What's your 53 Man roster?

Did you cut Arian Foster?

 

Finishing the 4th game is crucial before determining

Local radio said Nix might be outside looking in

 

Add Foster, EZ to original post.
Take out Polk, Worthy.

Hopefully Demps and Mumphrey can return kicks.

 

Wexler: Texans 53-man roster prediction

NFL rosters must be cut to 53 players by Saturday

Author: Adam Wexler, Sports Producer
Published On: Sep 02 2015 01:28:34 PM CDT

The Houston Texans have made their cuts to reach the mandated 75-player limit on Tuesday. The 53-man roster reduction must be made by Saturday.

Here's my prediction of what the initial 53-man roster will look like.

Offense

3 QB Brian Hoyer, Ryan Mallett, Tom Savage

No other quarterbacks were brought to training camp. There was no competition to see who would remain on the roster, Savage will be kept as part of the 53-man roster because he would be claimed if he were waived.

5 RB/FB Arian Foster, Alfred Blue, Johnathan Grimes, Kenny Hilliard, Jay Prosch (tough cut: Chris Polk)

Arian Foster is far enough along in his rehabilitation and recovery following his groin/hernia surgery, he is not expected to be placed on injured reserve with designation to return. Alfred Blue will be the starter, with Grimes and Polk battling for the spot as the receiving option, change of pace back. Hilliard is the so-called bruiser of the bunch and the sixth round draft pick likely sticks. If released, it's likely he would be claimed before the Texans could sign him to their practice squad.

5 WR DeAndre Hopkins, Nate Washington, Cecil Shorts, Jaelen Strong, Keith Mumphrey (tough cuts: EZ Nwachukwu, D. Johnson, C. Worthy)

While the competition was very good through the top eight receivers, there really may not be a spot for NFL-caliber players. The top five are set with Hopkins, the two veterans (Shorts and Washington) and the two draftees (Strong and Mumphrey). Nwachukwu and Johnson will be in the NFL this season, I believe it just may not be with the Texans. Worthy is likely the fastest player the Texans have and has ability as a return man. He is a strong candidate for the practice squad.

3 TE Garrett Graham, C.J. Fiedorowicz, Ryan Griffin

There was never a competition for a roster spot among the tight ends. The three incumbents had those spots from the get-go and the team never had plans to carry a fourth tight end. Khari Lee showed lots of promise and was traded Wednesday for a 2017 sixth round draft pick. Mike McFarland and Anthony Denham were both waived/injured.

9 OL Derek Newton, Jeff Adams, Ben Jones, Brandon Brooks, Duane Brown, Chris Clark, Xavier Su'a-Filo, Greg Mancz, Kendall Lamm (tough cut: Chad Slade, James Ferentz)

The top seven became locks when the Texans traded for tackle Chris Clark earlier in the week. Clark could be one of the starting tackles early in the season if Brown's thumb injury is not healed. Youngsters Mancz and Lamm have both impressed, and Lamm got a lot of work at tackle in the third preseason game against the Saints. He may kept as a precaution pending Brown's availability. Also, with Su'a-Filo getting limited work with the first unit in camp and then also being injured through the majority of camp, the Texans likely need to keep a ninth lineman initially.

Defense

6 DL Jared Crick, Vince Wilfork, J.J. Watt, Jeoffrey Pagan, Louis Nix, Christian Covington

The Texans have a stout group here and a perfect mix of veterans and youth. Pagan and Nix have been fighting injuries most of their time in Houston, but have talent. Covington could prove to be a very valuable player, especially for a sixth round pick.

4 OLB Whitney Mercilus, John Simon, Jadeveon Clowney, Lynden Trail (tough cut: Kourtnei Brown)

This is a position the Texans almost certainly be focusing on the waiver wires for players cut from other teams. Mercilus and Simon will get the bulk of the work early in the season until Clowney gets worked up to full speed. Trail is such an intriguing prospect, I believe the Texans will have onto him. Brown has made a bunch of big plays with a pair of sacks, an interception return for a touchdown and a fumble recovery, but has also made more than his share of mistakes.

4 ILB Brian Cushing, Mike Mohammed, Akeem Dent, Benardrick McKinney (tough cuts: Justin Tuggle, Max Bullough)

Cushing looks more like the old Cushing than he has since his rookie season. Mohammed is the most underrated player on the entire team and should be the other starter. Dent has value as a veteran and special team contributor. McKinney gets the nod and should improve quickly once he returns to full health.

7 CB Kareem Jackson, Johnathan Joseph, Kevin Johnson, A.J. Bouye, Darryl Morris, Charles James II, Jumal Rolle

The Texans only brought seven cornerbacks to camp, once they moved Andre Hal to safety. All seven are NFL talents and James has played himself onto the roster. He's shown versatility, and confidence, and brings incredible, infectious enthusiasm to the team. Keeping seven corners is more than Houston would like to, especially with the obvious emergence of rookie first round draft pick Kevin Johnson.

