Wrong. Its very clear that we should have drafted superman, aka Roy Williams. He went 5th the year Carr went 1st.
Carr should no longer be considered as just another "expansion team QB". This is his 4th year and it's high time for him to take that proverbial "big step". He has looked average up until last night when he started channeling Chad Hutchinson. But he's not the reason for what happened last night. No, that falls on Don Capers and the rest of his staff. I am forced to agree with Richard Justice when he says that this raises serious questions about the competency of those guys in charge. It was simply embarassing to watch how easy it was for Parcells to out coach Capers last night. Capers did not have his team ready to play and they looked listless and lost. Once again, Chris Palmer's offensive play calling left me scratching my head and I have lost confidence in his ability. But what was really disappointing was the pathetic play of the Texans lines. They were literally manhandled on both sides of the ball by Dallas and were consistently beaten at the point of attack. The offensive line was beaten so badly they had to resort to reaching out and grabbing Cowboy players thereby committing numerous holding penalties. The defensive line was getting their asses knocked off the line time and time again - witness the gaping holes that opened up for Cowboy runners. I saw too many bad things last night to believe that they can fix this mess in one remaining preseason game. Thus far I have to conclude that the Texans appear poised to take a big step sideways this year if not backward.
I know that this was just a pre-season game, but this was one UGLY game. Way tooo many penalties Carr and Banks looked out of sinc with the offense. And overall the offense appeared more static than fluid I didn't see much pressure from our "new and improved" faster defense. Too me the only bright spots were: 1) the runnings of Morency and Davis and 2) the returns of Mathis and Swinton. Overall though, the offensive play calling continues to appear waaayyyy tooo conservative. And if last night was any indication of what this season holds for the team, then I wouldn't be surprised is if Capers and/or Palmer would be gone after this season. Also, I am no longer using the "new franchise" label on this team as a whole. Collectively, they have had plenty of time to develop and fine tune most of, if not all, of the nuances on this team. I just want to add that I do love the Texans and I am happy they are part of Houston culture and even if they go 0-16 I will still cheer them on. However, just because I love them does not mean I will not be critical or objective about how they execute their offensive and defensive structure. It's football. It's about executing and winning. And last night, I didn't see either one of those things.
Hehe...sorry, but I didn't see any "gaping holes." I may have just missed them during the game, but both teams had similar rushing numbers. Take away the Julius Jones 21 yd TD, where you guys guessed wrong on the blitz, and then Tyson Thompson's 23 yd rush late in the game (where he went inside, didn't find anything, and decided to use his speed outside), and the Cowboys running game wasn't too good. I'm only bringing this up because you're making it sound like we were so awesome in that category, but I wasn't at all content with the O-line's holes for the running game, especially early on (remember how many times, either on screens or runs, where 2-3 Texans met JJ in the backfield?). JJ wants to get some good rushing numbers, but he'll get nowhere if the line doesn't get at least a little better. The few times JJ, or even Tyson Thompson, have gotten decent running lanes, they've usually been able to make the D pay (JJ got a few 10+yds runs in the SEA game when we got some decent holes); as long as the holes are there, we have the RB's to get some great yardage. As of the 3rd preseason game, the line hasn't been able to do the job they're capable of doing, IMO. Although I will admit that we're missing one starter and another one is a 6th Rd rookie who's a little banged up, so hopefully things will improve as the season starts. Again, I'm only bringing this up because the O-line's run blocking is actually one of the things I'm most critical of, and I didn't see a vast improvement last night. In contrast, their pass protection was pretty solid, IIRC. Although I guess could be chalked up to poor calls/play for the Texans. I can't really comment on the other things too much since I wasn't really paying attention to them. You guys did have some dumb penalties, but so did we, and probably several teams in the league. And FWIW, if you guys thought the team was well-prepared for the game, think about how we'd look if we didn't have 3 games in like 11 days (Monday, last night, and Thursday, IIRC). One of the things I was worried about was that the team would look lost due to the small amount of time to prepare for the game. I guess I didn't really help out the Texan's coaching situation by saying that, but that's what I was thinking about before the game.
The "experts" said he wouldn' fit into the 3-4. I'm not going to rag on Carr, I think he has performed just up to expectations nothing more, nothing less. But he has to take his game to the next level this season. My only problem with Carr isn't really with him, its his teflon-don status with the local media.
They were talking about him playing as a DE, but as an OLB he would have been scary good. Someone that is 6'6'', 285lbs, with a 4.5 40, and 40'' vertical leap playing OLB is just nasty. I don't buy it when people say that we needed to put a quarterback face to the franchise. That is the most absurd suggestion I've ever heard.
Cory Simon is a free agent now. It would be nice to have him on our defensive line but I know his price is way too high.
We picked Carr as our #1 overall franchise pick and he isn't performing like one. Many guys in the same draft are outperforming him. Julius Peppers, Roy Williams, etc....
I totally agree, I wanted Peppers also. He could've helped the Rockets at power foward also. Before they got Juwan Howard, I bet he would have been the best power foward in this city. I agree that Carr isn't the best player in that draft so far, but in his defense, it takes a qb a little longer to establish himself.
So you build your brand new franchise around a safety? Tell me then, if we drafted R. Williams or Peppers, who would be our quarterback? Banks? Ragone? I'm not saying Carr is better than Peppers or R. Williams, but it's the best and easiest move to build around a quarterback. You can have a good safety or defensive end, but you're not going to win unless you have a quarterback.
There is no way you can compare Carr to any draft pick that year. First he's a QB, and second it was an expansion team. Those are two things that were/are totally against him. Williams, and Peppers are great players, I think Carr will be considered a top tier QB after this season. (crossing my fingers)While I havn't been thrilled with all of the Texans draft picks (Gaffney, Jopuru, Babin), Carr is not the problem. I think the biggest problem has been the lack of addressing the OL early in the draft.
I have seen Carr play 4 to 5 times and I must say he SUCKSSSSS.... Are there any talks of this being his year to produce? Are they talking about trading him? T_Man
YES I believe you build your football team around your defense. The ravens won w/out a franchise qb, the 85 bears did it, along with many other teams. If we took peppers first, then no telling who our quarterback would be, probably a veteran like Kurt Warner, or maybe even Ben Rothlisberger. If we hadn't invested EVERYTHING in david carr then we'd have many options to pick up a good qb along the way. I wanted us to have a veteran qb. I don't agree with starting a new franchise with a new rookie quarterback, you need some wisdom and leadership somewhere. For what its worth I also don't think much of Dom Capers. I think hes too conservative and too set in his ways. I like coaches who aren't afraid to take chances and mix things up. I love the texans, its just so hard for me to really LOVE them because I don't agree with most of the things they do.
actually, the offensive starters alone still contain 4 from '02 (bradford/gaffney, carr, mckinney and pitts). the defensive starters also boast 4 (walker, payne, wong and coleman). so 8 of the 22 starters are from the 02 expansion roster.
Carr will be Houston's next Steve Francis. There's going to be an ever growing number of people who want him gone and an ever shrinking number of people who want to keep him. ...oh yeah, and 64 days until basketball season starts.
i don't think so. no one questions carr's attitude; he's not a petulant baby who whines and cries and endured a lot, and earned a lot of respect his first year. he's certainly mired with a problem... what that problem is, i have no idea. could be him, could be palmer, could be the talent around him. or it could simply be a combination of all three and who knows however many other factors. big important year for carr.
