questions about a couple of names.

The two in question are guys that did what I feared they would do and it would potentially keep our team from addressing their positions in the draft.

Joel Dreesen and Arian Foster.

Joel had two great games and they were the last two of the season. He was making yards after catch and coming up with some real good grabs. There are some good TEs coming out in this draft, is this guy worth keeping based on his season performance? He's not the best run blocker in the world.

Arian Foster, pretty much the same situation with him. I fear that our front office is going to assume this guy will have a repeat performance next year and avoid drafting a RB at all again or really really late. Then he doesn't and Steve Slaton is injury plagued and there we are settling for Ryan Moats.


On another note, I thought that guy Brian Russell #42 played real well. I think he takes Busing's J next year if we can keep him. Then we have Barber and Wilson for that spot. Think we will still go FS in the 1st?

I would still like to get a starting CB on this team.

Dressen... I know OD is coming off a bad injury, & we probably can't count on him to be the same guy he was. But we've still got Casey & Hill. I think we're good at TE.

Foster, while he looked good, he's no factor back. I think we've seen enough to know that. Even though I like Foster & Slaton, & think they should both have a spot on the team.... I think we should get some fresh meat to compete with Moats for the last spot.

I wouldn't mind keeping Joel Dreesen as our full time TE, the guy's got skills and potential. Arian Foster I think has earned an invite to TC next year and has potential but I don't think they see him as the full time answer at RB. I think that our interior O-line needs to be fixed more than our RB's.

I think the Foster/Slaton combo has as much potential as anybody we could pull out of the draft. I would much rather see us use the picks to try and strengthen the line in front of them.

I really don't see TE as an issue either. I'm sure we will bring OD back, and Dreesen has proven that he is a serviceable player. We also have a pass catcher in Casey and a blocker in Hill.

El Tejano said:

The two in question are guys that did what I feared they would do and it would potentially keep our team from addressing their positions in the draft.

Joel Dreesen and Arian Foster.

Joel had two great games and they were the last two of the season. He was making yards after catch and coming up with some real good grabs. There are some good TEs coming out in this draft, is this guy worth keeping based on his season performance? He's not the best run blocker in the world.

Arian Foster, pretty much the same situation with him. I fear that our front office is going to assume this guy will have a repeat performance next year and avoid drafting a RB at all again or really really late. Then he doesn't and Steve Slaton is injury plagued and there we are settling for Ryan Moats.


On another note, I thought that guy Brian Russell #42 played real well. I think he takes Busing's J next year if we can keep him. Then we have Barber and Wilson for that spot. Think we will still go FS in the 1st?

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What other injury has Slaton had besides the pinched nerve? I don't remember any issues other than a case of the fumbles....

I don't think the final two games that Foster played will change the thoughts on the draft from an RB standpoint. If I had to guess right now, I think we'll see a RB picked by the Texans in one of the first three rounds. I think the 6-year UFA requirement will likely mean all those free agents available will be older than the Texans are interested in (or at least I like to think so), so I don't think there's much risk that they bring in a veteran to address that need.

As to the TE, my thoughts are these:

1. I've heard no reason to believe O.D. won't return to form, and I'll be very surprised if they don't make 100% certain he's back next year.

2. They drafted two TE's in the '09 draft, and while neither contributed much in 2009, I don't think either one of them did anything to cause the Texans to think about giving up on them after one year.

3. Dreesen proved to be a pretty adequate backup/fill in for O.D., and unless they know something about O.D.'s injury that would dictate otherwise, I think TE is a position of strength on this team, and not one that was ever going to be in the top half of the priorities list for the 2010 draft.

El Tejano said:

The two in question are guys that did what I feared they would do and it would potentially keep our team from addressing their positions in the draft.

Joel Dreesen

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Why would anybody be surprised with Joel Dreesen? I seriously doubt the coaches are going crazy over his performance. All he did was justify their reasons for keeping him on the roster for three years and giving snaps during those three years. Everybody knew this guy was decent, doesn't mean he's going to unseat Owen Daniels or anything.

I mean they kept D. Anderson and J. Jones....doesn't mean they will replace Andre Johnson...just that they are solid players. Dreessen is what he is and what the staff expects him to be....a back up TE and excellent depth at that position.

El Tejano said:

and Arian Foster.

Arian Foster, pretty much the same situation with him. I fear that our front office is going to assume this guy will have a repeat performance next year and avoid drafting a RB at all again or really really late. Then he doesn't and Steve Slaton is injury plagued and there we are settling for Ryan Moats.

