Could Kubiak be Hollings saving grace?

Hollings has taken a lot of abuse on this board. Most of it, because he just hasn't produced. However, it's not like he's had a lot of opportunities. He tore his ACL in 2002 & didn't get his first carries in the NFL until 2003. Anyone that's familiar with ACL injuries knows that it takes a good year after surgery & rehab to get past the fear of your knee collapsing again. So, his 38 carries for 102 yards & a 2.7 yard per carry average was understandable.

In 2004 he still battled various injuries (knee/hamstring), but his production increased when he did get into the game (4.3 ypg/9.2 yards per reception).

In 2005, he was limited to just 2 games. As far as I know, he was healthy for the entire year, but DD had already established himself as the starter & Wells had stepped up his game. I believe that Capers was too conservative on offense, had written him off by then, & was happy with the staus-quo. With Capers as the head coach, Hollings would never have been given a chance to show what he could do when he was healthy.

Now, Hollings may end up being one of the biggest busts in the Texans' history, but I'm not willing to so easily write him off, as others on this board are. Everyone's talking about the need to draft Bush, because DD doesn't have breakaway speed. Hollings does. He's easily the fastest RB on this team & has given some glimpses of his abilities (albeit, not enough glimpses) to take our RB position to the next level. He's got prototypical RB size at 5'11" 220lbs & is only 24 years old. He can definitely turn the corner, but his biggest weakness has been running between the tackles (kinda' sounds like Bush, doesn't it?), & that's where Kubiak comes in.

With Kubiak's experience with Denver's zone blocking scheme, could he be Hollings' saving grace? As we all know, Denver can plug just about any RB into their system & make him look like one of the best RB's of all time. With Hollings' speed, lateral movement, & pass catching abilities, he could be the RB that everyone thinks we'll suddenly find in Bush. I'd sure hate to use the #1 pick in the draft on Bush, if we already have a potential Bush clone on our roster, for a fraction of the cost.

Yes, I'm in the trade down for more picks camp, but Young does have me questioning that position as well.

Anyway, the question up for discussion is, Could Kubiak be Hollings saving grace? Fire away.

No, he has alot more problems then just getting playing time

Carr Bomb said:

No, he has alot more problems then just getting playing time

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Like what?!? Because he got pulled over for drinking & happened to have a gun with him? Any one of us could have that happen. He made a mistake.

NO. Hollings has personal issues and is not a mature individual. He will be cut this offseason regardless of whether we draft Bush. He has speed, but he also fumbles much more frequently than I would like. Additionally, he is the only back worst that DD at picking up the blitz.

Hottoddie said:

Like what?!? Because he got pulled over for drinking & happened to have a gun with him? Any one of us could have that happen. He made a mistake.

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yes, but any one of us isnt in the nfl.

alcohol+guns+lack of production+expectations=bust

Hottoddie said:

Like what?!? Because he got pulled over for drinking & happened to have a gun with him? Any one of us could have that happen. He made a mistake.

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Ah....yeah, if your irresponsible. Your not going to catch me on the side of the road drunk, packing heat. If that crap happens to me I get a dishonorable discharge.

Hottoddie said:

Like what?!? Because he got pulled over for drinking & happened to have a gun with him? Any one of us could have that happen. He made a mistake.

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Who said he got pulled over for drinking? from what I have seen, he was pulled over for a traffic stop, not dwi.

Carr Bomb said:

Ah....yeah, if your irresponsible. Your not going to catch me on the side of the road drunk, packing heat. If that crap happens to me I get a dishonorable discharge.

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Okay, let me tell you a story that happened to me one time.

A buddy & I had just dropped some furniture off at my mom's house & were heading to the pistol range. We never even gave it any thought about the fact that the guns were in the cab of the truck, along with the ammo (mistake #1). We were just talking & driving to the range like we had always done. Only, this time we made a trip out of the way &, as it turned out, I was driving above the speed limit (mistake #2). My buddy suddenly pointed to a Deputy Constable car coming at us from the opposite direction (mistake #3),which must've prompted them to get suspicious of us. They turned around & started following us. Suddenly, we both realized that we had loaded guns all over the cab in open view. So, we compound the situation by having my buddy scrambling around to put the guns into our gun bags (mistake #4). After David finished putting the guns away & sat back up, the Deputies hit their lights & came upon us rather quickly & made us get out of the truck.

If you're a law abiding citizen like I am, & have never had a brush with the law, then you can't even begin to know the fear I was feeling about that time. Anyway to make a long story short, they read us the riot act about carrying guns, gave me a ticket for speeding, & let us go.

