The Out Route:Texans Preview

[Wolf]

TOM'S TAKE: The Texans season-by-season records: 4-12, 5-11, 7-9, 2-14. Before last season it seemed they were a team on the rise, and don't be mistaken, they are. Last season was a hiccup in the Texans' overall improvement. This year will be the one that gets them back on track. Success in the NFL starts up front on both sides of the ball, and the Texans have reconstructed their look on both lines.

They're biggest weakness in their four years in the NFL has been the offensive line, and to remedy that they brought in the man with an incredible pedigree in that regard, Gary Kubiak. They also made incredible strides fixing the personnel on the line, adding two starters via the draft and one in free agency. Eric Winston was an absolute steal in the third round -- the tackle has first round talent but dropped due to a knee injury. Charles Spencer is a player who will initially struggle adapting to the NFL, but will develop into a starter with time. Luckily, Seth Wand is a good stopgap until he's ready for full-time action. They, along with free agent center Mike Flanagan, will combine to give David Carr more protection. It takes a while for an offensive line to get on the same page, especially when you're uprooting 60% of last year's line for new players. But they took a giant step in the right direction, securing two bookend tackles that will block Carr for years. This will help Carr stay on his feet and find both Andre Johnson and new addition Eric Moulds, a true #1 receiver that will provide a much-needed distraction from Johnson, allowing the young budding superstar room to get open. Dom Davis will also benefit from better line play -- he's managed to pick up almost 3,200 career yards in 40 games, picking up 976 last year (337 receiving yards, as well) despite only playing in 11 games. Of course, 40 games in three seasons indicates that Davis has missed some time with injuries, but his haven't been serious. They're the type of nagging ailments that improved line play will help prevent.

The Texans added three nameworthy defensive ends -- Anthony Weaver, N.D. Kalu, and the infamous Mario Williams. Ignoring whether or not they should have taken Bush, Williams has the tools to be an elite defensive end. My only concern with him is all of the negativity coming from the local and national media. People are ready to jump all over him even though he's yet to take a snap in the NFL. If he can avoid the pressure to be a legend from Week 1, and take solace in steadily improving his game each week, he'll be fine. I don't know if he has the mental makeup to be this strong, but he's shown thus far, at least on the surface, that he hasn't been bothered by the city's displeasure with him.

At linebacker, the Texans added two new starters.

more on the blog
http://out-route.gloriousnoise.com/2006/08/nfl_preview_houston_texans.php

 

[Wolf]

and I disagree with Kyles take.. again for the umpteen thousand time about MW and you know who

 

[aj.]

If you were shipwrecked on a desert island last January and that article just floated up in a bottle, it would be a pretty good read. edit: I take that back. It would still suck.

 

[jerek]

Wow ... that really was a good read. Informative and accurate.

 

[Wolf]

As a supplement to our Texans preview, here's some interesting news: Mario Williams has the worst set of toes. Ever.

Williams missed practice today because of a sleepless night due to a painful toe infection. That's a little weird, but nothing outrageous, granted. But after the Texans drafted Williams first overall this past April, he had both of the toenails on his big toes removed (just typing that hurts) because of repeated infections due to various players stomping on them in college. The toe in question from last night was neither of these. I'm sure Williams pleaded with his walkers, "Feets, don't fail me now!" to no avail. The pain was so bad Williams called a Texans trainer for advice in the middle of the night. Reports claim John Madden called Williams this morning, said "BOOM! Tough-actin' Tinactin!" and hung up. That's a lie.

http://out-route.gloriousnoise.com/nfl/

eventhough it is about MW.. that is funny to imagine John's voice on the line ... kinda scary but funny to me (my sense of humor is different at times)


and in the mood I am in, I won't caption Carr's picture from above

 

[tex]

That face says it all about Carrs play the last 4 years. How well do you think you would play if you looked like that after every play?

 

[rittenhouserobz]

I found it interesting; however, I found his statement that the city has displeasure with MW as inaccurate. He makes it sound like the entire city doesn't like Mario Williams when in fact I was very pleased when they drafted Williams. I would have hoped they could have traded down and still got Mario but it did not work that way. I have come to accept that the only way we would have gotten Williams was with the 1st overall pick. It's too bad these writers can't see that.

