My Draft Analysis on Houston

Heres how I see Houstons draft selections and why I think they did a good job this year (unlike Kiper). So here it is, Houston's draft analysis.

1st Round: Travis Johnson, DT, Florida State - I personally thought Spears but I did say we need D Line help. There are multiple reasons however as to why we took him. For one, the D Line rotation Florida State used is very similar to the one Houston uses, so he should be able to come in and help right away. Another reason is because he is 6'3'' 305 and runs a 4.9, so he can help generate a pass rush, which we desprately need. Ill give Gary Walker credit for being a good run stuffer, but Walker has had 1/2 a sack in 2 years. Age is another reason with Walker being 32 and Payne being 30. The last good reason why we took him is what he will do for our LBs. What he will do is take up some Offensive Linemen which will allow our LBs to make the plays they need to. He may not put up the glamorous stats, but most 3-4 Defensive Linemen dont anyways. We just need him to be a team player and wreck havoc!
PICK GRADE: B+

2nd Round: Traded for Phillip Buchanon - With who was available at this pick (Webster and Miller), does it not seem like we got a great deal?He is a great athlete who needed a fresh start and will get one in Houston. In time, Robinson and Buchanon will also be a feared duo. Im glad we made this trade, It brings us a good player. It also means Glenn is gone and that we are getting younger. Hate to see him go, but the NFL is a business and this is a business decision.
TRADE GRADE: A-

3rd Round: Vernand Morency, RB, Oklahoma State - Domanick Davis is a great RB who has produced big seasons, but he did get hurt abit. Our backups, Hollings and Wells are both not that spectacular and Hollings is oft injured. Picking Morrency is a good insurance plan and has a game very similar to Domanicks. He also is about the same speed and about the same age so many feel we got a Davis clone. So with oft injured RBs and a guy whos play is similar to our starters, how is this a bad pick?
PICK GRADE: B

4th Round: Jerome Mathis, WR, Hampton - Great sleeper pick here. The man runs a 4.31 40 and is a track star who is also a great football player. Obviously, he'll need some work refining his techniques because hes a D2 prospect, but the end result could be rewarding. In a couple years, he could turn out to be our number 2 guy or the speed guy we wanted. Good steal here.
PICK GRADE: B+

5th Round: Drew Hodgdon, C/G, Arizona State - Good Offensive line prospect who can play either center or guard. He has decent size and went against good competition (Shaun Cody, Mike Patterson). Nice addition to our "Horrid Offensive Line". I doubt he'll start any time soon, but brings some much needed youth and a good backup for McKinney.
PICK GRADE: B

6th Round: Ceandris Brown, S, Louisiana - Laf - Ill admit, this pick had me scratching my head, curious as to who he was, but i found out that he's a good small school prospect. He has good speed, decent size, all the measurables, and had over 100 tackles this last season. Kind of a gamble at this point, but has potential. Could be the eventual replacement of Marcus Coleman in the near future. A good find by Houston's scouts.
PICK GRADE: B-

7th Round: Kenneth Pettway, OLB, Grambling St - When I said Houston likes to take tweeners and projects, this is a guy I was talking about. He's fair size at 6'3'' 240 and ran a good 40 (4.6 - 4.7) and great productivity as a senior (8 sacks). A real gamble, but it cant hurt.
PICK GRADE: C+

OVERALL: B+

If you dont think they deserve a B+ grade, just wait and see what happens. I dont think anyone was high on Robinson or Babin and look what happened there. In Casserly We Trust!

I'll say this....I was not happy with the TJ pick with T. Davis right there whom i think we thought would fall to us at 16 and DJ still on the board. The fact that we fussed about DJ playing in a 4-3 bothered me since that's what TJ played in.

However I really like the late round picks from 4 on down. I think small school players have a bigger chip and something to prove. Let's face it if more scouting was done down there you'd find more gems. Kenny Houston, Walter Payton, Jerry Rice....just to name a few came from small schools. Grambling St. has produced the most NFL players of all-time so its not like this guy isn't coming from a football program.

Much props to the scouts on the smaller school finds.

I also gave us a B, but with me its not so much who we took that I have a problem with. We seem to have completely ignored the left side of our offensive line in the draft. We did try to get Pace, so its not completely ignored, but I cannot be the only one who saw Carr getting abused back there last year. Next year I hope that we can look back on this, and point out my statements saying how wrong I was.


I have not seen any news reports about it yet, but I hope we sign some undrafted FA for the O-Line. *Sigh*

I gave us a C+ because the pick for Morency in the third round was very questionable when there wer better players that could come in and immediately fill a need for us. Morency is not bad, but we could have got him or his equivalent in the later rounds. I like the kid C. Brown and Pettway was a demon at GB st. Mathis will make Bradford a June 1 cut hopefully and the combination of AJ, Gaff, Mathis, and Armstrong will be something most teams do not want to see. Our second day was good but the Morency pick which was a D pick for me brought our average down. I would be willing to move up to a C- if we pick up Brimmer or some undrafted O-linemen.

I gotta give us a C- as well. With our 2nd round and 3rd round pick being traded for PB we had to pick up at least one OL after the 1st round.

Consider that E. Brown from UVA was still on the board with the Morency pick. Why would we take a RB who won't start over a OL who could?

But I wont grade this draft till the end of the season but as of right now they really left me scratching my head with their first two picks.

Good brake down Lork. I agree with everything here.

I'll give us a solid A. We got TJ fairly low (he could have been a top 10 last year), we got Morency who just might be better than DD (who was co-rookie of the year remember) and we absolutely stole Mathis.

morency is 25. we needed OL help. we could have held off on a back till next year with the likes of reggie bush coming out.

mathis was by far our best assumed pick