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2021 Houston Texans - (2 Viewers)

We also collectively are talking about the new WR additions and their impact(s) on Hopkins and Osweiler mostly, but the drafting also has the opportunity to spring Lamar Miller into top 5 fantasy territory in PPR leagues as well. Of anyone already mentioned, he has to be even more thrilled with his choice in joining the Texans after draft day.

 
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Report: Texans' Duane Brown gets PED suspension overturned due to bad beef


http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/houston-texans-duane-brown-suspension-overturned-bad-beef-050316

Houston Texans offensive tackle Duane Brown had his 10-game suspension for violating the league's policy on performance-enhancing drugs overturned, claiming his ingested bad beef while on vacation, ESPN reported Tuesday.

Brown was suspended last season after he tested positive for clenbuterol, which is on the league's banned substance list. He appealed the suspension and won, arguing that the result was based on eating too much meat during a trip to Mexico.

The NFL and NFLPA sent a joint statement to players warning them about the contaminated meat that could trigger a positive test.
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Greg Russell said:
Both.  4.50 at the combined, and in the 4.3's at his pro day.

ETA: http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/story/ohio-state-pro-day-braxton-miller-40-yard-dash-031116
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Ehhh... pro day results are unreliable at best. It seems everyone magically shaves a tenth or two off their 40 times at pro days. Plus, I saw this in his thread the other day which disputes the 4.3 assertion: https://forums.footballguys.com/forum/topic/740799-official-braxton-miller-wr-thread/?do=findComment&comment=19013669

 
After two straight seasons of watching his quarterbacks wallow in mediocrity while DeAndre Hopkins’ supporting cast withered away due to age or injury, O'Brien finally had enough. This was the offseason that would give O’Brien the ability to run his offense. Will Fuller’s role as a rookie is rather simple.  First and foremost, his objective is to scare the living sh!t out of safeties.  With the 22nd the Texans  had plenty of receiving options staring them in the face Josh Doctson, Laquon Treadwell, and Will Fuller were all fine prospects in their own right, but only one of them had the trait that O’Brien wanted most – speed. The Texans already had two big, strong, "go up and get it" types of receivers in DeAndre Hopkins and Jaelen Strong. What they did not have, however, was someone who was a threat to catch an 80-yard touchdown on the opening play of every single drive.  In order to guarantee that their deep threat the Texans traded up one spot and eliminated all risk of losing their number one target.

Every single receiver in his offense will have a different skill-set. The more variance of skill-sets in his arsenal, the more ways O'Brien can attack certain defensive weaknesses. If a team has a clear speed deficiency at their number two cornerback spot, like for instance the Jaguars do with Davon House across from Jalen Ramsey, Fuller is automatically the juiciest matchup on the field. As teams come to fear Fuller’s speed exploiting their lesser cornerbacks, safeties will inevitably float away from DeAndre Hopkins and towards Houston’s newest speed demon. The more one-on-one opportunities Nuk is given, the more he can feast on his own advantageous matchups.

Suppose defenses get sick and tired of choosing between bracketing either Fuller or Hopkins, and they start playing two-high safety looks. The deep ball gets harder to come by, of course, but now Lamar Miller has one less man in the box to stop them from pounding the rock inside. Miller will churn out his yardage, the safeties will creep down once again, and all of the sudden O’Brien’s outside receivers will get their winnable one-on-one matchups back. Wash, score, rinse, repeat.

O’Brien was not quite satisfied yet, though. When the 85th pick in the third round came around and Houston was once again on the clock, he saw a unique opportunity to acquire even more explosive talent for his passing game. Enter Braxton Miller, the most athletic wide receiver/running back/wildcat quarterback combo player to come out of the collegiate ranks in years. With the proper coaching Miller has perhaps the most game-wrecking potential of any offensive player in this entire draft class. It could be as a slot receiver, running back, or return man but this kid will be given the ball when teams insist on zeroing in on everyone else. You can count on that.