 

[Wolf]

I found it interesting; however, I found his statement that the city has displeasure with MW as inaccurate. He makes it sound like the entire city doesn't like Mario Williams when in fact I was very pleased when they drafted Williams. I would have hoped they could have traded down and still got Mario but it did not work that way. I have come to accept that the only way we would have gotten Williams was with the 1st overall pick. It's too bad these writers can't see that.

I don't live in Houston, but your right I don't get how he said the whole city was displeased. or atleast I didn't get the vide from some of the posters in here

 

[cap1]

I was at the game this past Sat, and when Mario was introduced the entire stadium was on thier feet cheering for him. I don't know where some of the writers get that the fans don't support Mario.

 

[infantrycak]

Talk about being behind the times:

Playing devil's advocate, the Texans promoted their offensive line coach to offensive coordinator. How can their offensive line coach get a raise and not the boot?

 

[aj.]

Just an out of town blogger (at least I hope it is) - his perception fed by the national media - with a few facts mixed in.

 

[Texans_Chick]

Talk about being behind the times:

Yeah, I missed that quote.

Most of the stuff on the web about the Texans is dogturd.

 

[aj.]

Glad I didn't read the whole thing.

I guess someone needs to respond to this person ...

 

[Out Route Tom]

Hi guys,

I'm Tom, one of the Out Routers you have taken to task over the Texans preview. For the sake of friendly discourse and education, I thought I'd join the party.

First of all, thanks for reading. If you disagree/agree with something we write, we hope you'll comment about it on our site (in addition to, obviously, this one). AJ, you had the un-kindest of words here, but you didn't say anything on the site, despite claiming that "I guess someone needs to respond..." You should have!

I'd like to mention that I am not, in fact, fed by the national media. As a matter of fact, that's one of the reasons I started The Out Route -- to offer a dissenting point of view to the general opinion. Give me a little more credit than that. My opinion on the Texans was (and is) generally positive. I feel, being a Saints fan, that our teams are both looking good heading into the season. And I liked the Mario Williams pick, and have since defended it. It was a wise football pick -- the Texans are set with Dom Davis and they'll need a good pass rush in a division with Manning and soon to be Young.

I like the Texans and hope they do well because I see everyone kicking them for the Williams pick and for last season, and I know what it's like (again as a Saints fan) to have to listen to nothing but constant media negativity.

As for Houston being down on Williams, I was given that impression by some football contacts I have in Houston. I live in New Jersey, so I'm obviously removed from the middle of Texans mania. Glad to hear he's being embraced by Houston.

Anyway, I just wanted to say hi and to thank everyone for visiting the site. Please stop by in the future.

Tom

 

[Texans_Chick]

Hi guys,

I'm Tom, one of the Out Routers you have taken to task over the Texans preview. For the sake of friendly discourse and education, I thought I'd join the party.

First of all, thanks for reading. If you disagree/agree with something we write, we hope you'll comment about it on our site (in addition to, obviously, this one). AJ, you had the un-kindest of words here, but you didn't say anything on the site, despite claiming that "I guess someone needs to respond..." You should have!

I'd like to mention that I am not, in fact, fed by the national media. As a matter of fact, that's one of the reasons I started The Out Route -- to offer a dissenting point of view to the general opinion. Give me a little more credit than that. My opinion on the Texans was (and is) generally positive. I feel, being a Saints fan, that our teams are both looking good heading into the season. And I liked the Mario Williams pick, and have since defended it. It was a wise football pick -- the Texans are set with Dom Davis and they'll need a good pass rush in a division with Manning and soon to be Young.

I like the Texans and hope they do well because I see everyone kicking them for the Williams pick and for last season, and I know what it's like (again as a Saints fan) to have to listen to nothing but constant media negativity.

As for Houston being down on Williams, I was given that impression by some football contacts I have in Houston. I live in New Jersey, so I'm obviously removed from the middle of Texans mania. Glad to hear he's being embraced by Houston.

Anyway, I just wanted to say hi and to thank everyone for visiting the site. Please stop by in the future.

Tom

Welcome Tom.

Actually, though Domanick Davis would be a nice player to have under Kubiak's system, the health of his knee is a question mark, one that was known prior to the draft.

