oh, yeah - you mean the guy using the NE patriots as the standard by which to measure the texans? yeah, fair indeed... first of all, i'll retierate - it's nice, yes; and does speak to an organization's... well, organization, but it ultimately guarantees nothing. and i think it's a little too easy (lazy) to sit back and crticize a team for not making a trade on draft day, as if there's some easy formula to follow to make it happen. additionally, neither smith or kubiak created this mess and have worked well within it. what can they do? when they hired kubiak, i said he was essentially taking over something akin to a losing college program that had just been slapped with probabtion. should we assume smith and kubiak will dig us out of the ditch? no. but they're off to a good start. you want to have your cake and eat it, too - rip the team for past transgressions (rightly so), and then hold the new regime responsible for it (by making declarative statements about their likely continued struggles). but the situation isn't dire, by any means - dead money? last year, they carried $25+M in dead money; as of right now, they're on the hook for $4.6M this year (carr and davis/williams). even carrying the $25M, they still had $10M to work with, were able to resign many key components from last year AND land a decent crop of FAs. draft-wise, right now, you can certainly question the wisdom of dealing two 2s for schaub, but if he pans out, it'll be more than worth it.
I think thats the truth... he is a beast and could be a monster this year. With Okoye, that line could be scary. I certainly hope so
Since we're playing "what if", let's say what if Kubiak had drafted a QB with the 2006 no. 1 pick. Thus they don't need to swap no. 1s with Atlanta and give them this year's no. 2 to get Schaub. Now, with that 8th pick, they have their choice of Okoye or Jamaal Anderson. Then, with their 2nd round pick, they pick up Justin Blalock OG from UT who can play tackle. Now let's say that Spencer does come back completely healed. You now have now upgraded your O-line with two solid young tackles and you still got to pick up that stud D Lineman. What would you think of their draft then?
Now, now don't be a hater...We should always be receptive to the opinions of others. Yeah. You are right about this one. I also noticed that Lopez did a lot of the same yesterday in his widely reviled article. As for making a trade, if Cleveland really did call and they could have made the same deal that Dallas did, then they may have made a huge mistake in not doing the deal. Course only time will tell if this is indeed the case. Again, we are in agreement here. About the only thing that gives me pause about Kubiak is his passing on one of the QBs last year because that set into motion the chain of events that led to their having to to make the trade with Atlanta to get the QB they should have taken last year but as you say, that's all water under the bridge now. Although, I find it amusing to see more and more of the blame being heaped on PrettyDavid as time goes by but that's the way it always is I suppose. I expect them to struggle and struggle mightily until they are able to get better players in here. That is reality. As I said, to me this team is still a bad team and bad teams lose lots of games because they lack the horses to compete. Agree but we both differ on the quality of the free agents. I suppose they are better but am not too sure just how much better so I have decided to wait and see how they perform on the field. As I explained above, I did not like this move all that much because I felt that while it was necessary to get a new QB, that could have been done last year. Hey what can I say? Bad teams don't suddenly get good overnight. When I see them performing well on the field, I'll be certain to give Regime #2 all the credit they deserve because they will have earned it. Again, I considered Williams to be a legitimate first round pick. On this we both agree. I just don't feel he should have been the overall no. 1 pick primarily due to the fact that we keep having to say "IF" every time we speak about his ability to produce. In my book, that makes him somewhat of a project or developmental player and not an impact player. When you draft a player that high and you are in the situation the Texans were, it was imperative that this pick yield them an impact player and not one who might become one in time.
Uh, no. Dropping out of the first round for a first rounder the next year as a team picking in the mid-20s is one thing. Not for a team drafting #10. That would have been a terrible, terrible move.
i've read this elsewhere, and fail to see the logic behind it. why would you give up your reservation in this year's first round (#10) for a TBD slot in next year's first round? so you can pick up a second round pick? because you're going to find a better player at #36 this year than #10? and that process has started, and that's why many of us are choosing to embrace the positive. in one year, they've added more keepers, potential and depth than they've ever had in their prior five years. actually, they do - quite often. the 2nd worst team in football in 2005 (based on record) made their conference championship game last year; the fourth worst team that year made the playoffs last year and the 3rd, 5th and 6th worst teams went a combined 23-25 after going 12-36 the year before. many of those team benefited from injured stars returning (saints and jets), big free agent signings panning out (saints, again), easier schedules (jets), a string of nearly unthinkable good fortune (tennessee)... you have to be good AND lucky in football; it's not always about looking up and down a roster. i think it's becoming harder and harder for rookies to step onto an NFL field and dominate like, say, an earl campbell did back in the day. the leap from college to pro has gotten wider - the nfl players are bigger, stronger and faster than they've ever been. even the much-heralded young's and bush's of the world struggled mightily last year. the rookies who seem to have the greatest initial impact are guys going later in rounds to better teams (rothelisberger; maroney; addai). so i'll grant williams some space. even baby VY has quite a few "IFs" attached to his game. i genuinely believe mario was playing hurt; i think he struggled with below-average teammates around him, and, yes, he was no longer the biggest, fastest player on the field.
The way I see it, we didn't lose our 2nd round pick. We used it to pick a QB. A highly touted and sought after QB with NFL experience, as opposed to a rookie who has never set foot on an NFL field. If you look at it that way, I think we had a pretty good draft.
The Texans are the #1 Loser on NFLDraftCountdown. http://www.nfldraftcountdown.com/results/winlose.html
bite your tongue: "Obviously it is still very early and probably a bit unfair to declare teams "winners" and "losers" right after the draft, but oh well." that, my friend, is the very definition of in-depth and detailed. also, insightful and scintilating. somewhere, richard justice is jealous.
It was Astro-related. Said that the players are "cynical" with the reporters, don't really tell them anything, hard to get information. Wonder why? Also said that he has no relationship with Garner, doesn't get much from him. Again, wonder why? Couldn't have anything to do with his proclivity to just make stuff up, could it?
i'm guessing garner nearly vomited after the "narrative play" justice wrote regarding a conversation they had. i wouldn't talk to him again, either.
NFL Network's Adam Schechter said that had the Dolphins not chosen Ted Ginn, the Texans (according to his sources) would have picked him up at # 10. The Jets had also called them about a trade to move up (just to get Darrelle Revis).
honestly, if this is true (and i have no reason to doubt it - i don't play for the astros and i hate the guy) - why is he still employed by the chronicle? what good is he? what advantage does he have over anyone here in this forum, for instance? i mean, if i were to tell you... just a totally random example here - our starting QB had alienated himself from the team and had lost their confidence... wouldn't we all call for his head? so why is the lead columnist in a newspaper any different? this, btw, is why mcclain has stuck around for so many years - he's essentially a mouthpiece for whatever organization he's covering - he sticks to the company line (see the # of times he suddenly started dropping bruce smith and reggie white references 'round this time last year) and doesn't ruffle a lot of feathers with his opinions because he's content to not rock the boat and keep doing what he's doing, which is making lot of money. justice is a poor man's jay marriotti, screaming as loud possible so bigger and better opportunities will come his way. he's a braying jackass.
