Reeves was pretty much a running joke, and his replacement (Quin) actually did perform up-to, if not over, Reeves' level. (which ain't much, but hey) Robinson's replacement, not so much. Bulman and Zgonina did contribute, but I forgot Bulman was injured, not released. So yeah, Zgonina's replacements didn't really show up much (Mitchell and Lewis). This was a bad year for our DL in terms of injuries, for sure. I don't think the parallel is all that strong between 05 and 10, seemed like in 05 we cut ties with at least 5-6 aging vets that had impact roles on D.
I'm not really convinced of that. It seemed that the last-minute guys they signed after Barwin went down contributed significantly. If Zgonina was that important, then we were in more trouble than we realize. Question: did he retire, or did the Texans say peace-out?
Reeves was mediocre, imo. He was a "joke" because of his frustrating inability to make a play on the ball and turn his head, but he regularly stayed stride for stride with defenders and at least made some form of a challenge. Advanced metrics that I saw generally put him around 50 or so in NFL CBs. Compare that with this year's No. 2 corner (Kareem), and you're kidding yourself if you don't see a decline. Quin wasn't completely awful, but as a No. 1, I think he was worse than Dunta. So you're looking at a decline at both your No. 1 and No. 2 corner spots, with less experience to boot. Other than quarterback, CB is the one position that generally has the steepest learning curve in the league. Even the Asomugha's of the league took until their third season to truly "break out". And Rick Smith thought it was a bright idea for the top four on the CB depth chart entering camp to all be first- and second-year players. Mind-boggling. I don't know about the overall volume of transactions in 2010 compared with 2005, but the general theme of undervaluing experience and overvaluing "development from within" was the same, imo.
To follow up on the above post, I actually think Reeves would have made a good mentor for Jackson. The one thing Kareem indisputably has is ball skills and an ability to tackle. His struggles come in man-to-man coverage, specifically with his footwork and his recognition of angles and routes. Those are exactly the things Reeves was good at. That said, after the debacle of the Schobel negotiations, I wonder how much of the Texans' emphasis on "youth" in situations like those is essentially a cover for McNair being cheap.
Let's try to remember who they ditched on defense in 2005... Aaron Glenn (replaced with Phillip Buccannon lmfao) Jamie Sharper (replaced with Morlon Greenwood rofl) Marlon McCree (replaced with CC Brown lmao) Jay Foreman (replaced with Antawn Peek lol) Lost to injury in 2005: Gary Walker Kailee Wong Marcus Coleman What a horrible, horrible year that was.
