There is one thing that has plagued the Texans ever since they stepped onto the field...a terrible offensive line. Last season's line was no different, even with the new zone blocking scheme. We lost our starting LT which was big, but was our OL that dependent on a rookie selected in the 3rd round? Spencer appears to be 50/50 and I'm suprised the Texans haven't addressed the OL almost at all this offseason. Jordan Black doesn't have a good track record with Chief fans and apparently a writer for CNNSI. Maybe they needed more time to learn the ZB scheme because it did improve later in the season but I think we need to add more than 5th and 6th round picks.
What's our projected line looking like for next season? I know in the past we've had some pretty crappy o-lines, but I thought last year the line got a lot of underserved criticism due to Carr's indecisiveness in the pocket. How do our individual linemen rate compared to the average linemen in the NFL? I thought Flanagan was supposed to be average and Pitts and McKinney around average.
They must have a lot of confidence that Spencer can come back next season. Mark Schlereth likes Jordan Black, or at least thinks that the Chiefs will struggle a bit next season because they didn't really fill the hole he left.
http://houstontexans.com/team/depthchart.html Code: LT Jordan Black Ephraim Salaam Charles Spencer Brandon Frye LG Chester Pitts Scott Jackson Mike Brisiel C Mike Flanagan Steve McKinney Drew Hodgdon Chris White RG Fred Weary Steve McKinney Atlas Herrion Kasey Studdard RT Eric Winston Ephraim Salaam Brandon Frye
for the record, they also lost their starting center and RT - all by game 9. so they played 7 weeks w/o 3/5 of their opening day line.
The QB play will be better... but there is still not one proven/above-average offensive lineman on this squad. It says a lot that we're putting our faith in pretty much a rookie trying to return from a possible career-threatening broken leg. Not that it will prevent them from playing together as a team, but good teams have at least ONE stalwart offensive lineman.
Assumes facts not in evidence. You are a blatant optimist!!! My prediction: The QB play will depend on the OL play which if last season is any indication will likely suck.
You're right.. it is an assumption. But, I feel any QB who has had some modicum of success elsewhere, and not played behind a craptacular offensive line his entire career, will not have developed the HORRIBLE lack of QB instincts that Carr suffered through, and will have some self-confidence to know what he's supposed to do. Bad o-lines can definitely ruin QB's who have never played a down in the league before... but good QB's (who were born/bred elsewhere) can have a stabalizing effect. But yes... if the O-line is as terrible as its ever been... it still doesn't matter who's back there.
i thought the O-line played better towards the end of the season. i thought they were able to protect better than they had been. i felt like they helped open up a run game that should have facilitated the passing game better than it did...and felt like most of carr's errors in the 2nd half were not a product of the OL cratering around him. i didn't see it that way at all. i think a better QB means a better team. and i THINK we have a better QB, now.
True, but I'm more concerned about our projected O-Line for the upcoming season. There is no guarantee that Spencer will make a fully recovery for next season and I thought we could have used more additions. But the line did improve a lot later in the season so there is room for optimism I guess.
Actually the running game started improving as soon as they put in Leach at fullback. having a back that can pick up a blitz would help. also Salaam didn't get beat that badly at LT and he is a below avg. journeyman. the old QB had problems with reads, bad pocket presence and the line was horrible in blitz situations, injuries were a part of it and the inconsistency produced by position and personnel change. I think they are better with McKinney at center. Is there something wrong with Flannigan?
honestly, the line didn't really make that many improvements last year. it's not that it got better in run blocking as the season wore on - a popular misconception; it looked "improved" because it had been so bad during the first half of the season (and was being additionally hampered by sub-par running back play). but the line paved the way for DD to rush for 3,000+ yards in 3 seasons prior, so it's not as if run blocking was ever an issue. pass protection, though - it got progressively worse as the season wore on. as bad as carr was in the oakland game... i mean, my dad tried to run the carr bandwagon off the road as far back as '03 and even he admitted after that game that he stood no chance back there. the pass protection was every bit as awful at the end of last year as it's ever been and that's because, among other things, they lost so many to injury.
you may disagree completely with this, but in a couple of games of Carr's career, I felt he had done something to piss off the oline so bad that they allowed the defense to run through them. That Oakland game was one, and I believe that Brown's game that started the downward spiral was the other. I was also quite amazed at how hurried Carr looked in the Tennessee game as compared to Sage. Same D, same rush tactics, but Carr couldn't step up and away from pressure and Sage could. With the improvement in number of sacks from 05-06, if better pocket presence can subtract another 10 sacks, the o-line will become a non issue.
uhm yeah - you're right; i disagree completely. it wasn't the same D; sage faced a tennessee D nursing an 18-point 4Q lead; kind of like the D carr "shreded" in week 2 against the colts... after the team fell behind by 28. sacks don't account for hurries, the # of hits taken, etc. - there's more to pass protection than sacks. the "improvement" from '05-to-'06 was rooted in an emphasis on shorter, quicker routes, a staple of the WCO.
that's cool. I'm not trying to throw rub anything in, and we shall see soon enough how much Carr's play was influenced by the line. I hope for the Texans that you are wrong.
On paper, it looks like the same crap line we've had since day 1. But I really do think a new QB will make a difference. Not that we will have the best O-line in the league or that Carr is responsible for the bad O-line play (Ric), but in those games where Sage came in, the offense did seem to click more than it did with Carr. And Spencer, man I sure hope he can come back to 100%. When he first got hurt, they showed some highlights of him just blowing his man off the line of scrimmage. That kid has tons of potential. It really is a shame that he got hurt.
