Are you in the first? Dude. A prediction. That's what it was. A guess based on limited information. As long as you don't bet your salary on it, you should probably just move on. Oh OK. Please start a new thread when people on a message board are now authorized by Ric to have concerns. I believe Wade will get as much out of Mario as he can. If he can't play LB, which is my concern right now due to his lack of lateral quickness and speed, then he is not going to be worth the money it would take to keep him. Hence my prediction. I can't believe you are commenting on something that might happen after that meaningless game that tells us absolutely nothing about anything! Someone page Ric to ride in and stop this madman from suggesting anything that might happen based on things he's witnessing!
You lose LB depth when you do that, but unless something changes in the next 6 weeks, I'd bet that's the starting line-up in Week 4. Antonio Smith will still get a lot of reps, but Mario will start over him.
Wade is just fooling everyone. Once the season starts, you'll see mario come over to the line from his linebacker position and just put his hand down, similar to what a lot of hybrids do.
I don't mean to be an ass to you Ric, really I don't. Do you not see how your reaction in this thread makes it hard to think of you as anything less than a Texans apologist? Nobody is crucifying anyone here. We are commenting based on what we have seen so far, and with the (constant) exception of Hillboy no one has used silly hyperbole or knocked the coaching staff (I don't even think your boy Kubes has gotten criticized!) etc. Yet here you are with your long responses chastising us. Again.
Agreed. Wade is not a fool, he's not going to leave one of our most gifted players playing a position where he can't be effective. That'd be like sticking our rookie of the year OLB at the inside spot with very little practice. They'll figure out what to do with Mario.
So now anyone who has concerns about a player's physical abilities isn't even "half-rational?" Just shut the internet down folks. People can't have concerns on the internet!
No, I meant it differently. Ric typically overreacts to many things in a Texans game thread or offseason thread.
yeah, ric's just overreacting to everyone else's overreactions. he's the ultimate devil's avocado...i think if this board wanted to anoint mario as the next bruce smith after 5 running plays last night, he'd be arguing against that.
One other random observation/question: Can a player learn to tackle at 24 years old? Shiloh Keo seemed to have really good instincts and great game speed, but his tackling attempts were flat-out awful. McElroy shrugging him off was comical.
Oh my God, the last three pages read of such knee-jerk pessimism that you guys seem like Browns fans. Jesus H, I couldn't read them. Look, Mario hasn't had enough time in the system, first of all. He was thinking too much, which is fine. I'm sure Wade Phillips (you know, the one that matters when it comes to evaluating Mario's performance) isn't that put off by what he saw last night. The thing I saw that I didn't like about Mario's play was that he seemed to be going about 75% when he was 5 -10 yards away from the play. I'm positive that will change in the season. The problem is, that could get you hurt. I won't judge him a failure until maybe like week 4. That is, if he still looks completely lost. Something tells me he won't. As far as the play in question a page or two ago: I don't know if I have the right play, but I think I do. Are we referring to the play where Mario got upfield, and contained the running play to the INSIDE of him (which, I'm pretty sure has been stated is his job). It's been said that in this system, Mario's position is taught to get upfield most of the time. That's what he did on that play. Mario turned that play inside, kept it between the hashes, but there was nobody there (MLB, Nose) to stop the play. My biggest concern of the play was that Mario didn't persue. But it's preseason. Like others have said, it's just the preseason. We've been practicing for two weeks. Our defense looked pretty good for two weeks. These games don't really matter that much, and that the players that are starters, and have no way of losing there spot on the team, simply don't have to care. Not that that's right, it's just the way it is. The idea that was proposed of adding 20 pounds to Mario and playing him at the nose is very intriguing, though....
I think most people know I am quite a Texans skeptic, but even I don't understand the immediate dismissal of Mario ever being a competent linebacker. It was a few plays in a preseason game
i've seen mario play here for how many seasons. he can't even master standard de moves. he has no spin move to speak of. if he can't master those moves, i had and have no hope for him becoming a competent linebacker.
You know, I agree. He has underwhelmed me from the get go. He looks amazing, like he could toss offensive lineman in all directions like King Kong, but he just can't seem to get untracked. I just don't see the All Pro thing, never have. I think he gets hyped because of the way he looks more than the way he plays. I wish him the best, I want him to be great, but something is missing, like a motor.
It doesn’t bother me. Really. Hate away. I love the sanctimony. It’s awesome. I guess my constant apologizing is obscuring your ability to see your own constant negativity? Surely you don’t mean to imply you’re more objective? Or objective at all? And no one is apologizing, justtxyank. It’s one preseason game on the backend of a shortened offseason. Asking people to give it a little more time is apologizing? Chastising? Again, I would argue your blinding negativity and/or bias is preventing you from properly filtering my comments. Note: I’m not *defending* Mario’s play. I’m merely wondering if a quarter of preseason football is enough to guage what is a monumental change that occurred during a lock-out impact offseason. If that’s unreasonable… I don’t know what to tell ya. Seems pretty grounded and fair, to me.
That's part of the problem, though - few, if any, would *ever* argue Mario is the next Bruce Smith because they too long ago made up their minds about him, this owner, the Kubiak regime, etc. I mean, he's literally been playing the position for less than two weeks. I refuse to accept that I'm the one even remotely overreacting here...
Yes, it's way too early to judge Mario's move to OLB. I've never been on board with the change myself, but I'm willing to give it more than a few weeks before I decide it's a failure. But if this experiment ultimately fails, I wonder how he would perform as a DE in Wade's 3-4. Wasn't that the original plan? And isn't that the same position Bruce Smith played?
