A Texans draft opus: Part I
To begin with, we need to handle team needs. Don’t know who we should draft if we don’t know the weak spots, right? Here, in my mind, are the positions that could use upgrades:
DT: The Texans can point to Amobi Okoye as someone with a chance to be dominant, but Travis Johnson has been dreadful both as a pass rusher and as a 4-3 nose tackle. Frank Okam might have potential but Richard Smith and co. never gave him a chance to showcase it. Tim Bullman is undersized and actually plays defensive end fairly frequently. The Texans got rid of a lot of the black holes on their roster, but Travis Johnson is the biggest one still remaining.
S: The Texans haven’t had a safety worthy of praise in the franchises entire history. Resigning Eugene Wilson and Nick Ferguson was the equivalent of Rick Smith shrugging his shoulders and saying “well, there aren’t any real answers in free agency either.”
LT: Duane Brown was abysmal as a rookie. Does he have upside? Maybe. He probably couldn’t have been worse than he was last year. That said, the NFL is a now league, and he was a huge hole in the Texans offense last year. Will the Texans draft someone really high to push him? No. But it will be a need in my mind.
C: Chris Myers is a canny center, but he gets pushed backwards way too easily since he gives up too much size and strength to big NFL DT’s. I see this as the one position on offense that the Texans could spend a Day 1 pick on.
OLB: Two very raw and passable young players in Zach Diles and Xavier Adibi, but they both are coming off injury and a speedy OLB who can pass rush is something that has eluded the Texans since Kailee Wong stopped being good. They also have always lacked LB’s who can go to the sideline and stop sweeps.
DE: Love it or hate it, the Antonio Smith signing probably pushes this out of the Top 3 as a need for the Texans. Between Smith, Mario, Earl Cochran, and Bullman, there is a solid enough base here. Though you can never have enough good linemen and these non-Williams guys don’t have a ton of pass-rush ability.
RB2: Steve Slaton has the body type that could benefit from being in a time share with another good running back, though I doubt that happens with a first day pick. Since most NFL teams have begun to embrace the “RB as fungible commodity” mindset I think it won’t be too much of a stretch to see some decent RB’s make it to day two.
Now, most people would cop out here and tell you that since it’s their dream draft, they can forecast whatever fake trades they want. I’m going to do it scenario-wise, within certain guidelines.
SCENARIO 1: THE TEXANS TRADE UP INTO THE TOP 10
I don’t really see this as a feasible scenario, because the Texans need to worry about having good players at each position before they worry about having great players at certain ones. However, in the event that they do trade up, the only player I’d be happy with them targeting is Boston College DT BJ Raji. He’s the only first-day DT in the draft that can really claim to be a true run stopper other than Ron Brace, who I am down on because I think he benefited from Raji more than Raji did from him. Every other defensive player other than Aaron Curry is going to have a chance to slide down somewhere near 15, and I think the cost to get up to Curry is too prohibitive for the Texans to consider. I wouldn’t be thrilled with this outcome, but at least this way the Texans would be getting one of the few defensive difference makers in the draft.
STAYING AT #15:
The Texans blogosphere has essentially made this a two person race between Malcolm Jenkins and Clay Matthews Jr, who both fill holes in my needs. My personal preference is to trade down and stockpile picks, but I think at this point the QB melee is going to be pushed up into the Top 10 and keep us away from the aggressive suitors. Perhaps Tampa Bay would trade up to keep Josh Freeman away from the Jets, but this is looking more and more unlikely to me. I’d keep trading down even if I got much less than the draft chart, because I don’t see much of a difference between 15 and 30 in this draft. Give me a 4th or a 3rd and I’ll deal down 4 or 5 spots at a time.
My personal preference between Jenkins and Matthews is Matthews, though thats sort of like a choice between brussels sprouts and spinach to a ten-year-old boy. Maybe I’d be higher on Matthews if he didn’t look like the painting in Ghostbusters 2.
The other options that are tossed around are Chris Wells, which I find an improbable pick given the Texans RB philosophy, and one of the other USC linebackers: Rey Maulaga or Brian Cushing. I’m uncomfortable with moving DeMeco Ryans around just for the sake of drafting Rey, and I can’t really differentiate between the two OLB’s that much. Like both BFD and Matty have said, I have problems getting excited to get either of these guys at this spot, but we may be shoehorned into it with how the Mark Sanchez situation has developed. Robert Ayers has also gotten some love, and all I have to say about that is he reminds me a lot of recently released Anthony Weaver.
I’ll also throw in that I’d love to see Michael Oher selected here if he’s available, but I know that’s just my little dream at this point. Maybe next year I’ll have a horde of Duane Brown haters so I can say “I told you so.”
BETWEEN 15 AND 46
Should the Texans be able to trade down, here is my list, in order, of players I’d most like to have on the team that I don’t think will be available at 46.
C Alex Mack, California
OLB Clint Sintim, Virginia
CB Alphonso Smith, Wake Forest
S Louis Delmas, Western Michigan
CB/S Sean Smith, Utah
Those would be my five targets, but I especially love the first three. Sintim reminds me a lot of DeMeco, Alphonso Smith is being dropped solely on height, and when it comes down to skills versus size, I’ll take skills if we’re not in the top half of the first round. Alex Mack would fill a huge hole, is a road grader, and would give us enough “Secret World Of” headlines to make my inner twelve-year-old happy. The other two, I like but I’m not as high on as the guy I’d pick at 46.
AT 46
If I’m running the draft, I’m tabbing Rashad Johnson, FS, Alabama. As I explained with Alphonso Smith, I’m a big fan of polish versus body outside of the Top 15. Johnson would give the Texans a good quarterback in the secondary, and his pass defense would be a godsend after having to put up with CC Brown and company for the last few years. Another guy I like is Oregon center Max Unger, who rates right around Mack in most mocks but sadly doesn’t have as good of a name.
The reason I haven’t said a lot about the NFL Draft in this here blog goes three-fold:
1) I trust the Texans judgement over mine as far as drafting goes. They may not be the best drafting team over the course of history, but since Kubiak has been here they haven’t missed too badly on anyone asides from Duane Brown (and he could still turn right).
2) NFL Draft overload syndrome. I don’t want to churn out weekly updates on something so mundane and overhyped by the Worldwide Leader.
3) I don’t give half a rip about college football. I realize this puts me in the vast minority among both NFL fans and people who were born in Texas, but if you can’t even come up with a playoff system, your sport is unwatchable in my eyes. I haven’t seen any of these players play, and I’m doing this simply by draft site research and my own views on team building.
Anyhoo, tune back in on Sunday when I get into Day 2 and try to find more guys I like and talk about Day 1.
