Poll: TJ Yates or Delhomme?

[dream_team]

Delhomme has basically played 3 quarters of football this season, and you guys are ready to hand him the keys in the Texans first ever playoff game?

Yates has played pretty much 5 games, as well as been with us all season, not to mention already beat this very same Bengal team.

This is a no-brainer for me. TJ!

[Nitrofish]

Originally Posted by dream_team

Delhomme has basically played 3 quarters of football this season, and you guys are ready to hand him the keys in the Texans first ever playoff game?

Yates has played pretty much 5 games, as well as been with us all season, not to mention already beat this very same Bengal team.

This is a no-brainer for me. TJ!

Kind of a silly argument when you consider TJ had played 0 quarters of football when we handed the keys to him. Besides you make it sound as if Delhomme is a career backup or a rookie himself. Delhomme has tons of game and playoff experience.

You might also want to keep in mind the Bengals were missing key players in their secondary when TJ carved them up during those last two drives. Allot more tape on TJ now and those missing players will be back in the lineup now.

Check out a few of the records Delhomme holds.

• Tied for most post-season road victories by a quarterback in NFL history (tied with Len Dawson, Roger Staubach, Mark Sanchez and Joe Flacco)
• Longest pass in the Super Bowl in NFL History (85 yard pass to Mushin Muhammad) (SB XXXVIII)

I think people are voting with their hearts not their head IMO, and I can understand why. Great young kid who will forever have a place in our hearts after the Falcons and Bengals games. Everyone roots for the underdog and in this case I can definitely understand why.

There is no question it is Yates that will start, but if he is not getting it done by halftime, I think Kubiak has to give him the hook.

We will see. Is it Saturday yet?!

[Malloy]

Hm... tough one, can't decide.

I like our rookie and love to see him get the chance. I also liked how we started throwing more than 2-yard passes once Delhomme came in.

Either way we're screwed, but since there's always a chance, I'll probably go with TJ, for the fairytale rollercoaster value alone

[Trail.Blazr]

Originally Posted by Nitrofish

Kind of a silly argument when you consider TJ had played 0 quarters of football when we handed the keys to him. Besides you make it sound as if Delhomme is a career backup or a rookie himself. Delhomme has tons of game and playoff experience.

You might also want to keep in mind the Bengals were missing key players in their secondary when TJ carved them up during those last two drives. Allot more tape on TJ now and those missing players will be back in the lineup now.

Check out a few of the records Delhomme holds.

• Tied for most post-season road victories by a quarterback in NFL history (tied with Len Dawson, Roger Staubach, Mark Sanchez and Joe Flacco)
• Longest pass in the Super Bowl in NFL History (85 yard pass to Mushin Muhammad) (SB XXXVIII)

I think people are voting with their hearts not their head IMO, and I can understand why. Great young kid who will forever have a place in our hearts after the Falcons and Bengals games. Everyone roots for the underdog and in this case I can definitely understand why.

There is no question it is Yates that will start, but if he is not getting it done by halftime, I think Kubiak has to give him the hook.

We will see. Is it Saturday yet?!

Mark Sanchez I'm in!

My big concern with Jake is based on recent history.
- He was dreadful in his last couple of seasons with Carolina
- He was ushered out of Cleveland in leiu of Colt McCoy. I'll give him a flier there, as he probably was not considered the future of that franchise.
- He's only played one game this season and looked OK, but could have looked worse... almost as he played worse than his stats would indicate.

On the flip side, when I try to look at positives of his recent history... I simply draw a blank.

I feel overall, given the options in this poll, TJ gives you more of a methodical approach on offense, while Jake is more of a Gunslinger out there for one last hoorah.

Given that TJ is way more inline with how this offense is built, I has to be TJ for me, as he's already proven that he CAN win a tough game.

I'm like tex though.... I don't have a whole lot of optimism on this team's prognosis of getting to the superbowl on the shoulders of either man.

[Calface4]

Is this seriously even a question?? Yates looked amazing against tennessee. On his only drive he was 4/4 with 47 yards and no INT. He converted on difficult third and long (lets not forget our 3rd down efficiency problems in the last couple games...he's only getting better). And some of you are saying that his shoulder injury might affect his play? It's his non throwing shoulder for crying out loud!!! We can just inject his shoulder with some anti-pain medication and he should be good to go. It would be a horrible mistake to go with delhomme. Stick with yates. He has been the plan all along.

[HOU-TEX]

Unfortunately, it's simple for me.

T.J. = Knows the entire playbook

Delhomme = Does not

Jake all but admitted he was learning a lot of plays on the fly in Sundays game. I'll take the QB who understands the system as a whole over a guy that was limited to "emergency" type plays before Sunday.

In the end, there's a chance we might win the Bengals game, but I'm not expecting to go much further.