By the third day of the draft, we had all assumed the O’Brien was done strengthening his now blazing fast attack; nope.Tyler Ervin in the fourth round. Ervin may not be big and strong as the other backs in this class, but I sure would like to see which poor middle linebacker is going to be asked to match up with his 4.3 speed in open space on third down. Hell, Ervin is so uniquely talented that O’Brien is toying with creating an entirely new position just for his skill-set called "Edge" that would be a hybrid between a slot receiver and traditional running back.

DeAndre Hopkins, Jaelen Strong, Will Fuller, Braxton Miller, Lamar Miller, and Tyler Ervin. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what it looks like to have a stupid amount of speed on one roster.

This is how you create no-win situations for the other team. Small, fast corners will get beat up by Hopkins and Strong. Physical, but slower, corners will be eaten alive by Fuller and Braxton Miller. Ervin will slice and dice his way through linebackers and safeties in space while Lamar Miller and Alfred Blue set the tone on the ground. This team has red zone weapons, deep threats, chain movers, gadget players, and everything in between. 

Unless there is a single defense in the NFL that somehow has three elite cornerbacks, three elite pass rushers, two rangy safeties, and multiple linebackers who can effectively cover lightning quick running backs in space, there will always be a matchup for Bill O’Brien’s game plan offense to exploit.

Bill O’Brien has sent his message loud and clear to the rest of the NFL – catch us if you can.

http://www.battleredblog.com/2016/5/3/11580052/the-flash-brothers-houston-texans-will-fuller-braxton-miller-deandre-hopkins

 
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Yep, I like how they lay out the options in that article.

Though, Osweiler needs to be a good QB and the offensive line needs to block, or a lot of that won't matter.  So I'm restraining my excitement until we see it in action.

 
We made the list: https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2016/05/02/draft-the-16-worst-picks-of-the-2016-nfl-draft/

14. Will Fuller, WR, Houston Texans


I like Fuller a lot, and believe he went to one of the best situations for him in the league, but taking Fuller over Josh Doctson is mind-boggling. Fuller obviously has elite speed and it’s clear the Texans wanted a deep threat to take pressure off of DeAndre Hopkins. But instead of getting a deep threat only in Fuller, they could have gotten a deep threat who is also an intermediate threat and red-zone threat. Doctson is a far better all-around receiver and caught just as many deep passes (17) as Fuller did last season.
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FF Ninja said:
We made the list: https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2016/05/02/draft-the-16-worst-picks-of-the-2016-nfl-draft/
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BOB seems to have a long relationship with Fuller...right or wrong it appears to have played a factor.

http://www.chron.com/sports/texans/article/Bill-O-Brien-eyed-Will-Fuller-while-he-was-7382762.php

"I've known him for a while," O'Brien said. "I don't know if we were the first to offer him (a scholarship), but I know we saw this guy at our high school camp when I was the head coach there and we offered him right away there when we saw him run around and do some of the things he was doing in high school. He's a bright guy. He comes from a good family. He's a very hardworking guy. He comes highly recommended from (Irish coach) Brian Kelly. I've spoken to Brian about him. This guy is a guy that a lot of people think very highly of and we're just excited to get him in here."
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The other thing that article doesn't mention is Fuller played in a pro-style offense as opposed to Doctson.

In a vacuum, no, Fuller isn't the complete all-around receiver that merits him being the first WR selected in the draft. However, the Texans have Hopkins and Strong and didn't need to add a third "round" receiver as much as they needed dedicated specialist weapons like Fuller, Miller, and Ervin. Call the Texans out because you thought they reached for a specialist, but I wouldn't call them out for selecting Fuller over Doctson for that specialty as they attempt to do.

 
Like Doctson a lot, and think he will be a future stud for the Redskins but he's a different type of WR. Really more similar to Hopkins. Also greatly disagree on the deep threat note, Doctson ran a 4.50. Plenty fast but not exactly a deep threat burner on the NFL level.

Honestly would have been happy with Doctson as well, think he would have been similar to the Colts days of Harrison & Wayne that used to give us fits for years.

