Official Texans Draft Thread and Poll

1. It's a 6th freaking rounder. You give up a draft pick like that to take a chance on a guy who likely would have been the first pick in the draft the year he came out.

2. The Green Bay Packers used to select QB's like this, despite having Favre. They groomed Brunnel and ended up getting much more value than the pick they spent on him when they traded him to J-Ville.

3. If you're going to take the best player available...you take the best player available.

4. This was a WEAK, WEAK, WEAK draft...about as thin as they come overall. Their opportunity cost on taking Ragone and Henson was quite small.

As some of the so-called experts said...the Texans had perhaps the best draft in the league...at least within the top 5. Don't cry over 6th round draft choices, fellas...it ain't worth it.

 

I got suckered into this thread thinking there'd be some pics.

 

The positives from this draft IMO:

1) Joppru and AJ should dramatically help the Texans make first downs. AJ on most of his catches will probably be first downs or close. Joppru should help on third and short with both his receiving (I like his hands) and blocking skills (I didn't pay attention to his blocking last year, but he's big and they say he can block well).

Along with the acquisition of Mack, the Texans could be one of the better short yardage teams next year. The Texans got a first on third down a quarter of the time last year.

2) Ragone should be an good backup for years to come, when we need him, as he will be groomed in system. Drafting a backup in two years will not help the Texans in three years.

3) 2nd and 4th rd pick next year are a big deal.

The negatives

1) Didn't feed the breadwinner. The defense was the non weakness last year and could have really used a big DE (either athletic DT or oversized end in college) to prevent oppsing offenses from grinding the defense.

The neutrals, imo:

1) A safety would have been nice, but I didn't think the Texans could fill every positional need without making reaches. Doss would have been nice, but getting a versatile TE wasn't a bad pick imo.

2) Wand and Peek will have to be seen for me to judge. Wand is going to be huge.

3) Henson. Has a lower probability of playing than 6th rounder has of making team and contributing, but has a higher probability of coming to NFL and producing well than 6th rounder.

There is an very outside chance a nonfrugal NFL team will trade for Henson and pay Steinbrener to change Henson's contract to allow him to play football. I don't think such a payment would count as cap in football.

 

I'm not endorsing Mel Kiper...but here's what he had to say about Henson:

But using a sixth-rounder to take a flier on Drew Henson, in hopes of dragging him away from the baseball diamond, was a sheer touch of genius. The investment is small, the pick was a supplemental one, and the Texans now get a year to see if they can lure Henson back to the gridiron, or trade him to a franchise that thinks it can.


http://sports.espn.go.com/nfldraft/columnist?id=1545469

 

The Texans will make the playoffs this upcoming season!!!


I don't know about you guys but I believe Mr Casserly and his team know more about football especially drafting players than we all do. If looks too good to be true - there may something wrongs somewhere but on the other hand if it looks too stupid to our naked eyes it is possible we are looking at it the novice and naive way.

Mr Casserly has my benefit of doubt. He is not escentric. He is not stupid. He is buillding a team the right way - his way. I must confess Ragone and Drew Henson pick confused me a bit but I am a novice compared to casserly.

Guys remember that Casserly or maybe McNair makes the final call for a pick by a team of coaches, draft experts and scouts join heads together to come up with what we have today.

One thing I am sure of is that we are not The Bengals and we are NOT the The Vikings (at least in this year draft).




PS. And for those who wanted the "problem" rather than Wand, I ask you this, would like Randy Moss on your team? He is a physical freak of nature and full of talent but I DO NOT WANT that "cancer" on my team.

 

More on the Henson pick



Sunday, April 27, 2003

Texans draft former Michigan QB
By Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NEW YORK -- Despite the adamancy of Drew Henson that he will continue a foundering baseball career and doesn't plan to pursue football as an option, the Houston Texans on Sunday gambled that he just might change his mind, and selected the former Michigan quarterback in the sixth round of the NFL draft.


"I mean, why not, given where we were?" said Houston general manager Charley Casserly. "You never know what might happen. We own his rights now for a year and our attitude was, 'Hey, let's see what happens,' and we felt it was well worth making the move."

Indeed, there is very little risk involved for the Texans, who will tender to Henson the rookie minimum qualifying offer of $225,000 to retain his rights up until the 2004 draft. Nor did the Texans invest much in terms of draft pick compensation, since they used just the 192nd choice to select Henson, and with a supplemental pick, no less.


Drew Henson left the Blue of Michigan for the green of Major League Baseball.
But choosing Henson and convincing him to abandon his baseball career in the New York Yankees system are two dramatically different things. Only a week ago, both Henson and his representatives at IMG told ESPN.com that the onetime Wolverines starter had no designs on the NFL, and preferred that teams did not use a draft choice this weekend to acquire his rights.

