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Is any member of our line starting material?

B

blockhead83

Rookie
Someone who knows what to look for in an offensive lineman please help me here, are any of our lineman good enough to start for another team?

I've seen them all do their best impression of a revolving door at one point or another, aside from Weigert and Pitts (they probably have too I just didn't notice.) We spent the big bucks to sign Weigert and Wade, Weigert has been injury prone and Wade has been utterly unimpressive. Victor Riley is a failed experiment who looks completely out of shape. McKinney gets dominated or misses assignments often enough that I've been able to catch him in the act several times this season alone.

Hodgdon is a rookie, so he's obviously probably not ready to start, although he seemed to give a little ground but otherwise hold his man against the Seahawks. Wand hasn't even been activated for games thus far this season... The rest aren't even worth mentioning.

If a new coaching regime comes in, are we going to blow up the OLine and start over, or can we expect to see some of these players return to their starting roles. Who would we leave a starter and who would be riding the bench under a new regime?
 
blockhead83 said:
Someone who knows what to look for in an offensive lineman please help me here, are any of our lineman good enough to start for another team?
Click to expand...

You are going to get a lot of knee jerk no's, but Pitts definitely could start elsewhere as would Wiegert when healthy (his age and injuries are a definite concern for his contract value, but his play when healthy is starter quality). Wade is borderline now, but was considered a very solid starter before coming here so you have to wonder if we coach players down. Riley is a fill in upgrade on Marcus Spears--start him in desparation, otherwise sit him. McKinney is a minimal starter IMO--he would probably get a starting gig from another desparate team. Hodgden haven't seen enough yet.

Now the flip side of that is the coaching is clearly below average IMO. There have been plenty of teams with minimal OL talent and the Texans have managed to underachieve them 3 of 4 years so far. Are they stellar?--nope, but like a lot of pieces of this team, I bet they could play better (like say even last year) if they were coached better.
 
infantrycak said:
You are going to get a lot of knee jerk no's, but Pitts definitely could start elsewhere as would Wiegert when healthy (his age and injuries are a definite concern for his contract value, but his play when healthy is starter quality). Wade is borderline now, but was considered a very solid starter before coming here so you have to wonder if we coach players down. Riley is a fill in upgrade on Marcus Spears--start him in desparation, otherwise sit him. McKinney is a minimal starter IMO--he would probably get a starting gig from another desparate team. Hodgden haven't seen enough yet.

Now the flip side of that is the coaching is clearly below average IMO. There have been plenty of teams with minimal OL talent and the Texans have managed to underachieve them 3 of 4 years so far. Are they stellar?--nope, but like a lot of pieces of this team, I bet they could play better (like say even last year) if they were coached better.
Click to expand...

IMO - Pitts makes too many mistakes and commits too many penalties.
 
infantrycak said:
You are going to get a lot of knee jerk no's, but Pitts definitely could start elsewhere as would Wiegert when healthy (his age and injuries are a definite concern for his contract value, but his play when healthy is starter quality). Wade is borderline now, but was considered a very solid starter before coming here so you have to wonder if we coach players down. Riley is a fill in upgrade on Marcus Spears--start him in desparation, otherwise sit him. McKinney is a minimal starter IMO--he would probably get a starting gig from another desparate team. Hodgden haven't seen enough yet.

Now the flip side of that is the coaching is clearly below average IMO. There have been plenty of teams with minimal OL talent and the Texans have managed to underachieve them 3 of 4 years so far. Are they stellar?--nope, but like a lot of pieces of this team, I bet they could play better (like say even last year) if they were coached better.
Click to expand...

That reflects some of my own worries about the Texans. Wade was supposed to be a pretty good up and coming RT coming from the Dolphins, and the rest of our line, while not great, weren't considered to be dogs when we got them. It makes me think our coaching has made our line play worse than they should with the players we have. This gives Casserly some leeway right now, IMO. I'm more inclined to say Capers and Co. haven't done much with our talent rather than say the Capers and Co. haven't been given talent by Casserly. That's not to say Casserly has been doing a great job, but I'm not all for firing him at this point.
 
infantrycak said:
Pitts definitely could start elsewhere as would Wiegert when healthy (his age and injuries are a definite concern for his contract value, but his play when healthy is starter quality). Wade is borderline now, but was considered a very solid starter before coming here so you have to wonder if we coach players down.
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I also hear Pitts, Weigert, & Wade would be "The Big Three" of Texans
OL. The irony here is that the lowest rated of them, Todd Wade, actually landed the largest signing bonus if memory serves. Another miscalculation
by our crack player evaluation unit.
 