 
So back in 2011, Von Miller was pick #2, JJ Watt was pick #11. With Miller getting his new contract both are signed through 2021 which gives a great chance to see how the Texans front office stacked up in their handling of Watt's contracts vs the Broncos and Miller.

Miller had a $21m rookie contract, Watt $11m. Both 4-years with a 5th year option. Salary amounts locked in by draft slot so will not count the $10m difference against Denver at the end.

Texans gave Watt a 7-year deal after his first 4. Broncos paid MIller the 5th year option money then gave him this new 6-year contract.

If both play out their contracts, Texans will have paid Watt $118.2m through 2021.  Broncos will have paid Von Miller $144.4m.  That's a difference of $26m.

Credit Denver the $10m they were locked into based on draft slot, but that's still $16m the Texans came out ahead of Denver by how they handled Watt's contract.

Plus that whole... getting the better player part.

 
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GregR said:
So back in 2011, Von Miller was pick #2, JJ Watt was pick #11. With Miller getting his new contract both are signed through 2021 which gives a great chance to see how the Texans front office stacked up in their handling of Watt's contracts vs the Broncos and Miller.

Miller had a $21m rookie contract, Watt $11m. Both 4-years with a 5th year option. Salary amounts locked in by draft slot so will not count the $10m difference against Denver at the end.

Texans gave Watt a 7-year deal after his first 4. Broncos paid MIller the 5th year option money then gave him this new 6-year contract.

If both play out their contracts, Texans will have paid Watt $118.2m through 2021.  Broncos will have paid Von Miller $144.4m.  That's a difference of $26m.

Credit Denver the $10m they were locked into based on draft slot, but that's still $16m the Texans came out ahead of Denver by how they handled Watt's contract.

Plus that whole... getting the better player part.
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Good analysis

 
I really don't put too much stock in preseason performances, but still can't help but come away feeling a little more satisfied after this second preseason game than after the first. Haven't had a chance to watch the broadcast yet, but thought Oz was getting the ball out well, if not always seeing everything on the field you'd like. Didn't have a big issue with the pick, it was 4th down, throwing it away would have accomplished nothing. So had to throw it and give someone a chance, or try to run it in. Did note how much he seemed to trust Fuller when he had to get rid of the ball in situations like that.

Would have liked to see a bit more from the running game with the starters. With so many starting O-line out, worried about how quickly they are going to be able to gell this season when they get back together.

 
GregR said:
So back in 2011, Von Miller was pick #2, JJ Watt was pick #11. With Miller getting his new contract both are signed through 2021 which gives a great chance to see how the Texans front office stacked up in their handling of Watt's contracts vs the Broncos and Miller.

Miller had a $21m rookie contract, Watt $11m. Both 4-years with a 5th year option. Salary amounts locked in by draft slot so will not count the $10m difference against Denver at the end.

Texans gave Watt a 7-year deal after his first 4. Broncos paid MIller the 5th year option money then gave him this new 6-year contract.

If both play out their contracts, Texans will have paid Watt $118.2m through 2021.  Broncos will have paid Von Miller $144.4m.  That's a difference of $26m.

Credit Denver the $10m they were locked into based on draft slot, but that's still $16m the Texans came out ahead of Denver by how they handled Watt's contract.

Plus that whole... getting the better player part.
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How healthy will Watt be between now and 2021? Back injuries are nothing to scoff at for a guy Watts size.

 
ffldrew said:
How healthy will Watt be between now and 2021? Back injuries are nothing to scoff at for a guy Watts size.
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I'm not a doctor. But googling his reported surgery says it has a 90-95% success rate with a 5-10% recurrence rate.

 
Significant name players cut to get to 53:

RB Akeem Hunt, Kenny Hilliard
WR Cecil Shorts, Wendell Williams
T Jeff Adams
S Antonio Allen

Grimes and Blue made the team at RB. Mumphery at WR. Oday Aboushi, Chris Clark and Kendall Lamm at T. Kept Wheedon as a 3rd QB.

 
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Good result against the Bears. Started out a bit slow but found their stride. Alshon Jeffrey was the bulk of Chicago's success, and Texans were able to adjust and shut him down in the second half, in large part due to the pass rush getting some more consistent pressure.

