Jerome Solomon's article...

[TEXANRED]

Originally Posted by Marcus

Amazing.

I just got through reading this entire thread, and not one time did anyone spell Kevin (Walter)'s name right.

Some knowledgable fans, I tell you what?

Most of us figure we can talk facts and opinions and let you grammer police people do the rest.

[nut]

That article doesn't mean anything. Those pencil pushers need to write anything off the top of their head so they can get paid and/or meet a deadline. Our receiving core is nothing special anyway, other than Johnson.

[ObsiWan]

Originally Posted by NitroHonda

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...t/5786940.html


What? I don't really get this. Below average with Andre Johnson? I'm really confused by this assertation. Can anyone relate to what Solomon's trying to say? I could ask him but that probably won't even garner a reply. It's tough getting writers to answer questions at times.

Actually, I'm confused by the article in its entirety. I'm not sure what he's trying to approach with the logic being implemented in there somewhere. Does anyone understand the article? Maybe an explaination? Explain it to me as if I was a six year old? Or is an explaination needed as if I was an adult?

This is just a useless article if you were to ask me? Absolutely utterly useless.

The point of the article is that our team has made so much progress in the past 2-3 seasons that the 2008 backups would be a better team than the 2004 or 2005 starters.

He's simply illustrating how far we've come, how much we've improved, since Smithiak have been making the personnel moves.

The only places where the older team is as good or maybe slightly better is WR, DE, and LB.

Let's look at the WRs for example -
2004/05 Starters - A.J., Jabar Gaffney, Corey Bradford.
2008 Backups - Andre Davis, Jacoby Jones, David Anderson

Since Andre Johnson is a starter on the 2004/2005 teams, that automatically gives those WR squads the edge over the Andre-less 2008 backups.

take QB -
2004/05 - David Carr
2008 backup - Sage Rosenfels
Any questions?

RB...
04/05 - Domanick Davis, Jonathan Wells, T. Hollings/V. Morency
2008 B/Us - Chris Brown, Chris Taylor, Steve Slaton
I'll take 2008, thank you.

And so it goes.

Solomon is saying we've vastly improved. That opening line is to illustrate what most of us already know - Very few folks outside of Houston Texas KNOW how good the Texans have become.

I like the article. And I agree with most of it.

To put it another way, if we made up an All-Time Texans team, how many of the 04/05 guys (that aren't still with us) would make it?

[Hardcore Texan]

Originally Posted by Marcus

Amazing.

I just got through reading this entire thread, and not one time did anyone spell Kevin (Walter)'s name right.

Some knowledgable fans, I tell you what?

Grate phost!!!!

[Thorn]

Originally Posted by Maddict5

only thorn and texanred called him walters.. 2 people

.......and I'm old, senile, and missing a few brain cells. So I have an excuse.

[mussop]

Originally Posted by Hardcore Texan

And from everything I have read Slaton has good hands too.

Where did you read this? I keep seeing people say this but I cant find it anywhere. Am I missing something or is everyone just assuming Slaton has good hands because so many here have proclaimed him our future "third down back". He only had 65 catches in 3 years (12, 27, 26). Not bad but not exactly special either.

I cant find it but IIRC Kubiac said Slaton needed to work on his recieving skills becuase he hadnt done much of it in college. Hell maybe im mistaken.

[Goldensilence]

Originally Posted by mussop

Where did you read this? I keep seeing people say this but I cant find it anywhere. Am I missing something or is everyone just assuming Slaton has good hands because so many here have proclaimed him our future "third down back". He only had 65 catches in 3 years (12, 27, 26). Not bad but not exactly special either.

I cant find it but IIRC Kubiac said Slaton needed to work on his recieving skills becuase he hadnt done much of it in college. Hell maybe im mistaken.

Got to have good hands to run the spread option like they did at West Virginia.

I love people talking about elite WR corps and being feared. Name off the elite WR corps in the NFL and how many made it to the Superbowl. The last one that I can clearly recall at this point in the morning is Indy's. Who I would probably consider at the top is Detriot, Cinci, Arizona, Indy, and Dallas. Two of those made the playoffs and one choked with homefleld advantage.