And on Sunday afternoon, shortly after the Texans exercised the sixth-round pick on Henson, who is currently playing third base for the Yankees' triple-A affiliate in Columbus, Ohio, Tom Condon reiterated his client's stance.

"He's a baseball player," Condon said. "Period. End of story."

Said Henson, 23, last week: "I guess that, until I'm playing third base in Yankees Stadium and in the lineup every day, this is always going to be an issue. But the truth is, football just isn't in my plans, and the questions are starting to get a little old. I'm not a quitter. I'm following through with baseball. This is what I want to be doing. This is my focus."

As of Saturday, Henson was hitting just .167 with an on-base percentage of .257 through 20 games. He had just 11 hits in 66 at-bats, with three doubles, three home runs and six RBIs. Henson had struck out 19 times. In his 128 games at Columbus last season, he hit just .240, with 18 home runs and 65 RBIs, and struck out 151 times in 471 plate appearances.

There have been rumors that Yankees owner George Steinbrenner might be ready to abandon the Henson experiment, but that would be a pretty costly proposition. The club signed Henson to a six-year, $17 million contract in 2001 and there are four years remaining on that deal.

ESPN.com has learned Henson is scheduled to make salaries of $2 million (in 2003), $2.2 million (2004), $3.8 million (2005) and $6 million (2006). Almost as significant as those amounts is the fact they are all guaranteed. And the first addendum clause in Henson's contract precludes him from playing football while still the Yankees' property.

When they signed him, New York officials mentally targeted 2003 as the year they felt he would take over the Yankees' third base job, but clearly that has not been the case. No one in the organization is going to project now when Henson might advance full-time to the major league level.

This was the first year in which Henson, whose college resume included 24 touchdown passes and only seven interceptions, was automatically eligible for the NFL draft. Prior to this draft, he would have had to petition for an early entry exemption, and never chose to do so.

If he does not sign a Texans deal, Henson would go back into the 2004 draft. In 2005, he would no longer be subject to draft rules and could sign with the team of his choice. It is similar to what Dallas quarterback Chad Hutchinson experienced after a four-year fling as a pitcher in the St. Louis Cardinals system.

Hutchinson signed with the Cowboys for last season and received a $3.1 million signing bonus.
“ Had he completed his college career, he certainly would have been a first-round choice, maybe top 10 or even top five. Look, things change, and people change their minds every day. We just figured that we had nothing to lose on this.”
—Texans GM Charley Casserly



Most scouts surveyed in the past weeks assess that Henson is a better prospect than Hutchinson. They add that it is difficult to evaluate him since he has spent the two-plus years away from the gridiron. But officials from two teams, neither of them the Texans, conceded to ESPN.com last week they had had internal discussions about choosing Henson with a late-round choice in this draft.

Fitting a contract into a team's rookie pool, though, is a tricky maneuver, acknowledged Ken Kremer, another of Henson's agents. And that is why the odds seemed to have shifted against Henson being chosen this year.

"He's got three years left on his (Yankees) contract after this season," said Kremer, "and essentially, that is guaranteed money. So a team that drafted him would have to make it worth his while financially to walk away from that. With the constraints of the rookie pool, that would be tough to do.

"But the more important thing is that he really wants to make it work in baseball. His goal is to be the Yankees' third baseman and that's always uppermost in his mind."

Houston already has David Carr, the first overall choice in the '02 draft, as its starter. The Texans also selected Dave Ragone of Louisville in the third round on Saturday evening. The club also has a pair of journeyman veterans in Tony Banks and Mike Quinn on its current roster.

But given the lack of risk involved with Sunday's gambit, Casserly clearly felt that taking Henson was at least worth the effort.

"Had he completed his college career, he certainly would have been a first-round choice, maybe top 10 or even top five," Casserly said. "Look, things change, and people change their minds every day. We just figured that we had nothing to lose on this."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.

 

I can tell you from seeing him play here in Columbus that you guys may get a steal.

He strikes out once every 3 at bats and his glove (at 3B) is suspect as well. I would be VERY surprised to ever see him as a regular in MLB, especially in NY. He is a good athlete but he just can't figure out the pitching and regardless of what his agent says, his confidence is shot.

That being said it would be a ton of money to walk away from but many athletes are driven by success (or almost) as much as money. So you never know, stranger things have happened.

 

One last thought on the Henson pick. If he decides to give up baseball after this season, would he want to enter the draft next year or find his own choice of team/deal. The draft next year gets him on a team with a poor record, or he waits another year to be a free agent. Signing a deal before the draft would be in his best interest. This should be the year he makes it or not.

 

I really wanted the Texans to get Rogers during the draft back in the day. Fortunate that they ended up with AJ. I wonder what would have happened if the Texans had the #2 pick instead of #3?

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/28058800/charles-rogers-former-lions-michigan-state-wr-dies-38