Point taken. When I say "project player", I'm refering to Mario's lack of skill and technique. Now if he can stay free of injury, gets into the weight room and improves his strength and learns how to rush the passer then he'll be OK. I do like the kid but I just thought that taking someone who needed a great deal of development 1st overall was something of a reach especially considering the other players on the board at that time. When a team gets the number one pick it's saying that they need to get the best talent they can find who can help them get things turned around quickly - not 2 or 3 years down the road as looks to be the case with MW. I really suspect that this was more of a financial move (scared to take RB because of $$$ while Mario quickly agreed to their offer) than a football one but that's just my personal feelings on this issue.
I guess i'm the only one that see teams chip and slide protection to Mario. Go ask some of the experts that watch game tape and they will tell you the same. Freeney had 5 sacks and no one said anything about him and he's a 1 trick pony. Why, because he forced double teams and protection. It didnt help that the offense never really had leads to let the rushers go. If you want to say the texans could have taken Vince, i'll give you that, but dont even bring bush into the conversation. His longest run was 12yds. Now, if you want to say the passes he caught would have helped, maybe, but the texans didn't have a former 1600yds rusher to handle the inside run. The analyst would the be talking about him being misused, then what?
Arguably, if the Texans would have taken Bush, we would have heard massive psycho-babble about how underutilized he would be. We would hear how this was a bad pick for the Texans because they don't have the core or complimentary players to best help him flourish. VY would have been the only one IMO that had stratospheric talent that potentially would have made our team better. Mario was hurt most of the second half of the season, so labeling him a 'bust' is unfair but, we definitely need to see much more results to legitimize his #1 pick billing. He showed flashes of brilliance hopefully he gets more consistent this year.
will be outdone by our 1st round pick this year, "With the 8th pick the Houston Texans select Fario Williams, who looks exactly like Mario Williams but is literally half the size"
Oh yeah and you can bet that David Carr would have been very happy to have that happen. It would taken a lot of the heat off him and his poor play if Houston fans had another target at whom to vent their anger and disappointment over the Texans' fortunes. Again that's entirely possible. The thing to remember is that in Tennessee, the organization isn't currently out there "trying" to create a trade market for Vince. In fact, they are overjoyed at having him on the team which is quite the contrast from what's happening here with David Carr. That is the one thing that continues to infuriate the VYOFs more than anything. [/QUOTE] And that's all I've been saying - that we have to see more from him to legitimize his being picked over the other talented players in the 2006 draft. At this point, he looks like a something of a reach. Now the Texans weren't the only team to do this - both Oakland & Detroit, teams who desperately needed QBs passed on Leinart & Cutler and now one season later still find themselves back in the market for a QB only in this years' draft, there are no prospects of the caliber of Young, Cutler & Leinart. So it wasn't only the Texans who reached for defensive players in 2006 while passing on bonafide superior offensive talent.
I can't stand the Williams pick for two reasons: (1) He wasn't a great player in college. Who the heck takes a very-good-but-not-great college player w/the 1st pick in the draft? Oh. Right. The Texans. (2) The stars were aligned for the VY pick. You had a dynamic hometown kid who had just won the nat'l championship. If he'd worked out, it would have been one of the all-time great team/player associates in history. He would have galvanized the city behind the Texans and supplied an identity to a bland, boring team. In that light, the Texans decision is inexplicable from a football perspective, a business perspective, and a mythic perspective. I'm not going to forgive this one as long as Kubiak and McNair are here.
Be patient Young skywalker. As a new hope might emerge in the form of Cy-falls QB Russell Sheperd. He might not pan out, He might not win a Natl Champ, He might not even play for UT-Austin. But the Texans will be drafting int the top 10 for the next 10 years.
Wanna bet on that? Are you seriously claiming they'll never even reach a peak as high as they did in the franchise's third year in the next decade?
They play in the same division as the Colts and Titans. Not going to be easy to finish higher than 3rd.
I must have missed that memo where the Titans even finished above .500 or were a lock to become a great team in the next decade.
Don't forget needing to win a flip of the coin in that OT as well. Clearly, that's a team that's destined for the AFC Championship at a minimum next season.
Not to mention they just lost their only half way decent reciever, and have one RB on the roster, who's rushed for 244 yards in his NFL career.
Actually you're wrong Blake-O, It was the 2004 draft which was after the Raiders finished 4-12 and were awarded the 1st pick of the 2nd round (33rd overall) Which the Texans forfitted to take Lollings.
But when they took Hollings in the supplemental draft, it was the offseason after the Raiders' Super Bowl season. Linky to prove sad Raiders' fan wrong.
or right. I remember arguing with Cat many times over this matter. And I always remember it being the 33rd overall pick. He even bet me 100 bucks Hollings would one day have a 1000 yard season. I trust my memory above all else.
I understand it became the 33rd pick, but when they used the Raiders 2004 second round pick, they thought it would be a lot lower than that considering the Raiders were coming off a Super Bowl appearance. When they picked Hollings with the Raiders' pick, they had no idea it would be the 33rd pick. That's my point and I'm guessing that was The Cat's point as well.
Right, the Texans didn't know it would be the 33rd pick. Which made it that more hilarious to me that they give up basically a late 1st round pick in a pretty decent draft for a scrub like Hollings.