I don't mind not having an elite WR corps because I think we have something much more important with ours. We have a group of WRs that fit what we're wanting to do offensively. Sure the over the top bomb is great fun to watch but what really breaks defenses backs is repeated third down conversions that sustain long drives.

Some parts of this team might not jump off the board at you with instant recognition but stepping back they're part of a balanced approach to football. Those are the teams that keep sustained success.

[Brando]

To me he is basically saying that we have developed depth over the 2005 club. Our 2008 back-ups would beat out 2005 starters is almost a given.

The offensive side.....

Sage over David Carr. Easy Decision, I think I would rather have Quinn Gray start over David Carr.

Brown, Taylor and Slaton over D.Davis(Williams), Jonathan Wells and Vernand Morency. I would rather have 2008's back-ups over 2005's starter. D. Davis was a 3rd down back not to be confused with an every down back and maybe why his career was shortened. He was the offense, back in 2004/2005.

Jabar Gaffney, Andre Johnson, Corey Bradford,Mark Bruener over André Davis, Jacoby Jones, David Anderson and an older Bruener. AJ being the starter made this a tough one but JJ and Andre Davis is better than Jabar Gaffney and Corey Bradford, easily.


2008 OL backups Salaam,Studdard,Black,Butler,Spencer over 2005 OL Starters Victor Riley,Wade,Weigert,Pitts,Mckinney. We still need to see how Spencer comes back to have a better judgement on this one. I'll take this years back-ups because they are better than Riley,Wade,Weigart with only Pitts being the best from 2005. If I remember correctly Mckinney didn't have a good 2005.

The defensive side.....

I'll take N.D. Kalu(not Weaver), Jeff Zgonina and Frank Okam over an aging Robaire Smith, Seth Payne and Gary Walker. While we still need to have Okam play in his rookie year I like the upside better than the 2005 starters.

Adibi,Diles,Bentley over Greenwood,Wong(injured),Babin. It's hard to compare the linebackers since we are using a different scheme(4-3 instead of 3-4) but just taking the top 3 LB's for comparison's sake I would take Adibi,Diles and Bentley. Again we still need to play 2008 to get a better feel for this group of back-ups.

Reeves,Molden,Earl,Ferguson over Buchanon,Robinson,C.C. Brown,Earl. Again we still need to have 2008 play out and see how the depth chart looks but for comparison's sake any time you have P-Burnt as a starter that makes the 2005 starters look bad. I'll take Reeves/Molden over Buchanon any day of the week.

[Thorn]

Originally Posted by Goldensilence

Sure the over the top bomb is great fun to watch but what really breaks defenses backs is repeated third down conversions that sustain long drives.

Yep. That's the truth.

[nero THE zero]

Originally Posted by TEXANRED

A possession receiver should not be your #2 guy. They call it a skill position for a reason.

You better call Kubiak and tell him he doesn't know what he's doing then!

[TEXANRED]

Originally Posted by nero THE zero

You better call Kubiak and tell him he doesn't know what he's doing then!

Nice, I have an opinion that may not be kissing the Texans ass and all of a sudden I am telling Kubiak he doesnt know what he is doing.

I have been screaming since last year that our core is average at best and filled with a bunch of #3's.

Let them prove me wrong. We are not very athletic at the WR position outside of AJ. Can you retort otherwise? Is there something that you have seen that I have missed?

[NitroGSXR]

Originally Posted by TEXANRED

Nice, I have an opinion that may not be kissing the Texans ass and all of a sudden I am tellieng Kubiak he doesnt know what he is doing.

I have been screaming since last year that our core is average at best and filled with a bunch of #3's.

Let them prove me wrong. We are not very athletic at the WR position outside of AJ. Can you retort otherwise? Is there something that you have seen that I have missed?

I could give two bleeps if we're not very athletic when we're ranked in the top five for passing in the AFC (7th in the NFL). Could care less. I'm not sure why their performance last season didn't prove you wrong though. Sure you can use the we had no run game blah blah as an argument but you can't say that we threw exclusively because we didn't. 529 passing attempts to 417 rushing attempts. That doesn't really scream at me that we're a pass happy team. What it tells me is that our receivers are doing a heckuva job out there. We were ranked a paltry 7th in the NFL with 7.4 yards per passing attempt. Who cares if they're not extremely athletic. They're getting the job done and I, for one, am a happy customer.