That being said, we are hoping that he gets better and that Kubiak can sprinkle some of that magic running back pixie dust on our remaining backs.

You have to forgive some of the comments and look at the context. We are just so accustomed to after thought reviews of the Texans, that our expectations for quality articles about the team are fairly low.

Good luck for your Saints.

 

[infantrycak]

Well a couple comments then Out Route.

They also made incredible strides fixing the personnel on the line, adding two starters via the draft and one in free agency. Eric Winston was an absolute steal in the third round -- the tackle has first round talent but dropped due to a knee injury. Charles Spencer is a player who will initially struggle adapting to the NFL, but will develop into a starter with time.

Neither Spencer nor Winston is a sure fire starter at present--key at present. Spencer by all the reports from the team and fans who have attended has been the more ready player actually and is pushing much harder for a starting position this season--of course he is going against Wand rather than savvy vet Wiegert.

At linebacker, the Texans added two new starters. Sam Cowart became expendable to the Jets not through his play but because his salary was too high for a backup. He was relegated to that duty by Jonathan Vilma, through no fault of his own. DeMeco Ryans will compete immediately for the starting WLB spot and should have no problem replacing Morlon Greenwood by the season's start.

Ryans looks like he will be a starter but it will be at MLB relegating Cowart once again. Barrett Green is competing with Morlon Greenwood although Kubiak said today that Greenwood has made a lot of improvement this week.

Their safeties need to be improved.

This is an area of great uncertainty. Hoke is a good DB coach--he and the rest of the staff are very high on CC Brown (should take a big jump in his 2nd year) and Glenn Earl hence no draft picks or serious off-season acquisitions (such as Chris Hope). Time will tell.

Playing devil's advocate, the Texans promoted their offensive line coach to offensive coordinator. How can their offensive line coach get a raise and not the boot?

I won't go into Kyle's review of Kubiak other than to say it seems overly dismissive. In any event, Pendry was promoted after game 4 or 5 last year and yes it was dumb but he was booted with Capers and is currently unemployed.

 

[TexanFanInCC]

dont really understand this quote by kyle...

"Even with that abysmal offensive line, Carr had a 77.2 rating. Not bad for the quarterback of the biggest joke in the league last year. Plus, he's got Eric Moulds now, who was always impressive in Buffalo. Finally, he's got a decent receiver. I was never too impressed with Andre Johnson. However, now he doesn't have all the pressure on him and could fall into a groove alongside a good receiver."

i think if he remembers anything from 2004, he would know that AJ was arguably one of the best recievers in the league hence why he was a probowler. i saw AJ make superb catch after superb catch and set himself apart (catch vs the chiefs in the win at arrowhead, his performance vs the vikings and that marvelous catch deep in the endzone) . he looked "bad" last season because the whole playbook was scrapped midseason and we went to an overly conservative and predictable offense led my that mastermind of an offensive coordinator joe pendry.


lemme put it this way, nobody predicted the panthers to go to the superbowl in 2003 and NOBODY predicted the 2004 chargers to be as good as they were after winning 4 games in 2003. its our turn to shock the national media. if they dont believe, and i really cant hold that against them, then the texans are going to have to make believers of them. it will be a hell of a ride! im not saying it will happen for sure, but it has been done recently.

lets go texans!

 

[LBC_Justin]

"Ryans is a studier, the kind of guy who lacks size but has smarts. He reads and reacts incredibly well, which is good because his speed is a little lacking."

another guy just parroting the scouting reports without actually watching him play. How does he lack size? I find this really funny because he mentions how great Jonathan Vilma played the sentence before.

Jonathan Vilma is the same size as Demeco Ryans if anything he is actually smaller than Ryans and they have about the same speed. But I went back and read Jonathan Vilma's draft profiles and they say he is too small and too slow to play middle linebacker, but call him a smart player. So maybe that is a good sign for Ryans.

 

[bayoudreamn]

I was at the game this past Sat, and when Mario was introduced the entire stadium was on thier feet cheering for him. I don't know where some of the writers get that the fans don't support Mario.

They get that from the same place they get the idea that Kubiak might not be able to handle this team....IMAGINATION. Study the team and read that drivel and there's no way you believe a word of it. The guys don't know what they are talking about....typical media mindfunk.