[Nitrofish]

Originally Posted by Calface4

Is this seriously even a question?? Yates looked amazing against tennessee. On his only drive he was 4/4 with 47 yards and no INT. He converted on difficult third and long (lets not forget our 3rd down efficiency problems in the last couple games...he's only getting better). And some of you are saying that his shoulder injury might affect his play? It's his non throwing shoulder for crying out loud!!! We can just inject his shoulder with some anti-pain medication and he should be good to go. It would be a horrible mistake to go with delhomme. Stick with yates. He has been the plan all along.

Yeah.. just inject it... then he gets sacked again by another 300 lb nose tackle landing on him and smashing him and his injured shoulder into the turf just like against the Titans. Same way Leinart was injured.

Even an injury on a non throwing shoulder is going to effect him. The other arm is used for balance during the throwing motion. Unless you are telling me he is not going to get sacked all game, I think chances are we will see Delhomme.

Don't you think they will be after that shoulder when pass rushing? I know I would be especially after what he did to them last time.

[mussop]

Originally Posted by axman40

I would like to see Yates start in hurry up mode and force the Bengals to stay in their base defense.

Not with Kubiac coaching. This is where the "offensive genius" should pull out all the stops. But I bet he goes straight vanilla.

[drunkcookie]

I can't vote, too tough of a decision...

I like Yates, and think he can be the future QB of this franchise in a few years if Schaub is done, but that's "in a few years"... The question is "It's the playoffs in 2012, who should start at QB for the Texans?"

I don't think that there is a cut and dry answer to the question... We're not talking a one vs. a four here, we're talking a three vs. a four, and right now, with that three only making his first NFL start a month ago tomorrow, there's no real separation between the two QBs in question, IMO... And have we really seen enough in this short time to say either way?

Then we have the four (Delhomme).. he sucked in his last gig, and was sucking the gig prior to his last one... But would the three have done any better in those situations? I doubt it...

Too tough of a call... But if i had a gun to my head, I'd go with Yates, just because he's been in the system longer and has had more time to gel with the receivers... and i don't think i'd enjoy being shot in the head...

It is very tempting to go with The Vet over The Kid, though.. Delhomme looked comfortable running the offense Sunday, and has that playoff experience and more experience period...

screw it, i'll go with The Ve *boom*

[Calface4]

Originally Posted by Nitrofish

Yeah.. just inject it... then he gets sacked again by another 300 lb nose tackle landing on him and smashing him and his injured shoulder into the turf just like against the Titans. Same way Leinart was injured.

Even an injury on a non throwing shoulder is going to effect him. The other arm is used for balance during the throwing motion. Unless you are telling me he is not going to get sacked all game, I think chances are we will see Delhomme.

Don't you think they will be after that shoulder when pass rushing? I know I would be especially after what he did to them last time.

What i am saying is that you stick with Yates even if he is a little banged up. I would feel much more comfortable starting yates who has been with this system since august rather than delhomme who has been here since december. If yates goes down then delhomme would be the "next man up". Delhomme isn't our best option! Yates is..

[Double Barrel]

There is a reason why Jake Delholme was not even a backup on an NFL team and was available for us late in a season.

Our head coach says TJ Yates is the man, so I'm good with it. He's got his reasons, and he's not going to make a decision based on emotions or other intangibles. He's going to make the decision for what is best for the team. I know many folks think otherwise at times, but Kubiak > fans.

[Mr teX]

TJ only b/c at this point, you've gotta ride with him...can't take the reins from the kid now that he's gotten us here. We also need to find out what we have in him; a guy that can possibly give Schaub some comp in a year, or just a quality back-up. If he fails miserably in the playoffs, it was expected if he flourishes, we will almost assuredly have our qb of the near future.

[dream_team]

Is it because of his TD drive at the end of the game we're making Delhomme's performance seem better than it actually was? I think he was solid, and he performed better than I expected, but he didn't have such a good game to make me start to think we should start him over Yates.

Take a look again at the offense's performance while he was in. 45% of the time we went 3 & out. In actuality, he only drove the offense down the field in one series (Series 7). The big play in series 4 was a penalty, and series 5 was due to the long run by Tate. I give him alot of credit for the last drive, but it did start on the TEN 36.

Series 1
3 & out

Series 2
3 & out

Series 3
Delhomme fumble

Series 4
52 yard FG
3-4 for 31 yards, big play was an unneccessary roughness penalty

Series 5
37 yard FG
Mostly due to the Tate 56 yard run. Delhomme completed one screen pass for 9 yards.

Series 6
3 & out

Series 7
Rackers 22 yard FG
3-4 for 60 yards

Series 8
3 & out

Series 9
3 & out

Series 10
Nice 40 yard completion to Johnson, but went 3 & out right after that.