The bottom line is, we made 4 stupid mistakes & had no evil intent what-so-ever. Neither one of had been, or have since been, in any trouble with the law. We just made some thoughtless mistakes. Without reading the police report & knowing all the details of the incident, there is no way that anyone can know for sure why he had that gun with him. Just because he plays in the NFL is no reason to put a blanket judgement on him. After all, they're just like you & me, with the exception of their bank accounts.

texanfan2002114 said:

Who said he got pulled over for drinking? from what I have seen, he was pulled over for a traffic stop, not dwi.

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I'm sorry. I thought I read somewhere that he got pulled over for drinking. My mistake. Then that makes my story even more relatable to his story.

Hottoddie said:

Hollings has taken a lot of abuse on this board. Most of it, because he just hasn't produced. However, it's not like he's had a lot of opportunities. He tore his ACL in 2002 & didn't get his first carries in the NFL until 2003. Anyone that's familiar with ACL injuries knows that it takes a good year after surgery & rehab to get past the fear of your knee collapsing again. So, his 38 carries for 102 yards & a 2.7 yard per carry average was understandable.

In 2004 he still battled various injuries (knee/hamstring), but his production increased when he did get into the game (4.3 ypg/9.2 yards per reception).

In 2005, he was limited to just 2 games. As far as I know, he was healthy for the entire year, but DD had already established himself as the starter & Wells had stepped up his game. I believe that Capers was too conservative on offense, had written him off by then, & was happy with the staus-quo. With Capers as the head coach, Hollings would never have been given a chance to show what he could do when he was healthy.

Now, Hollings may end up being one of the biggest busts in the Texans' history, but I'm not willing to so easily write him off, as others on this board are. Everyone's talking about the need to draft Bush, because DD doesn't have breakaway speed. Hollings does. He's easily the fastest RB on this team & has given some glimpses of his abilities (albeit, not enough glimpses) to take our RB position to the next level. He's got prototypical RB size at 5'11" 220lbs & is only 24 years old. He can definitely turn the corner, but his biggest weakness has been running between the tackles (kinda' sounds like Bush, doesn't it?), & that's where Kubiak comes in.

With Kubiak's experience with Denver's zone blocking scheme, could he be Hollings' saving grace? As we all know, Denver can plug just about any RB into their system & make him look like one of the best RB's of all time. With Hollings' speed, lateral movement, & pass catching abilities, he could be the RB that everyone thinks we'll suddenly find in Bush. I'd sure hate to use the #1 pick in the draft on Bush, if we already have a potential Bush clone on our roster, for a fraction of the cost.

Yes, I'm in the trade down for more picks camp, but Young does have me questioning that position as well.

Anyway, the question up for discussion is, Could Kubiak be Hollings saving grace? Fire away.

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Good point HT....I think there are several players who for one reason or another have been placed on the back burner by the inept bunch who have been in charge around here.

Hollings...so much praise when we drafted him with the supplemental pick, now can't get on the field.

Armstrong..just catches the ball when he is in there.

Morency...was going to spell DD...instead we get Wells?

Speaking of Wells...why the sudden love fest? He still runs up to the line then more often than not turns his back before taking the hit.

I am still a Carr supporter, but why, when the season was down the tubes, did we not give Ragone a chance to start in a meaningful? regular season game just to see what he could do. Some players are not good practice players but are proven to be gamers in the games that count.

Wand...My favorite example.. first time he was given a chance he did a pretty good job against Freeny...anybody remember? Then he was benched and his job eventually given to? Drum roll.....some fat, free agent, out of shape, now released player who's name has been permanently removed from my memory.

My God...Pendry sucked big time.

I could go on and on, but it has all been covered at one time or another on this forum.

In answer to your question...yes...I think we could get better production from the running backs on this roster. A better set of coaches will get better production from this entire roster. Fresh eyes without apparent agendas for and against certain players. I am not opposed to trading down but I am sure it is apparent from many of my other posts that I am not in Youngs camp.

cuppacoffee said:

Good point HT....I think there are several players who for one reason or another have been placed on the back burner by the inept bunch who have been in charge around here.

Hollings...so much praise when we drafted him with the supplemental pick, now can't get on the field.

Armstrong..just catches the ball when he is in there.

Morency...was going to spell DD...instead we get Wells?

Speaking of Wells...why the sudden love fest? He still runs up to the line then more often than not turns his back before taking the hit.

