Who would you want the Texans to DRAFT?

You wouldn't want to draft Bush and have him rot on the bench behind 1000 yard rusher Tony Hollings either.

 

Holy crap... 513 yards??? That's it.. I dont care what happens the rest of the season.. WE MUST DRAFT REGGIE BUSH!

 

We can respectively disagree on what the best path on which the Texans can take to improve their team with their draft strategy, but hopefully you watched the game last night. If that is the case, please tell me you can't honestly think that Bush is not that special of a player.

Also, earlier you said there was no comparison between Sanders & Bush, well...

In 1998, Sanders had 2,628 yards with 37 TD's on 344 carries (could not find any receiving stats). That's an average of 7.36 yds per carry and a TD once every 9.3 rushes.

This year, Bush has 1398 yards with 13 TD's on 163 carries. That's an average of 8.57 yards per carry and a TD once every 12.5 rushes.

Really not all that huge of a stastical difference on a per-carry basis.

Look, I'm a big 'SC homer so I am going to watch the Trojan players through crimson-tinted glasses. In all actuality, Reggie is probably not going to come close to having the professional carrer of Barry Sanders (who the heck is going to?), but I do honestly think that if the Texans got the first pick in the coming draft they would be better served, IMO, to pick Bush with the top pick, grab whoever the best player that drops out of the first round with the top pick in the second, then spend their two third round picks on the best O-line prospects.

Oh yeah, and also get a new coaching staff/personell department. And switch to the 4-3. And give me season tickets (or at least pay for my Sunday Ticket). And cure cancer & promote world peace.

 

Also, did anyone see how D'Brickshaw (yeah, we're on a first name basis) performed against Va. Tech? I could not see the game due to work. Since I do give us a better than 50% chance of taking him, I'd like to know how he played against a fairly sout D.

 

This is what MANY of us here are saying, though. Sanders in 98 had over twice as many carries as Bush does. No one is denying that Bush is a special talent. There are just a lot of us who are concerned that he won't be an everydown back in the NFL. That he won't be used inside the tackles and that he's worthless on the goal line, even on a college team. And that you don't spend a #1 pick on THAT kind of player. That's why you see the comparisons to guys like Eric Metcalf, a guy who you certainly wouldn't use a #1 on. He's a flanker.

I'll be the first to tell you that I'm not an expert. But I'd love to see the Texans address first and foremost THE problem that has been THE problem from the moment they stepped onto the field in 2002...the offensive line.

 

I understand that many people are concerned that Bush has not been used as an everydown back in college. Who knows how he'll be if/when he is in the NFL. Will he have a career more like Marshall Faulk, or more like Michael Bennett? I don't know, I have my opinions, but they've been wrong in the past.

I admit that I, like you, am not an expert. Compared to people who do this for a living, I'm not even an amateur. I agree completely that the line has been a dreadful experience from the get go, but I don't agree with the prevailing thought that you MUST spend your top draft pick on a left tackle to ensure offensive success. Minnesota and Buffalo spent their first picks in 2002 (same year as Carr) on Bryant McKinnie & Mike Williams respectively. Minnesota's line play has been as tragic as ours this year & Williams has now been moved to guard. Teams like Denver & Atlanta have been able to take total no-names & create/train/establish effective lines.

It seems to me that this years draft is going to be very deep in quality offensive line prospects. It also appears to be relatively weak in the way of freakishly gifted athletes. I would think that if you grab Bush with your first pick, you stand a very good chance to acquire a Winston Justice, Max Jean-Giles, Jonathan Scott, or someone at the very top of the second round. There are always some "cant-miss" first rounders who drop unexpectedly. This of course is all dependent on which juniors declare, free agency, and the combine. Heck, who knows, maybe the Texans will roll off three or four victories and render the entire discussion moot.

 

honestly, i think this is a very likely scenario.

 

Garnered All-America honors, as he finished with 1,539 yards rushing and 23 touchdowns...Set season records in rushing average (7.8) and 100-yard games (9)...Named co-MVP of the 1994 Rose Bowl with 156 rushing yards and three TDs on 21 carries, including an 83-yard score...

Sounds impressive, right? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Ki-Jana Carter, (consensus) #1 pick of the Cincinnati Bengals in the 1995 draft. The last time someone drafted a running back with the #1 pick? Yep, it was Ki-Jana Carter, 10 years ago.

Please, Texans, do your homework before the draft. That's all I ask.