Series 11
Nice drive to get game winning TD, but he actually only had to go 36 yards

Now I'm not trying to take anything away from Delhomme's performance, I think he played solid. But he didn't have such a great performance that we should start him over our starter of the past 5 weeks and been with us the whole season.

[The Pencil Neck]

I can see the arguments from both sides but... I'm just glad I don't have to make the decision. I'm fine with it either way.

My heart says TJ. It would be an epic story if this 5th round draft choice could come in and win some playoff games. AND, I think it's the first time two rookies have ever faced each other as starters in an NFL Playoff game. TJ knows the entire offense and he's shown the guts to win games at the end.

My head says Delhomme. He may not know the entire playbook, but he looked pretty good playing with a bunch of backups against the Titan's 1st string. His past couple of years in Carolina and Cleveland were terrible and he showed hints of that with his ball security. But he's been to the Super Bowl and he's shown at times in his career that he could make things happen.

I couldn't vote either way.

[drunkcookie]

Originally Posted by Double Barrel

There is a reason why Jake Delholme was not even a backup on an NFL team and was available for us late in a season.
.

I can agree that Yates should start, and agree Kubiak probably knows what's best here (he's the QB guru), but i don't think your take quoted above really says anything...

Like i said earlier, we're talking 3 vs. 4 here, not 1 or even 2 vs. 4... Just as there's a reason Delhomme was on the street, there's also a reason Yates was a 3rd string QB... Neither of their situations would suggest greatness...

[ObsiWan]

I have a related question - and maybe it needs it's own thread - but who would you keep as the third guy next season?

Leinart or Delhomme?

[Double Barrel]

Originally Posted by drunkcookie

I can agree that Yates should start, and agree Kubiak probably knows what's best here (he's the QB guru), but i don't think your take quoted above really says anything...

Like i said earlier, we're talking 3 vs. 4 here, not 1 or even 2 vs. 4... Just as there's a reason Delhomme was on the street, there's also a reason Yates was a 3rd string QB... Neither of their situations would suggest greatness...

Yates was third string QB on the roster because he's a late round rookie. This team did not need a starting QB, so they picked him up for development. Somebody would have drafted TJ in the next couple of rounds. We have already read the news stories.

Delhomme was not employed because he is not that good now. Otherwise, he'd be on someone's roster as a backup. It's not rocket science here. The Texans were desperate and took whatever they could get.

[drunkcookie]

Originally Posted by Double Barrel

Yates was third string QB on the roster because he's a late round rookie. This team did not need a starting QB, so they picked him up for development. Somebody would have drafted TJ in the next couple of rounds. We have already read the news stories.

Delhomme was not employed because he is not that good now. Otherwise, he'd be on someone's roster as a backup. It's not rocket science here. The Texans were desperate and took whatever they could get.

I get that, but he's still a 5th round draft pick and a rookie who needs development, which is why he was a 3rd string QB, behind Matt Leinhart who hadn't done much better than Delhomme his previous go...

Not arguing for Delhomme over Yates, I've just heard and seen your point about Delhomme a few times and i just don't feel it means much when comparing him to a 3rd string, practice squad quarterback, which is one step away from the curb...

[Mr teX]

Originally Posted by ObsiWan

I have a related question - and maybe it needs it's own thread - but who would you keep as the third guy next season?

Leinart or Delhomme?

Delhomme easy only b/c the little i saw of lienart in the jags game i didn't like. Specifically, i didn't think he looked like a guy who'd been in this system for a year plus; he looked uncomfortable...that's troubling in & of itself. Contrast that with how TJ played when he 1st got in & now Delhomme, its' almost night & day imo. Of course too, his arm was still on little league pop-gun status & that this is the 2nd time he's broken his collarbone since he's been in the league...not good.

People talk about schaub... But just based on what has happened to Lienart thus far in his career here & in AZ, this dude is mentally soft, physically soft & even throws soft... the poster child for someone who can't survive in the NFL at qb.

[Double Barrel]

Originally Posted by drunkcookie

I get that, but he's still a 5th round draft pick and a rookie who needs development, which is why he was a 3rd string QB, behind Matt Leinhart who hadn't done much better than Delhomme his previous go...

Not arguing for Delhomme over Yates, I've just heard and seen your point about Delhomme a few times and i just don't feel it means much when comparing him to a 3rd string, practice squad quarterback, which is one step away from the curb...

I think it's just a matter of each QB being on opposite ends of their careers. Jake was pretty much retired when he got the call. Dude wasn't even working out to compete for a job at the time. I think I heard that he had just returned from a trip to Disney with his family when he got called.

TJ is obviously a rookie, but his upside is greater simply because we don't know what he's got for a ceiling and he's much more mobile. Plus, he's more familiar with this offense, both in terms of his college career and his time with the team.