NitroGSXR
Super Sic #58
I did this write up as a rebuttal to a guy and I thought that maybe it'd be worthy of this board. If not, whatever. I tried. You guys are scary!
Where did I call Rick Smith classy in my last post? I don't believe I ever did. I was calling McNair classy for finally owning up to a mistake.
I truly don't believe the Houston Texans' O-line is all that bad. We allowed 41 sacks last season and the league average was 36. Now you take away the number of times that David Carr sacked himself and I believe we'll hover around average. Do we need improvement? No doubt. I think we need depth more than anything else.
To place all the blame on the O-line reeks of naiveness to me. Truth be told, the O-line definitely had David Carr shellshocked for the first three seasons. Then we've tried to improve on that line and I'll back that up after obtaining some research information off the Texans message boards but let me try to do what I can at this point utlizing just the historical timeline off the Texans main website. I'm getting tired of people saying that the Houston Texans have never addressed their o-line problems.
In the expansion draft we took Tony Boselli, Ryan Young, Matt Campbell, Jeremy McKinney, and Ryan Schau. Then we go and sign Robert Hicks, Jerry Wisne, Steve McKinney on top of that as well as draft Chester Pitts and Fred Weary.
The following year, we signed Todd Wade and Todd Washington via FA and we drafted Seth Wand and Chance Pearce. That makes a total of 13 linemen sought out in the first year. Wand turned out to be a complete bust but was not a bad pick at the time. Not only that but we also had the most expensive offensive line in the league at the time. In fact, he probably could be the guy who actually helped the Texans to a 7-9 record in 2005. I think he fell to the Bosselli curse. Yes, I believe in the Boselli Curse. Let me continue on....
I'm just going to stay away from mentioning Todd Wade. A horrendous mistake.
In 2004 we made no moves for an o-line and blame should be referred to the Texans. Alas, we were hoping that Wand or Wade would pan out. They didn't.
In 2005 we took Drew Hodgdon and signed a few scrubs who I can't find at the moment. Yeah, Ephriam Salaam is one. Mike Flanaghan is another.
Then last season we took Charles Spencer along with Eric Winston. Spencer was a projected first round pick before he went down with an injury thus lowering his value and allowed us to snatch him up with the 1st pick in the 3rd round.
This season we've signed Jordan Black.
This is our projected offensive line as of today.
Spencer - Pitts - Flanaghan/Hodgdon - Black - Winston
Name the player who played last season. Over the last 2 seasons we've made tremenous strides in our offensive line with the selection of Spencer and Winston and by our getting Jordan Black.
Orlando Pace is a once in a lifetime kind of lineman. Even D'Brickashaw Ferguson is struggling at the LT position. It's a toss up when you're picking out solid offensive linemen in the draft. Marcus McNeil wasn't worth the first pick. Would we have taken him with the second round pick? Maybe. We don't know that. He was taken already. Value has to be assessed here especially with how much of a financial toll our offensive line had taken on our defense. Plummetted up to a franchise worse season 31st worst in the league. We have to learn how to balance funds and I think we're reaching that point with Rick Smith.
We had our Pace with Tony Bosselli. Now the Texans were 'forced' to take Bosselli otherwise the Jaguars wouldn't have allowed Seth Payne or Gary Walker to be entered into the expansion draft. But we were also happy to have our LT of the future. Enters Seth Wand. Utter and complete failure. We rearranged our line and started moving a top left guard in Chester Pitts over to a postition that he had no business handling, left tackle.
We took Charles Spencer who did nothing but pick people up and MOVE them until Ron Dayne steamrolled over him behind a NON-BLOCKING FB in Jameel Cook and broke Spencer's leg. The curse of Boselli strikes again.
To say that the Texans keep not shoring up their o-line is just inane. We're trying and we've always had a strong o-line in mind even at the beginning with Boselli. it just didn't pan out.
Guess what? Last season our o-line with a GAPING hole at center AND a back up LT in Salaam (who isn't even a LT anyway) allowed 41 sacks and the league average was merely 36. David Carr definitely was ruined by our offensive line in the twilight years. Now all he can hear are footsteps running around him and immediately resumes the fetal position. How many times did David Carr sack himself? I'll credit him with a minimum of 7 sacks (although some members on the Texans message board would credit him with 15). Conservatively, 7 brings our sack total down to 34 thus puts us in the upper half of the league. This is all with no depth. Spencer sitting on crutches. That's actually a pretty good line. Factor in our non-blocking FB in Jameel Cook. As one guy called him, Dropsy McFumbles.
Do the Texans need work on our line? No doubt but I'd say we're lacking in depth more than anything else. Our line is out there playing their asses off and I'm damned proud of them.
David Carr is no doubt a QB with tons of potential. Did we ruin him? I'll acknowledge that but to CONTINUE to place blame on the line is pretty far-fetched. We got a bad deal too. Not just David. The Boselli curse. Spencer going down. Wand not panning out. 5 years we've been in the league and we've spent some major bucks on that LT position. 4 LTs in 5 years. We'll find our guy eventually if we haven't already in Charles Spencer.
Right now our biggest problem is definitely center and I'm afraid that the Texans may have given up our second round selection of Kalil for Schaub. Oh well. Does that mean they're ignoring our hole at center? No but we sure couldn't pass up on Schaub at this point. We're lacking and I'm happy that we stood pat rather than taking an aging QB or training another QB, we got an NFL ready QB who may or may not pan out. We just won't know until we put him out on the football field.
I'm tired of losing but my loyalty for the Texans will never waver. Maybe I'll pick up another team just to supplement 'winning ways' such as the Chargers or something.