I am still a Carr supporter, but why, when the season was down the tubes, did we not give Ragone a chance to start in a meaningful? regular season game just to see what he could do. Some players are not good practice players but are proven to be gamers in the games that count.

Wand...My favorite example.. first time he was given a chance he did a pretty good job against Freeny...anybody remember? Then he was benched and his job eventually given to? Drum roll.....some fat, free agent, out of shape, now released player who's name has been permanently removed from my memory.

My God...Pendry sucked big time.

I could go on and on, but it has all been covered at one time or another on this forum.

In answer to your question...yes...I think we could get better production from the running backs on this roster. A better set of coaches will get better production from this entire roster. Fresh eyes without apparent agendas for and against certain players. I am not opposed to trading down but I am sure it is apparent from many of my other posts that I am not in Youngs camp.

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I agree with you on Armstrong & Ragone.

While Armstrong doesn't have outstanding speed, he does have glue for hands. The guy simply catches anything close to him. With all the dropped balls, the least the coaches could've done is help Carr by giving him one receiver he could always count on. A team can move the ball all day long with the short dinks, as long as they're being caught. To top it off, the defense would have to be constantly aware that Armstrong was a threat, if AJ was covered.

As for Ragone. I can't even begin to imagine why they put Banks in for that last game. Ragone is our future backup, not Banks. He did great in Europe. Let's see what he can do in the NFL when the games are for real.

Another player that I feel should've gotten more playing time was McKenzie. Our CB position is open on the right side. Why not put him in & see what he's made of? I think he's going to be P-Buc's biggest challenger in next year's training camp.

Also, what happened to Murphy? I know that Rivers stepped up towards the end of the season, but Murphy was looking pretty good the year before.

I have been one of the biggest hollings supporters since his days at G. Tech...(pre-injury). When the Texans took him in the suplemental draft, I must admit I expected more immediate production from him. However, I still see more potential in him than Morency. I just do not like morency. He is not very good, not very big, not very fast, and is quite old for a rookie. We have a duplicate of him as our starter.

So lets think for a minute: let's assume well's is not resigned, hopefully he will be. Who becomes our 3rd down back? I think that a zone scheme will make people remember why we took hollings. His potential is better than any RB on our team. Morency has a very small ceiling, mostly due to age and lack of initial burst through the hole. Wells has proven himself to be a short yardage back. DD has proven to be a welcomed relief, he has been our most reliable offensive weapon.

Hollings is fast, faster than anyone will admit on this board. He was also fairly inexperienced at the RB position, but was leading the nation in rushing before injury. He is an amazing athlete, and probally the second fastest guy on our team...only behind mathis. He showed good vision when he was in, but the times he was in, is commonly considered "garbage time". What this means is that even our backup O-linemen were in the game. I wouldnt want any RB running behind our O-line for long, save our back ups.

He has the ability to turn the corner every time. No RB on the roster has that true, natural ability. Morency is a joke and a wasted pick. If hollings is given the chance, he will be a better back than him.

That leads us to Kubiaks schemes. He has shown that he is commited to the run in Denever, and can get production out of afterthoughts. Hollings, along w/Davis have the perfect ability for this scheme. I do not see Wells and Morency as being good fits for this system.

Hollings has recovered, from the ACL and his other small but various injuries. He is ready to go. He is still young. He is also younger than Morency I belive. Everyone is demanding bush, well he will be 48 million a year more, and provide minimal differences. His cutback ability will be better, but big cutbacks dont happen often in the NFL. Bush also does not seem to be like a zone runner.

I am still a huge supporter of Hollings, and glad to see a positive post on him. Mark my words now: If Hollings is given his fair chance, he will quickly prove to be a better RB than Morency.

My biggest question on Hollings is his ability to hang onto the football. The limited time that I have seen him, Tony seems to lose the ball more than your average back. Just my opinion though.

V Man said:

My biggest question on Hollings is his ability to hang onto the football. The limited time that I have seen him, Tony seems to lose the ball more than your average back. Just my opinion though.

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He's fumbled 2 times in 56 touches (49 rushes/7 receptions) & both of those were in his first year. Again, I hate to keep using the same excuse, but that was his 1st year back from a torn ACL & the 1st fumble was in his first game to touch the ball. DD fumbled in his 3rd & 6th games.

I could be wrong, but I don't think that fumbling will be much of a problem with Hollings.

