Scouts Inc. review of the Texans Draft

Despite passing on Bush, Texans drafted well
By Jeremy Green
Scouts Inc.

Houston Texans

I am in the group that feels that passing on Bush was a huge mistake. However, I would not consider their overall draft to be poor. Even though they passed on Bush, it would be hard to argue that defensive end Mario Williams will not have an impact. This team had three major goals going into the draft, and it was able to accomplish two of them.

Under their old regime, the Texans ran a 3-4 scheme and ranked near the bottom of the NFL in sacks. With the switch to the 4-3 scheme, the team desperately needed to find a pass-rushing 4-3 defensive end. Williams will fill that void.

They came back in the second round and drafted DeMeco Ryans. Ryans is an athletic outside linebacker who will be an every-down player once he gets comfortable in the scheme. I think the Williams and Ryans selections say that the Texans know they must get a lot faster on defense if they are going to compete with the Colts.

After their first two selections, they stayed away from the defensive side of the ball. Their last five picks were all on offense, and I think this is where you really see the Gary Kubiak influence on this football team.

The Texans had major issues on the offensive line and they will be changing their schemes. Kubiak would like to build this offensive line in the mold of his old team, the Denver Broncos. To do that, he added two athletic linemen in Eric Winston and Charles Spencer at the top of the third round.

The tight end also will be a staple of their new system. In the top of the fourth round they added a solid "move" tight end in Owen Daniels. Daniels is a versatile player who can play from the backfield, on the line or in the slot. Kubiak would like to use a lot of two-tight end sets, and Daniels, along with free agent Jeb Putzier, will give Houston a solid 1-2 punch.

The Texans and Kubiak passed on potentially the best player in the draft. Still, they had a pretty impressive draft class.

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Houston Texans

Best pick: Offensive tackle Eric Winston, Miami-Fla. After two years of ignoring offensive line needs on Day 1, the Texans hit the jackpot with Winston and Pittsburgh OG Charles Spencer in the third round of the 2006 draft. Winston slipped due to concerns regarding his 2004 knee injury, but if he returns to form, the Texans may finally have the left tackle they've been searching for since Tony Boselli's premature retirement.

Worst pick: Mario Williams, DE, N.C. State. Williams is cheaper and fits a much bigger position of need, but passing on USC running back Reggie Bush with the No. 1 overall selection was a mistake that the Texans might never live down.

Work to do: The mistake of selecting Williams over Bush aside, the Texans wound up with an excellent 2006 draft class. As the team transitions to a four-man front this season, Williams fits a huge need at defensive end, and second-round pick DeMeco Ryans (Alabama) could quickly emerge as a starter at weakside linebacker. The team also did an excellent job of addressing needs along the offensive line (Spencer and Winston) and at tight end (Wisconsin's Owen Daniels, fourth round) with the next three selections. If there was one area Houston failed to address, though, it was cornerback. Dunta Robinson and Phillip Buchanon form a talented starting tandem, but Buchanon is coming off a season-ending ankle injury and there isn't great depth here.

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Grid said:

MO

RON


When you can seriously list Mario Williams as our worst pick....ugh. If Williams is the worst player we got, then we should have made better than an A+ on everyone's draft grading. They need to make a special letter specifically for us because we apparently drafted players ranked better than "The second best player available in the draft" with every one of our picks. Matter of fact..I guess they need to create some more numbers between 1 and 2 as well..so that they can fit all our draft picks in there.

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Hoth-Boy said:

What gets me is that everybody includes Javon Walker part of Denver's draft class and Abraham part of Atlanta's draft classs; yet nobody is mentioning that we got Eric Moulds for our 5th rounder.

Of those 3 deals, Moulds for the 5th was the best one in terms of value, IMHO.

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Grid said:

When you can seriously list Mario Williams as our worst pick....ugh. If Williams is the worst player we got, ...

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Bobo said:

I think Moulds for a fifth is about right, seeing that Moulds has only scored 10 TDs in the last three years. There is a very, very good possibility that when it all shakes out, Gaffney could outproduce Moulds.

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Hoth-Boy said:

I think Moulds for a fifth is good value. Yes he only has 10 TDs in teh last three years, but he also had 233 receptions for 2639 yrds. That averages to 77.6 catches for 879.6 yards; which I'd love to get out of him this season.

As for Gaff, I'm not sold he can outproduce Moulds for the next two years...after that he should be able to, just becasue of their respective ages. The only Gaff memory burned into my brain is the fumble as he neared the goaline for an easy TD.

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Didnt say worst player, he said it was our worst pick...

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Grid said:

MO

RON


When you can seriously list Mario Williams as our worst pick....ugh. If Williams is the worst player we got, then we should have made better than an A+ on everyone's draft grading. They need to make a special letter specifically for us because we apparently drafted players ranked better than "The second best player available in the draft" with every one of our picks. Matter of fact..I guess they need to create some more numbers between 1 and 2 as well..so that they can fit all our draft picks in there.

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Porky said:

They didnt say he was the worst player, they said the worst pick simply becasue of who was available when the pick was made. I concur with the article.

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