Go Texans!
Where did I call Rick Smith classy in my last post? I don't believe I ever did. I was calling McNair classy for finally owning up to a mistake.
I truly don't believe the Houston Texans' O-line is all that bad. We allowed 41 sacks last season and the league average was 36. Now you take away the number of times that David Carr sacked himself and I believe we'll hover around average. Do we need improvement? No doubt. I think we need depth more than anything else.
To place all the blame on the O-line reeks of naiveness to me. Truth be told, the O-line definitely had David Carr shellshocked for the first three seasons. Then we've tried to improve on that line and I'll back that up after obtaining some research information off the Texans message boards but let me try to do what I can at this point utlizing just the historical timeline off the Texans main website. I'm getting tired of people saying that the Houston Texans have never addressed their o-line problems.
In the expansion draft we took Tony Boselli, Ryan Young, Matt Campbell, Jeremy McKinney, and Ryan Schau. Then we go and sign Robert Hicks, Jerry Wisne, Steve McKinney on top of that as well as draft Chester Pitts and Fred Weary.
The following year, we signed Todd Wade and Todd Washington via FA and we drafted Seth Wand and Chance Pearce. That makes a total of 13 linemen sought out in the first year. Wand turned out to be a complete bust but was not a bad pick at the time. Not only that but we also had the most expensive offensive line in the league at the time. In fact, he probably could be the guy who actually helped the Texans to a 7-9 record in 2005. I think he fell to the Bosselli curse. Yes, I believe in the Boselli Curse. Let me continue on....
I'm just going to stay away from mentioning Todd Wade. A horrendous mistake.
In 2004 we made no moves for an o-line and blame should be referred to the Texans. Alas, we were hoping that Wand or Wade would pan out. They didn't.
In 2005 we took Drew Hodgdon and signed a few scrubs who I can't find at the moment. Yeah, Ephriam Salaam is one. Mike Flanaghan is another.
Then last season we took Charles Spencer along with Eric Winston. Spencer was a projected first round pick before he went down with an injury thus lowering his value and allowed us to snatch him up with the 1st pick in the 3rd round.
This season we've signed Jordan Black.
This is our projected offensive line as of today.
Spencer - Pitts - Flanaghan/Hodgdon - Black - Winston
Name the player who played last season. Over the last 2 seasons we've made tremenous strides in our offensive line with the selection of Spencer and Winston and by our getting Jordan Black.
Orlando Pace is a once in a lifetime kind of lineman. Even D'Brickashaw Ferguson is struggling at the LT position. It's a toss up when you're picking out solid offensive linemen in the draft. Marcus McNeil wasn't worth the first pick. Would we have taken him with the second round pick? Maybe. We don't know that. He was taken already. Value has to be assessed here especially with how much of a financial toll our offensive line had taken on our defense. Plummetted up to a franchise worse season 31st worst in the league. We have to learn how to balance funds and I think we're reaching that point with Rick Smith.
We had our Pace with Tony Bosselli. Now the Texans were 'forced' to take Bosselli otherwise the Jaguars wouldn't have allowed Seth Payne or Gary Walker to be entered into the expansion draft. But we were also happy to have our LT of the future. Enters Seth Wand. Utter and complete failure. We rearranged our line and started moving a top left guard in Chester Pitts over to a postition that he had no business handling, left tackle.
We took Charles Spencer who did nothing but pick people up and MOVE them until Ron Dayne steamrolled over him behind a NON-BLOCKING FB in Jameel Cook and broke Spencer's leg. The curse of Boselli strikes again.
To say that the Texans keep not shoring up their o-line is just inane. We're trying and we've always had a strong o-line in mind even at the beginning with Boselli. it just didn't pan out.
Guess what? Last season our o-line with a GAPING hole at center AND a back up LT in Salaam (who isn't even a LT anyway) allowed 41 sacks and the league average was merely 36. David Carr definitely was ruined by our offensive line in the twilight years. Now all he can hear are footsteps running around him and immediately resumes the fetal position. How many times did David Carr sack himself? I'll credit him with a minimum of 7 sacks (although some members on the Texans message board would credit him with 15). Conservatively, 7 brings our sack total down to 34 thus puts us in the upper half of the league. This is all with no depth. Spencer sitting on crutches. That's actually a pretty good line. Factor in our non-blocking FB in Jameel Cook. As one guy called him, Dropsy McFumbles.
Do the Texans need work on our line? No doubt but I'd say we're lacking in depth more than anything else. Our line is out there playing their asses off and I'm damned proud of them.
David Carr is no doubt a QB with tons of potential. Did we ruin him? I'll acknowledge that but to CONTINUE to place blame on the line is pretty far-fetched. We got a bad deal too. Not just David. The Boselli curse. Spencer going down. Wand not panning out. 5 years we've been in the league and we've spent some major bucks on that LT position. 4 LTs in 5 years. We'll find our guy eventually if we haven't already in Charles Spencer.
Right now our biggest problem is definitely center and I'm afraid that the Texans may have given up our second round selection of Kalil for Schaub. Oh well. Does that mean they're ignoring our hole at center? No but we sure couldn't pass up on Schaub at this point. We're lacking and I'm happy that we stood pat rather than taking an aging QB or training another QB, we got an NFL ready QB who may or may not pan out. We just won't know until we put him out on the football field.
I'm tired of losing but my loyalty for the Texans will never waver. Maybe I'll pick up another team just to supplement 'winning ways' such as the Chargers or something.
Go Texans!