, there were extenuating circumstances that caused that team to be down. In the case of the Texans, they have a bad record because they are a bad team. Bad teams are bad because they lack the talent to compete on both sides of the football. They have so many holes to fill that one or two drafts or modest FA signings won't be enough to plug all of the holes. The team needs to be reconstituted from top to bottom and this has to be done while trying to put a competative product on the field in order to attract the football fans of Houston. Now that is one tough nut to crack and I wish Kubiak & Co all the luck in the world as they try to get the job done. As for the issue of winning without a great QB, yes it can done provided the other components of your team are dominant like the defenses I mentioned above. But it takes time, smarts and a little luck to pull that off and I don't think they (Texans) have that time given the rapidly dwindling patience amongst the Houston football nation. Even so, that still does not solve their QB issues which now look to be with them for some time. Please show me where I ever said that they will NEVER recover from their Carr decision. Whenever I've engaged in hyperbole, it's been tongue-in-cheek so to speak. I do expect that in time, they will eventually get things right at the QB spot - I just don't forsee that happening for several years. As for expectations on their season record, I expect them to continue to hover around 8-8 for at least 2 more years which to me, is lightyears better than 2-14. As long as I can see demonstrable progress, I am OK with what's being done.