4 S Rahim Moore, Eddie Pleasant, Andre Hal, Quintin Demps (tough cut: Lonnie Ballentine)

It's basically a brand new group for the Texans this season. Pleasant and Hal were both on the team a year ago, but Hal was a rookie reserve cornerback and Pleasant was the fourth safety. Rahim Moore was the big free agent acquisition so expectations are high for him and Demps was signed before the third preseason game and immediately made Stevie Brown expendable. Brown was released just days after Demps was signed. Ballentine is a promising player, but was on injured reserve last season and was not healthy through much of training camp this season.

Specialists

3 SP Shane Lechler, Randy Bullock, Jon Weeks

These three were even more set in stone than the quarterbacks.

<hr/>
I would only swap Kourtnei Brown for Lynden Trail. I would not be surprised if the Texans looked for an update here, after all of the teams make their 53 man roster cuts.

 

Texans at Cowboys: Points of Interest
Patrick Starr

Jumal Rolle vs. Charles James II vs. Lonnie Ballentine

The magic number of defensive backs appears to be eleven; either 7 cornerbacks and 4 safeties or 6 cornerbacks and 5 safeties. The trio of Jumal Rolle, Lonnie Ballentine and Charles James seems to be the focus and determining who could be the best combination for now with the future in mind is what is important. Ballentine, despite his injuries over the past year, is an intriguing height/weight player who can run better than most at his position. He has plenty room to develop and he has the highest ceiling of the three. As for Rolle and James, it is between the better coverage player in Rolle against the special teams and fan favorite in James. It is going to be a tough decision no matter what, but one of the three appear to be on the outs.

Chad Slade vs. Greg Mancz

The two rookies are in a big position battle to land on the 53-man roster and both are raw rookies with upside. Both play multiple positions, with Slade able to play guard and tackle while Mancz is getting work at center and guard. The Texans took eight lineman all of last season and one of these rookies are up for the potential 8th spot on the offensive line depth chart.

Kourtnei Brown vs. the NFL free agent player pool

Lynden Trail and Carlos Thompson are not ready to contribute at the NFL level just yet, so practice squad appears to be the spot for both of them. Brown is interesting in the fact that he has produced some of the best impact plays of the preseason, but if you take those away, he has been inconsistent with his fundamentals especially in setting the edge. Brown is not assured of anything for the 53-man roster and he could be facing the player pool of outside linebackers that is going to be released over the next few days. Texans need to upgrade that 4th outside linebacker position, but if they can’t find anyone, Brown might land it by default.

Kenny Hilliard vs. Chris Polk

We don’t really know if there is a direct competition between the two, but it is hard to see the team cutting loose a draft pick so early. Hilliard gives the Texans a 1st and 2nd down player who can be a short yardage back as well, while Polk is very similar to Jonathan Grimes, where Grimes appears to have a roster spot in hand for week one. The Texans will be carrying four running backs for the season with the Arian Foster injury. Whether it will it be Polk or Hilliard is the question.

Wide Receivers Jam Packed

It appears the wide receiver position group could be narrowed down to five wide receivers, with Damaris Johnson, Chandler Worthy, Uzoma Nwachukwu, and Keshawn Martin on the outside looking in. Worthy and Nwachukwu could be practice squad options but only time will tell when the team gets there.

 

I'm torn about the Running backs. I love Hilliard's type of running and think it is complimentary to Foster/Blue but I think Polk has more big play potential. It will be interesting who they'll have returning kicks and punts. Worthy might win or lose a spot based on his return game. Do they still try trotting Keyshawn out there?

 

If reports are correct, he's probably not.

 

QB: 3
Obvious names

HB: 4
Arian, Blue, Polk, Hilliard (Grimes gets cut. OB loves him some Blue and Polk. Just a hunch)

FB: 1
Prosch

WR: 6
Hopkins, Washington, Shorts, Mumphery, Strong Worthy (This is my surprise. Team takes a specialist here to start the year)

TE: 3
Obvious

OL: 8
Brown, Newton, Jones, XSF, Brooks, Clark, Mancz, Adams

DL: 6
Watt, Wilfork, Crick, Pagan, Covington, Nix

OLB: 4
Clowney, Simon, Mercilus, Brown (though Brown could lose his job to the free agent wire)

ILB:4 Cushing, Mohammed, Dent, McKinney

CB: 6
Jackson, JJo, Johnson, Morris, Bouye, Charles James

S: 5
Moore, Pleasant, Hal, Demps, Ballentine

Specialists: 3
You know the names

Team tries to sneak Trail and Lamm onto the practice squad. Worthy makes the roster out of the gates but is as serious risk of losing his job if he isn't special early. I do think there is a real chance Nix gets cut as well.