I also agree that the coaching has held these players back; it definitely hasn't improved their skills overall.

Coach C (message board user name) has an eye for o-line play. I'd like to see his opinion here.
 
infantrycak said:
You are going to get a lot of knee jerk no's, but Pitts definitely could start elsewhere as would Wiegert when healthy (his age and injuries are a definite concern for his contract value, but his play when healthy is starter quality). Wade is borderline now, but was considered a very solid starter before coming here so you have to wonder if we coach players down. Riley is a fill in upgrade on Marcus Spears--start him in desparation, otherwise sit him. McKinney is a minimal starter IMO--he would probably get a starting gig from another desparate team. Hodgden haven't seen enough yet.

Now the flip side of that is the coaching is clearly below average IMO. There have been plenty of teams with minimal OL talent and the Texans have managed to underachieve them 3 of 4 years so far. Are they stellar?--nope, but like a lot of pieces of this team, I bet they could play better (like say even last year) if they were coached better.
Click to expand...
pretty much sums up what I think about the line.
 
Put me in the camp that says our coaches get the least out of the players we have. Guys come here because we pay good money for the skills they've clearly demonstrated elsewhere, then they suddenly become incompetent.

I'm not buying it. Zach Weigert is a quality guard. Todd Wade is a quality tackle. Steve McKinney is a starting quality guard. Those guys came here and became reincarnations of Marcus Spears, Jimmy Herndon, and Ryan Schau?

I believe that Chester Pitts and Seth Wand have the ability to become a solid to very good left side but we'll never see it because this is maybe the worst environment in the NFL to develop a player in.
 
Honoring Earl 34 said:
:brickwall How far fetched is it to say the UT line could do a better job .
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Very far fetched. You have to understand that before the UT offensive line could come in and play for us they'd have to spend a training camp with our coaches who would then turn them into an offensive line that couldn't keep the Stratford High School defense from abusing their QB.
 
I'm with Herv on this one. People come here and start playing poorly. Then they leave here and play well. It's hard to say, but I do feel that Pitts would start for another NFL team and he would get better for being around a quality coaching staff and other quality players. McKinney has started for another NFL team and he performed adequately - something that can't be said for his performance last year. Wade performed well elsewhere, then came here and played down to the level of the scheme/coaching.

As I have stated elsewhere on these forums - the first couple times, you have to consider that the player might be a bust. When it's a recurring theme, you have to start looking at management.
 
How is it I can name only 2 player on the Chargers offensive line....and he's hurt? They have a bunch of late rounders that are starting and we can't put together any kind of combination.
 
I didn't sleep at a Holiday Inn last night but I can name more than 2....but I'm weird like that.
 
I don't get the coaching staff. Maybe somebody could help me to understand this better. The same staff that created a mediocre line last year is leeching off the line this year. I don't know what kind of epiphyte it takes to destroy a line during the offseason, but something happened, and it is obvious to everyone I think that Capers and crew have turned into some weird parasite. They are holding back the team, IMO. If anyone can help explain what happened to kill this team (and more specifically, this line), please let me know. The only major change in the line I saw was pulling the anchor (Wand) out and inserting Riley. This is why I have been so vocal about putting Wand back in. The only assumption I can have is that putting Wand in will patch a lot of the holes we have seen. He will better protect Carr than anyone else, and he will cost us less penalties.

For the record, Pitts could play for another team. Weigert and Wade would be taken, then benched. Wand can start for another team. That's it.
 
Many of them could start on very weak teams or teams with specific needs, but I'm going to judge how many I think could start on an average team. The question then turns into who is average or better. My opinion may be worth the paper it is written on, but you asked:

Wade: yes, with better coaching
Weigert: yes, barring injury
McKinney: no
Pitts: yes
Wand: yes, with better coaching
Riley: no, unless there is another coach who likes zaftig players
Hodgdon: no, not yet
Brown: no
Washington: no
 
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