Whoops. I meant that it was a given that our season depends on Schaub's health, in response to hsf09. Not that it's a given that Schaub will stay healhty.
Perhaps I'm totally off base, but it seems to me that the Texans really lacks depth. And as a result, they get affected by injuries/player-regression more than any other good team in the league. And the problem in the NFL is that you can't be 1-deep at your positions, because injuries are more a fact of life rather than fluke occurrences. In the sense that although we can't say whether Schaub or anyone else will have an injury, but there's a good chance a few of our starters will miss games over the course of the season. I made a semi-pessimistic 7-9 record prediction. But if our core guys are healthy for 15-16 games, I can see them go 10-6 and grab a wild card. To me, luck is almost paramount to our success this season.
The only position I don't see them having much depth in is CB and QB. Outside of Quin, Jackson, and McCain, I don't trust anyone and Dan O is among the worst backups in the league. At safety, I feel fine with Nolan playing well. The linebackers are solid in Adibi, Sharpton, and Bently. The WRs and TEs are probably the deepest in the NFL.
In general. I don't know enough about the NFL to actually rate every team's depth chart. But almost all teams lose players to injuries over the course of the season. But good teams overcome these injuries. Either through having a good system where players are more replaceable, or having good depth. But the Texans seems to need everything clicking on all cylinders, or they sink to mediocrity.
Are you the JCDenton of the texans? having all the statistics and all the graphics to say your point of view?
Nevermind. It seems I'm speaking in a different language from everyone else. Let's just put it this way. Unless Schaub goes down with a season-ending injury early, I don't want the Texans to use the injury excuse no matter their record, no matter who gets hurt.
We cant lose AJ or Mario either, imo.. We need all of our players for a serious superbowl run. That includes Cush, Demeco, OD, Foster, and Pollard. We're paper-thin at CB so we basically can't lose anyone
I hate this logic. Being a "better team" doesn't necessarily lead to a better record. You can be a better team than you were the year before and end up losing MORE games. Other teams made draft picks as well. Other teams cut players as well. Other teams signed free agents as well. The schedules change. Luck can change. Etc, etc, etc.
The 790 guys aren't too optimistic about the season apparently. Matt has us at 8-8 and Adam has us at 9-7.
That depends on how you look at it I guess. If you look at it like "This team had to stage a great end of the season just to finish 9-7 last year with the easiest schedule in football, made almost no changes to their roster, will be missing one of their best players for 4 games, STILL doesn't know whether they have an answer at RB, STILL doesn't have a pass rush, and has MAJOR questions in the secondary and now has substituted the easiest schedule for the hardest schedule in 25 years but you know what? I think they can still go 9-7 again!" I'd say that sounds optimistic.
Depth: We're stocked a TE, easily. And if Casey and Walter continue to develop as situational in-motion blocking backs, FB is covered by extension. We're pretty good at guard, but we'd be scrambling with makeshift solutions if we suffer injuries to the offensive tackles or Chris Myers. RB is a big question mark until Foster demonstrates that he can carry the full time load, Ward can be effective in short yardage situations, and/or Slaton has washed the grease off his hands. The dropoff between Schaub and his backups is serious. Ditto with AJ, Mario, Ryans, and Cushing. We can shuffle between CBs, D-tackles, and slot receivers fair enough. An injury to Pollard or Wilson would be disastrous. The backend of our secondary is already suspect in coverage, trotting out Barber or Nolan would be a killer. Apparently, she does, but they are guarded classified documents not to be displayed in a public forum. They're like Morey's high evolutionary stats. I absolutely think too many folks are overlooking this. I'm sure another year together with the same nucleus will improve things, but they botched a wide open opportunity to make the playoffs last year. The hill is steeper this season. Still very possible, but intangibles need to be there that were absent last year. Are they going to have a steeled mindset that wasn't seen last year to overcome the schedule and Cushing's suspension? Did Kubiak catch a good seminar on employee motivation?
Forget motivation, I hope he went to a "clock management" seminar. More than once. I think the Texans can make the playoffs, but idea that they were 9-7 last year and now they are another year better is kind of silly to me. Every single team in the NFL has now had another year of growth together since the start of last season. The Texans are a bubble team. Their season will hinge on a few bounces here and there, smart (or stupid) clock management, challenges that break their way and some luck in the turnover department.
Agree completely. The biggest mistake the Texans made in franchise history was sitting on their hands after the 7-9 year in 2004. They had almost zero free agent activity - actually let a couple of solid defensive veterans go - and didn't move around in the draft. The thought was that 7-9 was a base line, and that with Carr/Davis/Johnson, they would magically "grow". Of course, while they stagnated, other teams got better, and 7-9 turned into the 2-14 disaster. I don't think that will happen this year by any stretch of the imagination, of course. Just pointing out a recent example of the faulty logic of assuming the prior year as a base line.