[Grid]

Between Johnson, Davis, Walter, and Daniels..we have enough tools to compete with pretty much any team in the league.

[ChampionTexan]

Originally Posted by nero THE zero

You better call Kubiak and tell him he doesn't know what he's doing then!

Ed McCaffrey might also be interested to find out that he shouldn't have been the #2 receiver on those two Super Bowl champions - what being a possession guy and all.

[Texans_Chick]

I don't think it is completely crazy to say that that the Texans WR (with exception of Andre Johnson) are not great receivers.

The WRs that the Texans have, other than Andre Johnson are mostly guys that other teams really weren't that interested in. They are either not unusually fast, or maybe don't have good height or injury problems, and/or are very inexperienced.

Last year, at about this time, Texans MB were dying over who the Texans can acquire to be a #2 receiver, and that was a big issue going into last season.

That being said, the Texans scheme under Kubiak with the way the wide receivers fit into it, can make those receivers look better than they are as just a matter of skill sets. You wouldn't expect a lot of teams to covet the Texans receivers, other than Andre Johnson. So it wouldn't surprise me to hear scouts from other teams say that stuff.

[TEXANRED]

Originally Posted by NitroHonda

I could give two bleeps if we're not very athletic when we're ranked in the top five for passing in the AFC (7th in the NFL). Could care less. I'm not sure why their performance last season didn't prove you wrong though. Sure you can use the we had no run game blah blah as an argument but you can't say that we threw exclusively because we didn't. 529 passing attempts to 417 rushing attempts. That doesn't really scream at me that we're a pass happy team. What it tells me is that our receivers are doing a heckuva job out there. We were ranked a paltry 7th in the NFL with 7.4 yards per passing attempt. Who cares if they're not extremely athletic. They're getting the job done and I, for one, am a happy customer.

The Texans last year threw for 3751 passing yards. That is a pretty good number. I agree with that. Lets look to see how our WR core contributed to that number.

Andre Johnson, 9 games started, 7 missed due to injury. 851 yards and 8 TD's. Misses almost half a season and comes up just shy of 1000 yards? Get this man his yellow jacket.

Now for the rest:

Walter - (No S? guess you can learn me something.) 15 games started 800 yards and 4 TD's. Really? Thats it? Shouldn't he be more productive with AJ gone for 7 games? Isn't your #2 receiver supposed to be the second best receiver on the team? Only 4 TD's?

Andre Davis - 8 games started, 33 receptions, 583 yards and 3 TD's. Respectable for only 8 starts. Solid #3 numbers.

Jacoby Jones - Why even bother showing up and putting on pads? 3 starts, 14 games played in, 15 receptions 149 yards 0 TD's.

With AJ out of the picture for 7 games Walter should of had at least a 1000 yard season. As I said, he is supposed to be the second best receiver on the team.

Our 2,3,and 4 WR's scored a whopping 7 TD's combined. And last I check its the guy who has the most points and the end of the game that wins. 7 TD's as a receiving unit is pathetic.

OD is a TE not a WR as I am talking of only our WR unit, not the passing game as a whole.

Ed McCafferey had wheels on him and could run and break one loose. There is no comparison between the two. How come the white WR's always get compared to one another?

[TheRealJoker]

Chris Carter would disagree with the "possession WRs cant be # 2s" after his time spent playing second fiddle to Moss in Minnesota.

But what does he know? All he ever did was catch touchdowns...

[TEXANRED]

Originally Posted by TheRealJoker

Chris Carter would disagree with the "possession WRs cant be # 2s" after his time spent playing second fiddle to Moss in Minnesota.

But what does he know? All he ever did was catch touchdowns...

http://www.nfl.com/players/criscarte...s?id=CAR632736

Cris Carter was a #1 long before Moss showed up.

[TheRealJoker]

Originally Posted by TEXANRED

http://www.nfl.com/players/criscarte...s?id=CAR632736

Cris Carter was a #1 long before Moss showed up.

So now possession WRs can be # 1 WRs?

Checkmate.

[Mr PC]

Originally Posted by TheRealJoker

So now possession WRs can be # 1 WRs?

Checkmate.

Colston is a possession receiver, he is no. 1 on the Saints depth chart.