You know Hollings is a guy I wanted to see get more playing time towards the end of the season. I saw him return kicks a few times when everybody was hurt, but was surprised that with him being healthy he was not given the opportunity to prove his abilities. Did he get any touches in the 49er game. Considering Wells and DD were out I can't believe he didn't play more. I saw some pre-season games where I definetely thought he could be better than DD but then it just seemed he disappeared. We don't know what he might be capable of and we might end up loosing a good player because the coaches didn't give him the opportunity.

I am not sure maybe it is because I have been out of touch of really following a team. Seems some players got into a doghouse with the coaching staff and just disappeared.. and next thing you know the player is inactive and the coaching staff is moving a player from the practice squad to the starting role..

I never could figure out what they were doing.

If we keep Hollings and if Kubiak is our new coach, he will definitely get a chance. Hopefully whoever we get as our new coach will do a better job of not only evaluating talent, but putting the right players on the field.

Hollings is gone, I think this thread is a moot point. Hollings is getting paid like a contributor and is not. His speed is comparable to Morency and he is getting paid more. Look for Hollings to get his chance with another team.

Coach C. said:

Hollings is gone, I think this thread is a moot point. Hollings is getting paid like a contributor and is not. His speed is comparable to Morency and he is getting paid more. Look for Hollings to get his chance with another team.

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He's signed through 2006. He's making $699,410, which isn't chump change, but it isn't a lot by NFL standards. We'll have to pay him $239,410 if we cut him, which only saves us $460,000. I think that's worth one more year with a new coach that has an unbiased outlook.

Coach C. said:

Hollings is gone, I think this thread is a moot point. Hollings is getting paid like a contributor and is not. His speed is comparable to Morency and he is getting paid more. Look for Hollings to get his chance with another team.

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Their speed MIGHT be similar (I think Hollings is faster), but the running style is totaly different. Hollings is a glider/strider outside runner and Morency is a quick slasher, inside runner. I like Morency, but can't say much good about Hollings other than like a LOT of possible talents on this team, he really hasn't had a good shot thanks to our previouse CRACK coaching staff. I agree though, that he is most likely a goner.

Coach C. said:

Hollings is gone, I think this thread is a moot point. Hollings is getting paid like a contributor and is not. His speed is comparable to Morency and he is getting paid more. Look for Hollings to get his chance with another team.

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If this team hasn't cut Bennie yet, they won't cut Hollings. He will go to NFLE before they cut him.

edo783 said:

Their speed MIGHT be similar (I think Hollings is faster), but the running style is totaly different. Hollings is a glider/strider outside runner and Morency is a quick slasher, inside runner. I like Morency, but can't say much good about Hollings other than like a LOT of possible talents on this team, he really hasn't had a good shot thanks to our previouse CRACK coaching staff. I agree though, that he is most likely a goner.

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I dont think any new coaching staff would make a rushed decision to not bring him back.

Hollings is much faster than Morency, that should not be a question even. Morency is a slow to the hole, looks for the cut backs, older and smaller DD clone. We have NO other back on the roster with the natural physical ability hollings has. Morency was the worst pick we have made in the drafts we have been in. He made no sense when drafted, he was not BPA, and he was not a need.

Hollings will be a much better back than Morency. Give him his fair chance under a new coach. Kubiak will let him have his day. Morency and Wells do not seem to fit his system, although they would do ok. Morency does not seem to fit many systems to me actually. Hollings has rare speed, and true ability to turn the corner and cut back. I am not saying he is better than DD, but certinly better than Morency. Once they are both given their equal shot, we will all see that hollings is a potential game-changing RB who sat the bench because of a biased coach.

Any chance of him getting reps at safety? Why did he make the switch to RB in the first place? He is very fast and makes great cuts - how are his instincts/coverage/tackling abilities?

Jerry said:

Any chance of him getting reps at safety? Why did he make the switch to RB in the first place? He is very fast and makes great cuts - how are his instincts/coverage/tackling abilities?

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I'd have to say that only the scouting department can answer those questions. Also, I think he played CB, not safety.

Hottoddie said:

I'd have to say that only the scouting department can answer those questions. Also, I think he played CB, not safety.

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He did play CB, but he has enough natural athletic ability to suceede at RB. Making that kind of transition just helps illustrate my point of this athletic ability.

bump

texanfan2002114 said:

If this team hasn't cut Bennie yet, they won't cut Hollings. He will go to NFLE before they cut him.

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Both players are still under their original contract, as with buchanon. There is no point in releasing them at this point.

Dang, I got burned for one of my above post. Someone took a reputation point from me for those posts. They weren't even calling anyone out. GEEZ.