[@EvanSilva] - "Good team with arrow pointing down = #Texans

I seem to agree as long as Schaub is our QB, I can't see a bright future...but I am still hopeful this team will be better this year at least

 

Meh, he could be right.

But it's always easier to gamble on a team's failure than its success.

 

need to get hot at the right moment.

they failed to do that at the end of last season

 

BS. Our core is on Defense. Watt, Cush, Kareem, Hopkins (unproven but highly talented), Brown are all young, foundation players.

Sure we'll need a new QB. Running backs are easy to plug into the system and WR was addressed hopefully in Hopkins.

 

I assume he is reacting to the news that Ed Reed hints he may miss regular season games:

http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2013/06/ed-reed-doesnt-close-the-door-on-missing-games/

 

This reeks of shallow, QB-driven analysis. What exactly needs an overhaul, besides possibly the QB situation?

The closest thing to it was WR, and we just addressed it with a first-round pick on a guy that many had as a top 10 talent. Other than that? The OL is being overhauled as we speak. See Brandon Brooks at RG and the Williams pick at RT. Brown and Myers still well within their primes and among the best in the game at their positions.

DL? Watt is entering his third year, Mitchell his fourth. LB? Cushing, Mercilus and Reed are all within their first four years. Secondary? Joseph is in his prime and Jackson is still very young. Ed Reed is old, but that's why they drafted a safety in the second round to groom. Rick Smith has done an excellent job, in my opinion, of building depth and putting the team in position to contend for a long time.

All that said, QB is a valid question and I certainly have my doubts about Matt. But if he's not the guy, then the process can start very soon on finding the next one. And it's not as if switching QBs means a lengthy rebuild -- just ask San Francisco, Seattle, Cincinnati, etc. I can see having concerns about the Schaub-led Texans, but to spin it into the team as a whole being over the hill and needing an overhaul is drama queen stuff. Silva is usually better than that.

 

Meh.

We'll see where there arrow is pointing once they finish game one against SD.

I think it'll be a good game 1 test and show where we're at, I believe SD will be much improved on offense and defense.

 

I still think last year's late season swoon had more to do with defensive injuries finally catching up with us than it did with Schaub all the sudden becoming a liability.

I know he's no Joe Montana, but blaming all the team's problems on the QB just seems so pedestrian to me. Such a cop out.

 

The right side of the OL struggling was an understated problem. Arian's YPC was pretty horrid last year. I don't consider that a coincidence either. The playaction evaporated, the defense started to fall apart, and that was all she wrote.

 

I think the Texans signed him knowing full well he might not be ready for the start of the season. He was signed as a weapon for week 8 and beyond.

 

it was never all of a sudden, hes always been a liability. people get caught up in the numbers he put up playing meaningless football for years. now that the team was good enough to contend, schaubs weaknesses are glaring..

 

our division is so weak it only produced 2 playoff teams...

 

Football is a short season, every game is meaningful.

The biggest difference from when he put up "numbers" to the end of last season was the team around him. 2010 team had dynamic offensive line and peak Foster. 2011 team had dynamic offensive line, peak Foster and outstanding defense. By the end of 2012, half the OL was in shambles, Foster wasn't the same (probably related to OL issue), and the defense was inconsistent and often picked apart deep.

None of this is to excuse Schaub... a better QB could lift his team in spite of some of those issues. But he is who he is. If the rest of the team can get back to 2011 form, they'll have a shot to contend with Schaub. We'll see.

 

I'm not sure how the playoff run will go but we will roll the AFC South.

Colts will take a step back to 8-8, the Titans might win 7 or 8 and the Jags 4-5

 

May be QB drive... but may also still be true. QB is the most important piece, by a mile.

Also, the defense wasn't "great" as the season wore on, and Ed Reed was supposed to be a big pickup. Sure, you'd rather have him healthy for teh final 8 games + playoffs than the start of the season, but as a fan you hope they are healthy the whole season and at the top of their game come playoff time.

And he noted the RB is overworked. And he is. It's nice to say this is a plug and play RB system, but it didn't seem so plug and play before Arian exploded.

Weak was probably strong, but it is top heavy. Not sure there's another division whose bottom two teams I'd rather play. Of course, this is the NFL, so the Titans and Jags are probably going to be 10 win teams this year!

He failed to capitalize on a 94 yard kickoff return to open the game by missing wide open receivers. That's jitters. He threw a ball away on a scramble when he had a good 5 seconds to extend a play because he was scared of getting hit... that's jitters.

I don't disagree that they have a shot, but I think the rotoworld analyst is just pointing out the obvious... Schaub is generally a game manager who isn't going to lift his team to victory against the other elite squads.

 

Definitely. I refuse to believe Flacco is THAT much better than Schaub. The difference? He (and the team) got hot at the right time... same for the Giant's SB runs. SB-capable level of talent which coalesced and peaked at the right time.

The team talent is there, so if we can stay healthy and have a little mojo going into the playoffs, we have just as good a chance as anyone at winning a chip this year. ALOT of things have to break your way to win a SB. Just ask Manning and Brady (post early-2000's).

 

Steve Slaton had an insanely good year before his neck problems cropped up. Ben Tate has looked tremendous in stretches. Foster's durability is a huge plus, and I'm sure the team loves the consistency of one back, but it's not as if other players haven't had success. Kubiak and his crew understand what they're looking for and can reload that position when needed.

As for the defense, the problems generally came after the team lost what everyone believed to be its MVP heading into the year. Reed will help, but it's the return of Cushing that is most important. And he's still pretty young, by the way.

Is QB the most important piece? Absolutely. But I don't think moving on from Matt Schaub justifies the "overhaul" talk. That's the language you use when a team is coming apart at the seams and badly needs an infusion of young talent. The Texans have plenty of it at most positions. Is it enough to offset the limitations of the QB? Maybe, maybe not, but if it isn't, then turn the page to a new QB in a year or two and the beat goes on. Seattle, San Francisco and Cincinnati have all had immediate success after a QB switch, and none even had to invest a first-round pick!

Silva has a few defensible points on a case-by-case basis, but the problem is that he's trying to make it a broader issue than it is. The team as a whole is in good shape.

 

Huh? He missed a wide-open receiver once after the KO return... the play after James Casey dropped a TD that hit him in the hands. So if you're going to play "what if" on the former, you should do it for the latter as well.

No doubt Schaub is a game manager, and I've done my share of b****ing about him. But guys of that level have won Super Bowls. Having a guy like that behind center doesn't by itself lead to the team "arrow pointing down", "needs overhaul soon", etc. Not without context. And the case he made isn't very thorough.