Pre-season look at Houston Texans - Part 1 - Offense
Today, instead of sitting around waiting for the Astros not to make a trade that will help them in the future, I have embarked upon a journey of examination. I will look at the Houston Texans roster position by position, starting with the offensive side of the ball. If you sit down and take a look at the Texans depth chart on ESPN.com, or even the one on NFL.com, you can see that the roster has had some serious turnover in the past two seasons and will be quite different this year as well. That being said, it is time to dig a little deeper and see what we can find, starting with the receivers.
The depth chart and roster looks like this, with starters in bold and third and fourth WR in italics:
19 Charlie Adams WR 27 6-2 190 5 Hofstra
14 David Anderson WR 24 5-10 193 2 Colorado State
18 Andre Davis WR 28 6-1 195 6 Virginia Tech
80 Andre Johnson WR 26 6-3 219 5 Miami (FL)
81 Bethel Johnson WR 28 5-11 200 5 Texas A&M
- Jacoby Jones WR 23 6-4 210 R Lane
13 Jerome Mathis WR 24 5-11 172 3 Hampton
87 Keenan McCardell WR 37 6-1 191 16 UNLV
85 Kevin Walter WR 25 6-3 214 5 Eastern Michigan
86 Harry Williams WR 24 6-2 186 1 Tuskegee
Assuming that Jacoby Jones makes the roster, you are looking at a contest between Adams, Anderson, Bethel Johnson, Jerome Mathis, and Harry Williams for the final spot on the team. I give the advantage to Bethel Johnson, with Charlie Anderson and Jerome Mathis as the next two on the list. Now if Mathis shows that he can stay healthy and also shows that he can run routes as a viable extra receiver, then he moves to the front of this list because of his ability on kickoff returns; otherwise he may be gone. But no matter how you look at it there is some talent behind Andre Johnson, and the competition between those in the #2 to #7 spots will only make everyone better.
Now as far as the tight ends go:
87 Mark Bruener TE 34 6-4 258 13 Washington
81 Owen Daniels TE 24 6-3 247 2 Wisconsin
83 Joel Dreessen TE 25 6-4 260 3 Colorado State
88 Jeb Putzier TE 28 6-4 256 6 Boise State
82 Ben Steele TE 29 6-5 260 3 Mesa State
Owen Daniels is the starter, and showed during the first half of the season that he can be an effective target over the middle as well as a reasonable pass blocker. Mark Bruener provides the team with the extra tackle like tight end, and Putzier provides excellent depth as well as another good pass catcher. We look solid at this position. Granted, we do not have a superstar here, but some of the best teams have consistent play from this position; there are very few that stay in the same category as Tony Gonzales, or Todd Heap.
Running Back -- the position that has caused the second most trouble as far as having a healthy body that can provide a consistent running attack:
43 Jameel Cook RB 28 5-10 237 7 Illinois
36 Ron Dayne RB 29 5-10 245 8 Wisconsin
35 Samkon Gado RB 24 5-11 226 3 Liberty
30 Ahman Green RB 30 6-0 218 10 Nebraska
44 Vonta Leach RB 25 6-0 250 4 East Carolina
33 Wali Lundy RB 23 5-10 214 2 Virginia
27 Chris Taylor RB 23 5-11 220 1 Indiana
Patrick Pass
With the signing of Ahman Green, and with Ron Dayne healthy, we have two veteran RBs who can still contribute. Vonta Leach is a very good fullback and excellent lead blocker that several teams tried to sign away from the Texans in the off-season. Chris Taylor, who showed some promise at the end of last season, is out for the year with a knee injury, so the final two spots will probably go to Wali Lundy, and Patrick Pass who was just signed. Pass can play both halfback and fullback, and brings the experience of three Super Bowls from New England.
Quarterback is an easy one to talk about:
5 Quinton Porter QB 24 6-5 233 1 Boston College
18 Sage Rosenfels QB 29 6-4 225 7 Iowa State
8 Matt Schaub QB 26 6-5 237 4 Virginia
10 Bradlee Van Pelt QB 27 6-2 220 3 Colorado State
Schaub is the starter, and right now I would bet that Atlanta would surrender about five times what we gave them to get him back. That being said, Rosenfels is a very capable backup, and the third spot will probably go to Van Pelt because he knows the system.
Now to the the biggest question mark on this team, the offensive line:
58 Mike Flanagan C 33 6-5 301 12 UCLA
55 Drew Hodgdon C 25 6-3 309 3 Arizona State
76 Steve McKinney C 31 6-4 302 10 Texas A&M
48 Bryan Pittman C 30 6-3 270 5 Washington
68 Chris White C 24 6-2 285 3 Southern Miss
71 Kevin Barry OT 28 6-4 332 5 Arizona
65 Jordan Black OT 27 6-5 310 5 Notre Dame
- Brandon Frye OT 24 6-4 300 R Virginia Tech
74 Ephraim Salaam OT 31 6-7 300 10 San Diego State
77 Charles Spencer OT 25 6-5 351 1 Pittsburgh
73 Eric Winston OT 23 6-6 311 2 Miami (FL)
71 Atlas Herrion OG 26 6-4 305 1 Alabama
62 Scott Jackson OG 27 6-4 300 3 Brigham Young
69 Chester Pitts OG 28 6-3 320 6 San Diego State
- Kasey Studdard OG 23 6-3 310 R Texas
70 Fred Weary OG 29 6-4 308 6 Tennessee
72 Zach Wiegert OG 34 6-5 309 13 Nebraska
The starting five at this time are Flanagan at center, Pitts and Weary at guard, Salaam and Winston at tackle, with McKinney and Weigert and Jordan Black as the first three off the bench. The one thing that Coach Kubiak wants out of his linemen on both sides of the ball, is for them to be able to change positions; that is why McKinney, Black and Weigert get the nod at this time because they are versatile. The wild cards in this discussion are Charles Spencer, who is recovering from an injury, Brandon Frye, and Kasey Studdard who are rookies and possibly candidates for the practice squad, as well as Bryan Pittman the long snapper and Drew Hodgodon who is learning to play guard. This line is not full of superstars but they are getting younger and more talented. There is finally some competition for spots, which means players cannot just sit back and expect to be starters.
So, in conclusion, with the exception of Schaub, Andre Johnson, and Ahman Green, expect to see plenty of competition for both roster spots as well as playing time once the season starts. The offense will be better this year, if only for the fact that they will be more consistent with another year under Kubiak's leadership, as well as getting some more veteran play makers on the field. If things go well we will see some nice numbers put up by this unit.
What do you all think?
Posted by bweldon @ 07/31/07 11:06 AM | Print | Comments (1)
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