 

Reggie Bush is going to put up Marshial Faulk like numbers so I would go for him. Matt Leinart has want it takes to be a all-pro QB, so he would be a good pick also. I'm wondering if the Texans could get for the #1 pick. Could they trade down since some teams are going to want Leinart pretty bad and still get Bush? Also DeAngelo Williams may be a sleeper pick. He has rushed for 5661 career yards and rushed for 50 tds. I'd still go for Bush though. He has MVP type talent.

 

I wouldn't have guessed that its been that long.

I think Carter tore his knee up in preseason his rookie year.

But that is one thing about drafting a running back so high. Those guys can give you a great a great 4-5 years than fade away. Thats why I am all on the Matt Leinhart bandwagon. If the Texans were closer to contending I'd go with Bush but its going to be a while before the TExans can contend so Leinhart would be my pick.

 

hats off, the cat, for being the lone human being in creation trying to spin bush's performance last night. he goes and shatters the school's all-purpose yardage record in a single game by 200 yards (!) and you want us to think it was all leinart; the OL; the competition...

btw, you should ask the fresno state defender who went flying into the stands after bush stopped dead in his tracks and juked right as if someone had pressed the R1 button if he whiffed because he was worried about leinart or getting blown away by the great OL or whatever spin you want to try and put on it.

is it asking too much for us to sit back and appreciate bush's performance, recognizing that we're in the company of one of college football's most explosive and exciting players, without having to weakly try and poke holes in it? whether he's a texan or not, what he did last night was, simply, amazing.

he touched the ball 34 times last night. i just don't think it's going to be a big concern. guy returns punts and we're worried?

wait, wait - i'm really good at this: the pass rush? oh, no. wait - coaching? no, no - that's not it - the complete and utter lack of playmakers on both sides of the ball? no, it would have to be carr's seemingly inate ability to consistently make poor decisions, whine about about it and regress in all phases of his game....

there isn't A problem... there are A LOT of problems. and frankly, the OL ranks below quite a few of them, IMO. i would put my concern with carr, the lack of a pass rush and the absence of playmakers among our front 7 on D ahead of the OL, in terms of problems. the OL can be fixed much easier than those three items.

well of course they better do their homework. but ki-jana carter has nothing to do with reggie bush. nothing. it's an empty thought. for every player you champion the texans drafting, there are at least five from drafts past that have busted. and they, like carter, would have no bearing on the player being selected.

 

Totally agree with you on this part. (Not on the Leinart selection, though.)

 

i totally disagree. lack of playmakers?? how would you even know?? the guy has minimal time to make a throw. carr threw for over 3,500 yards last seaon. he improved every season before coming into this one. davis has shown himself to be reliable RB. and freaking Andre Johnson isn't a playmaker?? the guy's numbers rival the very greatest who have ever played the game at the same relative point in their careers.

i agree the defensive line is a problem. no argument.

and i'm not saying the OL isn't "fixable." i'm saying it's been a problem since the very first game. however easily fixable it may be...it hasn't been fixed. and we've now shell-shocked the hell out of our QB and stunted the development of our offense in part, because of it. they're not the ONLY problem. but they're the BIGGEST problem in my opinion. it's the problem that, as a paying fan, i want to see addressed first and foremost. there's risk with every draft pick to be sure...but if the thought is there's an offensive lineman good enough this season to justify using a top 5 pick on, then that's what I want the Texans to spend that pick on.

 

I agree that we have a lot of problems, but saying the OL is not the most pressing problem is plain wrong. There is a reason why Carr is on his way to being sacked the most in the history of the game, there is a reason why we cannot complete passes. Yes, a lot of that has to do with Carr but it also has to do with Carr only having 2 seconds to work in the pocket.

If an OL can be fixed so easily, why haven we done it? The OL has been the Texans #1 problem since our first game as a franchise. Until we have a solid OL, we won't see any success on the offensive side of the field. The OL should be and will most likely be the most focused area this summer, guaranteed.

I think they're just saying that having HUGE success in college doesn't necessarily mean the same for the NFL. Of course there will always be busts, but there have been a lot of players who were hands down the best in college, but never amounted to anything on the next level (Couch, Carter, Dayne, etc..) I don't like using that argument because you can't go into a draft worrying about who's gonna be a bust, because you never know.

 

I think that is the main problems with the arguments against bush by those on this board. Its just simply that they just haven't seen him play that much and are just looking at his stats. If you watched that game last night and didn't want to draft Bush, then I think your mind is probably changed, unless you are just too hard-headed to admit it... (rm95).

 

I didn't know Hollings had retired. Thanks for that insight.

 

Reggie Bush would definitly help this team to be back on track!

 

Didn't say he did, so nice try.


You may as well just pay me that 100 right now though and give up hope.

 

Some would've said the same ("give up hope") about the career of Thomas Jones.

All about the situation.