The two years too late manifesto
Ramon Walker, Curry Burns, Glenn Earl, C.C. Brown, Brandon Harrison, Dominique Barber, and Troy Nolan. These are the names of the safeties that the Houston Texans have drafted since coming into the league after the 2002 season. Not one of these safeties have been able to become anything more than a weak starter in the NFL thus far. It would probably not surprise you to learn that not a one of them were drafted before the fourth round, because the Texans have never emphasized the safety position in the draft. That’s fine, teams can decide what is easy to find and what is hard to find, but we are on year eight of the Texans existence and they have yet to have a competent safety in the entire history of the franchise. I don’t mean that they are having problems finding a good safety, I mean literally, even a competent safety is beyond the grasp of this team. They’ve ended the last two years with at least one of their starting safeties (Will Demps and Eugene Wilson) coming off of other teams training camp cuts.
Charles Hill, Keith Wright, Travis Johnson, Amobi Okoye, Frank Okam. This much shorter list is relatively full of draft value in comparison to the safety list, with two first round picks and a third round pick. But, putting aside the Amobi Okoye potential argument, it had produced just as little in terms of talent for the team as the safety group. On top of that, our top picks used with this were Johnson, Okoye, and Hill. None of the above had the weight or bulk to play nose tackle or stop the run in the NFL without wishcasting it on to them.
You see, the Texans have had this problem stopping the run. By have had, I mean, they have never done it at any time in the franchises entire existence. It would be one thing if they had made a mistake like Tony Boselli or David Carr, where they at least allocated the resources and had a hope at one point, but there has been no real attempt by the Texans to address either nose tackle or safety in eight years. At this point, I would have even settled for someone like Grady Jackson, who has no long-term value and is a total gamble at his age. At least it would give the fans some reason for optimism, some hope that things could be different. Instead the Texans landed Lions cast-off Shaun Cody and brought back Jeff Zgonina, and they both might as well wear the same number because the only time you’ll see them in a play is if the guards block them in the direction of the camera, just like Jerry DeLoach before them.
What we have here is a fully functional offense that is ready to be in shootouts and hang 24-31 a game on people. Half of a championship team in a win-now league that is notorious for attrition and short windows. It’s a complete slap in the face to Andre Johnson that the Texans have puttered around doing nothing about situations that aren’t working, wasting his prime. Am I saying that there is no way the Texans can make the playoffs? No, because the offense is good enough that it’s in the range of probability. I’m simply saying that even if they do make the playoffs, they aren’t a real contender. They aren’t in the class of New England, Indianapolis, or Pittsburgh. As long as they keep on keeping on, they never will be.
I was really optimistic coming into this offseason, knowing that Richard Smith would be gone, that the Texans would have a chance to completely revamp their defensive philosophy. Maybe Frank Bush is going to blitz thirty times a game. I don’t know. What I can tell you, however, is that promoting from within when you have had the worst defense in professional (read: not Detroit) football over the last three seasons is, at best, a signal to the defense that failure will be accepted. At worst? Idiotic.
Well okay, lets judge the defensive decision makings this offseason on their merits. Coming into the offseason the Texans had a one-man defensive line, a talented young linebacking corps that had some promise if they could stay on the field, decent corners, and at best, an uninspiring safety crew. They franchise Dunta Robinson, who as much as I love his past play, is not worth half of the franchise money he’s getting, let alone the rumored “second-highest paid corner in football” package he and his agent ridiculously turned down. They give big money to Antonio Smith, who might be a decent defensive end, but was far from star caliber. In the draft, they use their first round pick on the deepest defensive position on the team, then use their second pick on another pass rush end. All the meanwhile, they continue to do nothing about NT or safety. Rashad Johnson falls to them in the third round? Not interested.
With some teams it’s easy to give them a media narrative. The Cubs are the loveable losers, the Patriots are the juggernaut with the cheating coach, the Raiders are a complete mess. The Texans, thus far, have managed to be “the little sleeper that couldn’t” in the eyes of the national media, which I guess is an upgrade over “that dumb franchise that passed up Reggie Bush and Vince Young”. I never said the media was smart.
From a distance though, all the signs are there: the Texans are the franchise that holds onto ideas two years too long. How many more seasons did you need to see that Dom Capers couldn’t cut it as a head coach? That Charlie Casserley wasn’t great at evaluating talent? That Richard Smith’s vanilla defense was never going anywhere? That it might be a good idea to not rely on Seth Wand and Chester Pitts at left tackle? That David Carr can’t really be an NFL quarterback? Who would have thunkit, Ahman Green is injury prone? You can play that game with Gary Walker too.
All those examples, and I didn’t even get into the current ones. So the defensive staff has produced three years of defenses so horrible that even having Mario Williams can’t make them adequate? Sign me up for more of that, who needs to look for a new defensive mastermind from Philadelphia or Baltimore? Most atrocious run defense in the NFL? Lets do absolutely nothing about it in free agency year after year after year. Duane Brown leads the league in blown blocks? Why even bother finding a competent backup? Finish the year with a safety that you signed off the street in your starting lineup? But Will Demps was a Pro Bowl alternate!
The Texans may be one of the classiest organizations in sports, but the grace period they allow for people to hang themselves just doesn’t work in the NFL. By the time you’ve fixed one hole at this rate, another one (or two) is leaking. That’s not to say that everything is wrong, because obviously the offense as a whole has proven themselves to be a pretty efficient unit. You can’t even really blame Gary Kubiak; he makes some dumb play/challenge calls sometimes, but he’s generally held up his end of the bargain by creating competent offense out of a situation that once involved David Carr.
I’m not saying that I’d rather see the Texans rotate a group of Elvis impersonators at the nose than see Zgonina get pushed back again…well, actually, yeah, I think I would. Because it’s quite simple: the NFL is a league that changes fast, and demands urgent change at need areas. If your dog starts biting your leg every time you get home, you’re going to pretty quickly get the idea that either the dog needs to go or it needs to be retrained or restrained. Five Michael Vick jokes died during the writing of that sentence, I hope you’re happy. When you’re already at rock bottom, why not try something new? You’ve tried what you have multiple years, it’s just not working, why not give some practice squad guys a chance?
But instead the Texans continue to let their festering holes be, and while I realize I’m spitting in the face of training camp optimism, I’m going to be very Texan-esque and say the same thing I say over and over again: I don’t think this team is talented enough to overcome it’s weak spots yet. Hopefully, I’m two years too late too.
(Strange timing for this posts ending given that Travis Johnson finally gets dealt away the day that I finish my internet hiatus, but I stand by what I wrote.)
[...] came into this year convinced that the Texans had pretty much just stayed the course on defense. The Texans wound up better than [...]
The Texans and “deserving” the playoffs « From Mom's Basement said this on 2010/01/04 at 7:34 am |