Post by spiderfan on May 3, 2017 16:08:34 GMT -8
I was originally going to make this a video (which is why this is coming up almost a week after the draft), but unforeseen technical difficulties got in the way. So I'm going to break down the road to how the Texans got to where they are now: Being quarterbacked by the National Champion QB Deshaun Watson.
Houston, we've got 2 QBs.
Going into the 2015 season there were 2 QBs competing for the job, Ryan Mallett and Brian Hoyer. Not the best QB competition by any stretch of the imagination but it was what it was. Ultimately, Hoyer won the job which ultimately angered Mallett and caused one of the lamest QB controversies ever. Week 1 against the Chiefs Hoyer layed an egg and Mallett nearly came back. Mallett then got the job and lost it to Hoyer... again. This caused Mallett to not show up for work against the Dolphins and he was cut shortly after. Mallett then signed with the Ravens where he has been ever since.
Meanwhile Mr. Interception (that is a nickname I gave Hoyer in his time with the Browns) himself Brian Hoyer played OK enough and the Texans went 7-2 after starting the season 2-5. During that period O'Brien was allegedly a candidate for the Maryland job. I wish he would have taken that job, but I'll get to his role in all of this later. The Texans then made the playoffs and went up against the Chiefs for a rematch.
Houston, we have a problem.
In that game against the Chiefs, Hoyer had one of the worst playoff performances ever. At Halftime O'Brien should have benched Hoyer for Weeden, as Weeden had played good for the Texans earlier in the season. O'Brien didn't and it ultimately cost the Texans a playoff win. After the loss it became the apparent the Texans had a glaring need at QB. There was speculation that former Penn State QB Christian Hackenberg would fill the role but the Texans made a splash signing. One that would alter the future of the Houston Texans and Denver Broncos as franchises.
Enter: Brockweiler
On the first day of the 2016 free agency period, the Texans signed Brock Osweiler who had previously had a 5-2 record as the QB of the SB 50 Champion Broncos to a 4 year/$72 Million contract. This beside the fact they never met him. This is also beside the fact that the Broncos wanted to offer Brock more but he didn't listen because Brock was bitter that he was benched in Week 17 against the Chargers. Worth mentioning that Peyton was not as bad as everybody said he was, because of the bad fit Manning was for Kubiak's offense. There was a lot of optimism around the Texans and I thought Brock was the missing piece of a SB team. Here is an exchange between myself and Maklarr4000 on the signing:
Me: Now that the Texans have the Brockweiler they're only going to get better. They'll be a sleeper team for sure.
Maklarr4000: Brockweiler is a machine- and if they surround him with halfway competent players (which if I recall correctly the Texans don't have any real shortcomings on the roster) they will have a great season this year.
Me: The Texans roster is actually pretty good as it is and will only get better with the draft. I personally believe the Texans defense has championship potential. I hope the Texans draft Corey Coleman from Baylor because if Brock were throwing to Deandre Hopkins, Corey Coleman, and Lamarr Miller out of the backfield that could be like The Greatest Show on Turf.
Maklarr4000: The idea of the Texans playing a long throwing game is pretty exciting actually. I mean, the Texans have been the underdog team for what seems like forever, at least around here- so to see them supersede the Cowboys would be an awesome change of pace.
That exchange was on the original ZC version of this video and is funny to look back on considering how things turned out.
Houston, we have a BIG problem.
The season actually started and things were not good. Scratch that... REALLY not good. The offense was exactly the opposite of the Greatest Show on Turf as an accurate description would be more like The So-Bad it gets cancelled, not even after it is done airing Show on Turf. Well, maybe not that bad, but it was definitely bad. The Texans had a worse passing game that year than during the Hoyer-Mallett-Yates-Weeden fiasco. The one redeeming quality was Lamar Miller who ran for over a 1k yards and didn't even play 16 games.
O'Brien also took over play calling early in the season which didn't help things in the slightest. He is an awful play caller and held the offense back even more that it already was. I was disappointed to hear he was calling plays this year, instead of hiring a new OC for that reason. As I have said in the past, I wish he had been fired at the end of the season and replaced with Kyle Shanahan. Regardless, the Texans were still very much in the playoff hunt because the AFC South is... not one of the best divisions in the NFL, at least not this past season.
Meanwhile, the Broncos played good with Trevor Siemian and nearly made the playoffs. Even though they went 8-8 the Broncos avoided paying Brock even more than the Texans did and would have some serious turmoil with Kubiak's retirement. John Elway saved himself from... himself, as Osweiler was his golden boy. Heck, the Broncos might be going into this season with Osweiler at QB because Elway would have refused to dump him. We will never know and I think the Broncos are happy they don't.
He's a Savage
In Week 15 things changed. Being down 13-0 against the divisional rival Jaguars this happened:
Savage ultimately led the Texans to a comeback and took the staring QB job from Osweiler. I think the moment above is probably why Brock was traded: The fans wanted him to be replaced. More on the trade later.
