Houston Texans Discussion

[datchapin]

This weekend we play the Jets and as always I believe we got a great shot at winning. Even though we haven't won on a consistant basis I believe that we have made huge progress and should be able to take this one. Thought's on matchups?

my expert analysis: we still suck, but not as bad as we did last year...we will likely lose tomorrow, as well...

[America]

Win tomorrow

[primetime0506]

good fight but lose in the end

Originally Posted by primetime0506

good fight but lose in the end

just like always...

then we can congregate and say "isn't it good that we didn't get blown out"...

very typical...

[primetime0506]

we looked bad 2 day on offense we have to strech the field more and stop with the dink and dunks

[marks01234]

How'd Mario look battling through his injury?

Sorry I keep having to ask this. Next year my girlfriend is letting me get the NFL package so it will only be a few more weeks.

heyyyyyyyyyy guess what?

we lost...

[cunningham06]

Yea not a good game today at least Demeco did well, man that guy is a beast. I don't know if any of you guys were watching the pre game for the Texans game but they showed Nick Mangolds sister and she was a beast. Some bull dike who is a dominant offensive lineman. We may have lost the game but at least none of our players have female relatives that manly.

[datchapin]

You know the sad part is. We should be really improved. New coaching, new players, yet the end result's are the same. Stanley messed up horribly on the punt. You're a punter it's not like you got plays to memorize or run you just drop the ball and kick it. How do you mess that up? HOW?!! Then there's AJ dropping critical catches. Not to mention that our running game sucked balls. Don't even get me started on Carr. Okay one comment, HOW DO YOU FORGET WHICH WAY A RUN PLAY IS GOING WHEN YOU JUST CALLED THE DAMN PLAY!!!!????? I dunno, I look at all this stuff and I know there were positives yesterday, but right now I just can't bring myself to be optimistic.

[America]

Flanagan and Sage are done for the year. Thomas Johnson is out for 2 weeks. Our 2 starting DTs weren't on on roster until midway through the season. Ouch.

I know the Texans will likely take Peterson if he is there, but it isn't a no-brainer to me. I know the rushing attack has struggled, but I would give hard consideration to Alan Branch if he was still out there.

Imagine Mario Williams at a bookend bringing pressure off the edge and Alan Branch on the interior collapsing the pocket. If I was a defensive coordinator, I would salivate at the possibilites. With two studs next to him, a one-gapper like Travis Johnson could thrive. Even Anthony Weaver and Jason Babin would look better at the other bookend.

If Peterson was there, I would probably take him. However, I would be tempted to take Branch because I think Davis can still be a feature back under Kubiak.

Thoughts?

[Grid]

Originally Posted by Thunderstruck

I know the Texans will likely take Peterson if he is there, but it isn't a no-brainer to me. I know the rushing attack has struggled, but I would give hard consideration to Alan Branch if he was still out there.

Imagine Mario Williams at a bookend bringing pressure off the edge and Alan Branch on the interior collapsing the pocket. If I was a defensive coordinator, I would salivate at the possibilites. With two studs next to him, a one-gapper like Travis Johnson could thrive. Even Anthony Weaver and Jason Babin would look better at the other bookend.

If Peterson was there, I would probably take him. However, I would be tempted to take Branch because I think Davis can still be a feature back under Kubiak.

Thoughts?

No Davis is done playing. We simply have too many holes to fill and none is more important then Tackle and RB position. We need some one like Peterson or Lynch to have any kind of ground game.

So far Travis Johnson has been the biggest disappointment for the Texans . He will officially be first BUST in the Texans short time span if his game doesn't improve between now and next year. After next season there is good chance he might be let go.

On 610 yesterday Kubiak said he is not sure if Spencer can come back from his injury and be effective. He might have had career ending injury.

As much as I like to see Branch playing next to Mario, I really don't see it happening this year due to our needs at secondary, LB, RB and LT.

Off season strategy should be to spend tons of money on Briggs and Clements in free agency.

Draft -

Round 1 - Thomas or AP or Lynch (depending on health of Spencer)
Round 2 - FS
Round 3 - DT / OLB
Round 4 - OC
Round 5 - DT / OLB
Round 6 - K
Round 7 - P

[gunn]

Originally Posted by Grid

He will officially be first BUST in the Texans short time span if his game doesn't improve between now and next year. After next season there is good chance he might be let go.

First BUST????

I'll stick to players taken in the first 3 rounds.