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Arian Foster is a different story. Honestly for the life of me I can't understand why so many people just try to write this kid off, because he's a UDFA. (that isn't very smart...plenty of backs have rose from being UDFAs).

While many of you got excited over Ryan Moats last year (2008) and even this year (2009)....I called the guy nothing but a filler/another "guy" in the backfield, I always wrote him off (I never liked him at all), because frankly he wasn't special at all. (small backs who don't have any special speed are a dime a dozen) (same thing goes with Chris Taylor for what it's worth...he was a big back with NO VISION and he also didn't run behind his pads).

Arian Foster is different. (I have been high on this guy since day 1...he has vision, runs heavy, and runs behind his pads) If this guy can keep his head on his shoulders, he has real talent and I hope we give him a REAL SHOT. This kid could easily be more Domanick Davis than Chris Taylor...he looks pretty freaking good.

One thing this franchise needs to get away from is being scared of finding a real gem (teams do it all the time)....Foster might be that gem and I'm sorry folks, but I don't see this F.O. drafting a RB very high next year. Maybe a mid rounder, but nothing above that.

Big Lou said:

What other injury has Slaton had besides the pinched nerve? I don't remember any issues other than a case of the fumbles....

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Re-read his post. I'm pretty sure he is saying that his fear is that Foster won't perform like he did this year, and that his fear is that Slaton will be injury plagued.
I'm not sure if I explained that well...

The Foster love reminds me a lot of the Darius Walker love after the 2007 season. Both of them had a couple of good games at the end of the season, then Walker was more or less never heard from again. That being said, I do think that Foster is a better player than Walker. He's bigger, runs with more authority, and seems to have better vision.

However, I think it would be wise to still draft a RB in the first three rounds since we don't know if Foster's performance from the last two games will carry over, Slaton is coming off an injury, and with any luck, Brown will get cut, so we'll need an extra body if nothing else. Either that or see if maybe Mike Bell or possibly Chester Taylor would like to come over in FA.

michaelm said:

Re-read his post. I'm pretty sure he is saying that his fear is that Foster won't perform like he did this year, and that his fear is that Slaton will be injury plagued.
I'm not sure if I explained that well...

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Yeah I got that, but when does that fear turn into paranoia? When do we start fearing that what a player flashes on the field isn't the real deal? When does what a kid is able to do on the football field become what he actually is? and that is a pretty damn good player

This is one of the first posts I made about Arian Foster...

Carr Bombed said:

If Arian Foster ran behind possibly the best Oline in the country and against Pac 10 defenses like Johnson did, many would feel Foster is better. (he probably would've been drafted) Foster had to make his living behind a crappy Oline and against SEC defenses.

I like Foster, because he offers something this offense doesn't have, a big bruising back. I hope he makes the team, if he does we'll greatly improve in the red zone.

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http://www.texanstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1196333&highlight=arian+foster#post1196333

This is when everybody was raving about Jeremiah Johnson, who was "the fraud" from day one. People forget about how undermanned those Tenn. teams were in the SEC (and make no mistake...I'm not a "SEC" guy, but they do have defensive talent)

Carr Bombed said:

I'm not saying he isn't talented, just his stats are somewhat inflated. Oregon had a DOMINANT offensive line in a pretty weak conference. Foster in the SEC played against the players he'll be facing every Sunday in the NFL.....just saying what you see on his highlights gives a clearer view of what you can hope to see on Sundays.

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http://www.texanstalk.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1172621&postcount=102

D-ReK said:

The Foster love reminds me a lot of the Darius Walker love after the 2007 season. Both of them had a couple of good games at the end of the season, then Walker was more or less never heard from again. That being said, I do think that Foster is a better player than Walker. He's bigger, runs with more authority, and seems to have better vision.

However, I think it would be wise to still draft a RB in the first three rounds since we don't know if Foster's performance from the last two games will carry over, Slaton is coming off an injury, and with any luck, Brown will get cut, so we'll need an extra body if nothing else. Either that or see if maybe Mike Bell or possibly Chester Taylor would like to come over in FA.

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look above......me and many people were high on Foster WAY BEFORE he ever proved it on the field at the NFL level. This isn't a "Walker" situation. Foster held a high grade if he came out the year before and he had real NFL talent. Then when you top off the fact that all the guy did was flash and live up to that talent when given the chance (and I'm not talking about preseason) then you understand why people are high on him.

Again, when does a fluke become a steal? Some of y'all aren't open to the idea that we have a real steal here ala Davis.