Savage ultimately played against the Bengals (a game the Texans should have lost) and started against the Titans but was injured and led to a locker room altercation between Osweiler and O'Brien. The Texans then got wiped out in the second half and still won the division because of the aforementioned win against the Bengals. The Texans then beat the Raiders in the Wildcard game, granted against Connor Cook who had never started an NFL game before. The Pats were next and the Texans put up a good fight against them but Brock and poor play calling ultimately cost the Texans a chance at the Steelers in the AFC Championship Game.
They did what?!
It appeared that after the season was over there would be a QB competition between Brock and Savage and someone else (as I said in this video). That was until an unprecedented trade occurred with the Cleveland Browns. I said pretty much everything I wanted to say in my video on the subject but looking back that trade is even more brilliant now that Watson is the QB and the Texans have more room to build around him. With the trade it left the Texans to look at the draft as a spot to potentially take a QB. Tony Romo was seen as an option (I thought had he been released earlier he would have chosen the Redskinds above anybody else) but he chose to be a broadcaster with CBS Sports instead. Earlier on there was talk of Trubisky (though it became apparent that wasn't happening) and it became clear that it would be between Watson or Mahomes (maybe even Webb) as to who would potentially be the QB drafted.
Draft Night
After all the speculation the NFL Draft finally came and pick by pick things got crazy but that is a story for another day. The Bills were on the clock and I didn't think they were taking a QB so it became obvious that Mahomes and Watson would start going with the Browns. Then the Chiefs traded up and took Mahomes. I was not happy. Not only because I thought Mahomes would have been a great Texan, but also because the Browns were a spot that a QB could be taken. The Browns were on the clock. I knew Deshaun would probably be taken and then I shifted my mind to Davis Webb being drafted at 25 by the Texans. Then it happened:
I knew the Texans would have had to trade up to get Deshaun and they did.
The end of the road (for now)
So here we are, with Deshaun Watson being the QB of the Texans. I know that it has been said Savage will be the starter but after what the Texans gave up, I have a hard time believing that. However if the Texans do not start Watson and start Savage Week 1, that will be the beginning of the end of O'Brien as the HC of the Texans as I predicted in my prediction video. I do hope the Texans avoid the turmoil and start Watson, ultimately win games, and compete for a Super Bowl. It has been said the Texans would be better off with Watson on the bench but with Savage
1) Not being that good
2) Being a younger QB who has only played a few games, so IMO he can't be that much of a mentor.
it seems pointless. We'll have to see what the future holds, I do think it will ultimately bright though.
I hope you all enjoyed this blog/post/long recap thing as much as I enjoyed making it. I hope to get more content out soon.
To comment on this and other topics on this forum, please login or register.
Houston, we've got 2 QBs.
Going into the 2015 season there were 2 QBs competing for the job, Ryan Mallett and Brian Hoyer. Not the best QB competition by any stretch of the imagination but it was what it was. Ultimately, Hoyer won the job which ultimately angered Mallett and caused one of the lamest QB controversies ever. Week 1 against the Chiefs Hoyer layed an egg and Mallett nearly came back. Mallett then got the job and lost it to Hoyer... again. This caused Mallett to not show up for work against the Dolphins and he was cut shortly after. Mallett then signed with the Ravens where he has been ever since.
Meanwhile Mr. Interception (that is a nickname I gave Hoyer in his time with the Browns) himself Brian Hoyer played OK enough and the Texans went 7-2 after starting the season 2-5. During that period O'Brien was allegedly a candidate for the Maryland job. I wish he would have taken that job, but I'll get to his role in all of this later. The Texans then made the playoffs and went up against the Chiefs for a rematch.
Houston, we have a problem.
In that game against the Chiefs, Hoyer had one of the worst playoff performances ever. At Halftime O'Brien should have benched Hoyer for Weeden, as Weeden had played good for the Texans earlier in the season. O'Brien didn't and it ultimately cost the Texans a playoff win. After the loss it became the apparent the Texans had a glaring need at QB. There was speculation that former Penn State QB Christian Hackenberg would fill the role but the Texans made a splash signing. One that would alter the future of the Houston Texans and Denver Broncos as franchises.
Enter: Brockweiler
On the first day of the 2016 free agency period, the Texans signed Brock Osweiler who had previously had a 5-2 record as the QB of the SB 50 Champion Broncos to a 4 year/$72 Million contract. This beside the fact they never met him. This is also beside the fact that the Broncos wanted to offer Brock more but he didn't listen because Brock was bitter that he was benched in Week 17 against the Chargers. Worth mentioning that Peyton was not as bad as everybody said he was, because of the bad fit Manning was for Kubiak's offense. There was a lot of optimism around the Texans and I thought Brock was the missing piece of a SB team. Here is an exchange between myself and Maklarr4000 on the signing:
Me: Now that the Texans have the Brockweiler they're only going to get better. They'll be a sleeper team for sure.
Maklarr4000: Brockweiler is a machine- and if they surround him with halfway competent players (which if I recall correctly the Texans don't have any real shortcomings on the roster) they will have a great season this year.