2002
1 David Carr - At this point, you can give all the excuses you want, but I say Bust.
2 Jabar Gaffney - Is he out of football yet?
3 Charles Hill - Out of football

2003
2 Tony Hollings - Out of football
2 Ben Joppru - Out of football? If not, he's walking the line.
3 Seth Wand - Out of football?
3 Dave Ragone - Completely wasted pick

2004
1 Jason Babin - We traded away three first day picks for him. I say bust.

2005
1 Travis Johnson - Completely baffling pick. Likely a bust

Lets not forget that we also gave away a second and a third round pick for Phillip Buchanon. Is he still employed by an NFL team?

[datchapin]

A while back I disagreed with Grid about the selection of Peterson in the first rd. I'm not jumping on the bandwagon yet, but with five games left neither Lundy or Gado have shown enough consistency to be starters on our team. There have been a ton of missed lanes throughout the season and one (me) could argue that they make up for it by hitting the lane when they need to. However this last game they both looked beyond horrible. They danced in the backfield, were indecisive and just couldn't pick up any yardage.

I think that another thing that ails our running game is the insistence of using the fullback. We've had more success with single back sets. I don't mind the fullback in the backfield if he got carries, but thus far their run blocking has been inneffective and we would be better off running a two RB set instead of using the FB. I guess in short what I'm saying is we don't need Cook get rid of his ass.

[America]

That would suck if Spencer's injury was that serious. I can't see how it could be though, because with all the medicine and technology of today, people come back from torn ACLs pretty routinely. Plus wasn't it a clean fracture?

[Grid]

Originally Posted by gunn

First BUST????

I'll stick to players taken in the first 3 rounds.

2002
1 David Carr - At this point, you can give all the excuses you want, but I say Bust.
2 Jabar Gaffney - Is he out of football yet?
3 Charles Hill - Out of football

2003
2 Tony Hollings - Out of football
2 Ben Joppru - Out of football? If not, he's walking the line.
3 Seth Wand - Out of football?
3 Dave Ragone - Completely wasted pick

2004
1 Jason Babin - We traded away three first day picks for him. I say bust.

2005
1 Travis Johnson - Completely baffling pick. Likely a bust

Lets not forget that we also gave away a second and a third round pick for Phillip Buchanon. Is he still employed by an NFL team?

Oops sorry. You're absolutely right about our previous coaches and GM. Its shame that we wasted so many draft picks. Some times I wonder if all those picks had been utilized properly like this year then how different our team be looking right now.

Gaffney is out of foot ball as well, he was cut by Eagles and Joppru is on Chicago practice squad right now.

[Grid]

Originally Posted by America

That would suck if Spencer's injury was that serious. I can't see how it could be though, because with all the medicine and technology of today, people come back from torn ACLs pretty routinely. Plus wasn't it a clean fracture?

A high break in the bone like he had often results in soft tissue damage too. That is why they've been saying the leg was broken in a bad place. They have to wait for the bone to heal before they address the ligaments.


According to Kubiak on Monday 610 report: it was a bad injury and that they don't know if he will be able to get back to his previous form. Take that for what it's worth.


I think Kubiak was saying "with an ACL injury" you know the time table, and it has been proven time and time again. With Spencer's injury, you do not have the same kind of repetitive recovery to use to predict his return. Every broken leg injury is different in where it breaks and the extent of injury to the soft tissue and the atrophy of the muscles in the leg in a cast.


Guys no one will know where Spencer is until spring time. And even then we may not have a solid return by date. So far Spencer is following doctors order to the T and he is recovering ahead of schedule with out any complications to report of but it is too soon to say anything about him or his health.


This may change our draft strategy.

[datchapin]

I hate Ron Dayne. It feels as if all he did was come in and take out Spencer. This season is going so bad I feel like I wanna cry. 3 starting linemen out for the season 2 starting DT's and a backup out our starting RB may be out forever our back-up QB. This sucks.

[Dunta_23]

Jabar Gaffney is currently playing with the Patriots
Phillip Buchanon was signed by the Bucs immediately after his release, and i think Seth Wand has been signed by the Titans

[Grid]

Originally Posted by Dunta_23

Jabar Gaffney is currently playing with the Patriots
Phillip Buchanon was signed by the Bucs immediately after his release, and i think Seth Wand has been signed by the Titans

All of these players have been one year rental sort of speak. They haven't set the world on fire since joining new team. Patriats had no receiving corp after their starters bolted so they picked up Gaffeney. Titans were hearting at tackle position very badly so they picked up Seth Wand (he has better future then the rest of this group). We all know how Buchanon is so I won't go into details for him. Joppru was signed by Chicago and letter cut. He just signed with Seattle.