 

I'd be stunned if that happens this year. I think there is a chance he gets cut next season if he fails to perform this year, but cutting a 3rd round pick from a year ago would just be a MAJOR fail...and even though OB probably doesnt care what others think, making a move like this would pretty much be admitting that you face planted yourself into the dirt.

 

QB: 3
Obvious names

HB: 4
Arian, Blue, Grimes, Hilliard

FB: 1
Prosch

WR: 6
Hopkins, Washington, Shorts, Mumphery, Strong, EZ

TE: 3
Polish Hat, Graham, and Griffin

OL: 8
Brown, Newton, Jones, XSF, Brooks, Clark, Mancz, Adams

DL: 6
Watt, Wilfork, Crick, Pagan, Covington, Nix

OLB: 4
Clowney, Simon, Mercilus, Free agent (I think they keep Trail over Brown if it comes to it)

ILB:4 Cushing, Mohammed, Dent, McKinney

CB: 6
Jackson, JJo, Johnson, Morris, Bouye, Charles James

S: 5
Moore, Pleasant, Hal, Demps, Ballentine

Specialists: 3
Normals



I plagiarised off an already posted list and fixed it to my specs. Don't hate.

Also, I don't think there's any way Nix or Hilliard get cut. I think they're still too new with too much potential to be cut. Same reason I say Trail and EZ make the team. These are this guys that have potential, but probably won't make it to the practice squad. In my opinion, that gets them their spots on the team.

A lot of people have Kourtnei Brown making the team. For me, he lacks too much in run support. I realise he's more of a pass rush specialist but he's shown to be pretty weak against the run. Trail is good against the run, for the most part, but could use a little help pass rushing. I think its something he has potential to learn. Brown's been around the block enough times his deficiencies in the run game scare me a bit more.

I think the coaches love Ballentine and his potential enough that he'll make the team despite the time he's missed for injuries.

 

Mine as of now with one small change at dline and safety from my previous list.

3 QBs Hoyer, Mallet, Savage
5 Backs Foster, Blue, Grimes, Hilliard, Prosch
5 WR Hopkins, Shorts, Washington, Mumphery, Strong
3 TE Graham, Fiedo, Griffin
4 Tackles Brown, Newton, Clark, Adams
2 Guards Sua`Filo, Brooks
2 Center Jones, Mancz

7 D-line Watt, Wilfork, Crick, Nix, Pagan, Covington
5 ILB Cush, Mohamed, McKinney, Dent, Bollough
4 OLB Whitney, Clowney, Simon, Brown
6 CB Kareem, Joseph, Johnson, Morris, Bouye, Rolle
4 Safety Moore, Demps, Pleasant, Hal, Ballentine

3 ST Lechler, Bullock, Weeks

And if you want ST;

Tackle - Lamm
Guard/Center - Slade & Ferentz
D-line - Finau & Mcleod
OLB - Thompson & Trail
Safety - Drummond & C. Moore
WR - Worthy

 

Edit.

 

I see many of these lists with Polk excluded. That's interesting because I feel like he's easily one of the top 3 backs on the team and would hate to see him not make the team.

 

It's probably because of how terrible he looked last week, he was by a significant margin the worst RB against the Saints. Looking bad that late in the preseason with Hilliard looking fairly good is a really bad sign for him.

 

He hasn't looked great in pre-season, but none of the backs have and the line is terrible.

However, Obrien really likes him and he really likes Blue so I think that it will be Grimes who gets kicked out.

 

I really liked his signing. Thought he'd get to start with Arian out. He's underwhelmed, in my opinion. I don't known if it's a system thing at this point, or what, but last week, he missed holes he could have run through.

 

Against the Saints, neither Polk nor Hilliard had good games running the ball...plus, they are running behind a pretty crappy OLine at the moment.

Against the Broncos, Polk had 7 rushes for 36 yards (also 5 receptions for 34 yards), while Hilliard had 7 rushes for 3 yards.

Overall, in the preseason, Hilliard has 30 rushes for 67 yards while Polk has 28 rushes for 87 yards.

I honestly dont think it's really close here...and Im sure people want to hold onto Hilliard because we drafted him and it sucks to not have a draft pick make the team, regardless of round.

 

I read something yesterday that made sense. Polk isn't really competing with Hilliard. He's competing with Grimes. They're the same kind of back while Hilliard brings something different. And having 3 different backs with 3 different ways of running could be the way to go in a game plan offense without Foster. One RB might be effective against one defense while another may most effect against a different D. Grimes and Polk kind of do the same thing so there's less reason to keep both. And between the two, I'd probably take Grimes.

Personally, I'd rather take Polk over Hilliard, but I don't think they're going to do that. Both should get a lot of carries tonight. We'll see.