Me: The Texans roster is actually pretty good as it is and will only get better with the draft. I personally believe the Texans defense has championship potential. I hope the Texans draft Corey Coleman from Baylor because if Brock were throwing to Deandre Hopkins, Corey Coleman, and Lamarr Miller out of the backfield that could be like The Greatest Show on Turf.
Maklarr4000: The idea of the Texans playing a long throwing game is pretty exciting actually. I mean, the Texans have been the underdog team for what seems like forever, at least around here- so to see them supersede the Cowboys would be an awesome change of pace.
That exchange was on the original ZC version of this video and is funny to look back on considering how things turned out.
Houston, we have a BIG problem.
The season actually started and things were not good. Scratch that... REALLY not good. The offense was exactly the opposite of the Greatest Show on Turf as an accurate description would be more like The So-Bad it gets cancelled, not even after it is done airing Show on Turf. Well, maybe not that bad, but it was definitely bad. The Texans had a worse passing game that year than during the Hoyer-Mallett-Yates-Weeden fiasco. The one redeeming quality was Lamar Miller who ran for over a 1k yards and didn't even play 16 games.
O'Brien also took over play calling early in the season which didn't help things in the slightest. He is an awful play caller and held the offense back even more that it already was. I was disappointed to hear he was calling plays this year, instead of hiring a new OC for that reason. As I have said in the past, I wish he had been fired at the end of the season and replaced with Kyle Shanahan. Regardless, the Texans were still very much in the playoff hunt because the AFC South is... not one of the best divisions in the NFL, at least not this past season.
Meanwhile, the Broncos played good with Trevor Siemian and nearly made the playoffs. Even though they went 8-8 the Broncos avoided paying Brock even more than the Texans did and would have some serious turmoil with Kubiak's retirement. John Elway saved himself from... himself, as Osweiler was his golden boy. Heck, the Broncos might be going into this season with Osweiler at QB because Elway would have refused to dump him. We will never know and I think the Broncos are happy they don't.
He's a Savage
In Week 15 things changed. Being down 13-0 against the divisional rival Jaguars this happened:
Savage ultimately led the Texans to a comeback and took the staring QB job from Osweiler. I think the moment above is probably why Brock was traded: The fans wanted him to be replaced. More on the trade later.
Savage ultimately played against the Bengals (a game the Texans should have lost) and started against the Titans but was injured and led to a locker room altercation between Osweiler and O'Brien. The Texans then got wiped out in the second half and still won the division because of the aforementioned win against the Bengals. The Texans then beat the Raiders in the Wildcard game, granted against Connor Cook who had never started an NFL game before. The Pats were next and the Texans put up a good fight against them but Brock and poor play calling ultimately cost the Texans a chance at the Steelers in the AFC Championship Game.
They did what?!
It appeared that after the season was over there would be a QB competition between Brock and Savage and someone else (as I said in this video). That was until an unprecedented trade occurred with the Cleveland Browns. I said pretty much everything I wanted to say in my video on the subject but looking back that trade is even more brilliant now that Watson is the QB and the Texans have more room to build around him. With the trade it left the Texans to look at the draft as a spot to potentially take a QB. Tony Romo was seen as an option (I thought had he been released earlier he would have chosen the Redskinds above anybody else) but he chose to be a broadcaster with CBS Sports instead. Earlier on there was talk of Trubisky (though it became apparent that wasn't happening) and it became clear that it would be between Watson or Mahomes (maybe even Webb) as to who would potentially be the QB drafted.
Draft Night
After all the speculation the NFL Draft finally came and pick by pick things got crazy but that is a story for another day. The Bills were on the clock and I didn't think they were taking a QB so it became obvious that Mahomes and Watson would start going with the Browns. Then the Chiefs traded up and took Mahomes. I was not happy. Not only because I thought Mahomes would have been a great Texan, but also because the Browns were a spot that a QB could be taken. The Browns were on the clock. I knew Deshaun would probably be taken and then I shifted my mind to Davis Webb being drafted at 25 by the Texans. Then it happened:
I knew the Texans would have had to trade up to get Deshaun and they did.
The end of the road (for now)
So here we are, with Deshaun Watson being the QB of the Texans. I know that it has been said Savage will be the starter but after what the Texans gave up, I have a hard time believing that. However if the Texans do not start Watson and start Savage Week 1, that will be the beginning of the end of O'Brien as the HC of the Texans as I predicted in my prediction video. I do hope the Texans avoid the turmoil and start Watson, ultimately win games, and compete for a Super Bowl. It has been said the Texans would be better off with Watson on the bench but with Savage
1) Not being that good
2) Being a younger QB who has only played a few games, so IMO he can't be that much of a mentor.
it seems pointless. We'll have to see what the future holds, I do think it will ultimately bright though.
I hope you all enjoyed this blog/post/long recap thing as much as I enjoyed making it. I hope to get more content out soon.
To comment on this and other topics on this forum, please login or register.