I wish all of these guys well.

[Grid]

I found Coachdent article on Texans message board very interesting and worth reading to find out why we are struggling so much with cover 2 defense and vertical game of the Texans.


http://forums.houstontexans.com/showthread.php?t=31619

[cunningham06]

Like most teams with bad records now that we've lost quite a few lets look forward to the one thing we have to look forward too. The draft. We've got a lot of positions that we could go with a first rounder on. I personally would like to see us take Leon Hall to give Dunta some help out there. Faggins has been horrible lately, but I feel he could be a solid nickel back. Then in the second I kind of want a defensive tackle. We've already got some space eaters so a quick athletic penetrator would be nice. Then maybe a safety or guard or center.

[Grid]

Originally Posted by cunningham06

Like most teams with bad records now that we've lost quite a few lets look forward to the one thing we have to look forward too. The draft. We've got a lot of positions that we could go with a first rounder on. I personally would like to see us take Leon Hall to give Dunta some help out there. Faggins has been horrible lately, but I feel he could be a solid nickel back. Then in the second I kind of want a defensive tackle. We've already got some space eaters so a quick athletic penetrator would be nice. Then maybe a safety or guard or center.

This off season I believe following players more then likely will be let go due to salary cap, age, injuries and lack of productions.

Steve McKinney (I still don't know why we signed him to new contract this year)
Mark Bruenner
Morlon Greenwood
Kailee Wong
Seth Payne (Injuries have taken its toll)
Jason Babin - Traded for draft picks. Not enough production
Peek - Walks with FA. Not enough production in regular season
RT (forgetting the name but he is injured right now)


Obviously with all needs that we have on our team can't be fixed in one draft. So let's analyze Texans needs first on both offense and defense.

Offense:

RB - DD is done and we don't have consistent running game
LT ( depending on health of Spencer of course)
OC - good year to draft one, since Flannagan is getting up in age but he can still play for year or two.

Defense:

FS
CB
DT
OLB

Our biggest needs lies in the secondary but rookie CB gets abused allot in the NFL and normally speaking it takes few years for them to settle down where as FS, SS and LB can play right out from college and be very productive in the game.

By emphasizing on defense this year, it will give us a fighting chance to at least be in the ball game.

Draft - Depends where we land in the draft

Round 1 - Allan Branch / AP or Lynch / Thomas (depending on health of Spencer)
Round 2 - FS
Round 3 - OLB
Round 4 - OC

Free Agency: Spend loads of money and sign Clements first then Briggs

If we end up in top 5 then it will be better to trade down and pick up few more draft picks on day one.

Travis Johnson really hasn't played well for us at all.

[cunningham06]

Originally Posted by Grid

This off season I believe following players more then likely will be let go due to salary cap, age, injuries and lack of productions.

Steve McKinney (I still don't know why we signed him to new contract this year)
Mark Bruenner
Morlon Greenwood
Kailee Wong
Seth Payne (Injuries have taken its toll)
Jason Babin - Traded for draft picks. Not enough production
Peek - Walks with FA. Not enough production in regular season
RT (forgetting the name but he is injured right now)


Obviously with all needs that we have on our team can't be fixed in one draft. So let's analyze Texans needs first on both offense and defense.

Offense:

RB - DD is done and we don't have consistent running game
LT ( depending on health of Spencer of course)
OC - good year to draft one, since Flannagan is getting up in age but he can still play for year or two.

Defense:

FS
CB
DT
OLB

Our biggest needs lies in the secondary but rookie CB gets abused allot in the NFL and normally speaking it takes few years for them to settle down where as FS, SS and LB can play right out from college and be very productive in the game.

By emphasizing on defense this year, it will give us a fighting chance to at least be in the ball game.

Draft - Depends where we land in the draft

Round 1 - Allan Branch / AP or Lynch / Thomas (depending on health of Spencer)
Round 2 - FS
Round 3 - OLB
Round 4 - OC

Free Agency: Spend loads of money and sign Clements first then Briggs

If we end up in top 5 then it will be better to trade down and pick up few more draft picks on day one.

Travis Johnson really hasn't played well for us at all.

That would be awesome if we got either one of them, but there is no way we will get both. We won't be able to offer both players more than everyone else and still have comfortable room under the salary cap.