Having Watt, Clowney and Mercilus all pass rushing, and with Simon in there sometimes too who isn't too bad himself, is going to be a tough combination for opponents to deal with. Especially if Watt gets back to himself. Didn't really expect him to step right back to where he was with not being able to workout regularly while rehabbing the back. He got some pressures but it looked like he was a bit more winded than normal.

Good start for the offense. Was worried about the O-line play, and they had some lapses but overall I was happy with the amount of holes they were opening for Lamar Miller.  Mentioned in the game thread it seemed like he was picking the right hole every time, don't think he left many yards on the table. Just wasn't able to bust anything out fully once he got through the line, Bears did a good job closing in on him.

Hope to see Braxton Miller a bit more involved. Liked that the TEs made some contributions. Still probably the weak spot on offense (other than maybe offensive line) but if they can get a few first down catches when needed, that can go a long way with Hopkins, Miller and Fuller doing the heavy lifting.

Losing Cushing worries me. I don't think Houston has anyone capable of stepping in and filling his spot anywhere near to the same level. Next week against Kelce we may have to use a corner on him, I'm not sure there's a linebacker who can cover him with Cushing out.  Not even sure Cushing could have.

 
Hard to complain about a W, but they were very inconsistent in almost all facets of the game. Liked what I saw from Os, but he definitely was making some inexperienced starter mistakes forcing the ball in. I thought he did well stepping up and avoiding the rush most of the time, and he did throw it away a few times instead of trying to force something. Defense struggled first half (especially the secondary) but really tightened up in the second. Fuller with the drop on the for certain TD, but then made two really tough catches later. Running game worked well the 1st half, Bears defense put a lid on it in the second half. Don't like the idea of Kubiak'ing Miller and running him nearly 30 times. Don't think he needed to be in there in the clock killing drives, but Ervin definitely looked like a rookie so they may not have trusted him. Watt definitely looked slower/gassed for most of the game but he looked more like himself in the 4th quarter. Hopefully he just needs to shake the cobwebs and get in game shape, and there's no lingering health issues. Clowney made some plays, hope he can stay healthy, he and Watt definitely opened things up for the rest of the defense. Lot of folks probably singing a different tune these days after we resigned Mercilous last offseason. McKinney was in there making some plays too, nice to see from a 2nd year player.

Main worry IMO is still the o'line, we play some tough defenses early (Chiefs, Pats, Vikes, Broncos) that are going to be a major challenge. Getting Duane Brown back in a few weeks will help some though.

 
Noticed that on Mercilus's first sack, Langford was in position he could have helped out and prevented the sack, but he was so focused on helping against Watt if it was needed that he didn't even look at Mercilus blowing by the tackle. One of those great examples of how things open up for other guys when teams are focused on having double team or at least help against Watt.

 
So, Osweiler was throwing the deepest on average of NFL QBs in Week 1, per ESPN:

Much of the high QBR comes from Osweiler completing key passes deep downfield. His average throw Sunday traveled 11.7 yards past the line of scrimmage, highest in the league. Osweiler was the only quarterback who threw 20 or more yards downfield on over 20 percent of his pass attempts in Week 1.
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For it only being week 2, this was a pretty big win against KC. They are capable of giving some of the other teams in the division a loss.

Offense still has a lot of room it needs to improve. But loved that after getting outcoached badly first game last year by KC, this time it looked even. Defense did a fantastic job against Alex Smith, maybe didn't get quite as constant of pressure as I'd have liked. But one big plus was that Alex Smith didn't do ANYTHING with his legs this game. Seems like mobile QBs picking up 20 yard chunks has always been a Texans weakness, and Smith was completely contained today. 2 rushes for 2 yards.

 
GregR said:
For it only being week 2, this was a pretty big win against KC. They are capable of giving some of the other teams in the division a loss.

Offense still has a lot of room it needs to improve. But loved that after getting outcoached badly first game last year by KC, this time it looked even. Defense did a fantastic job against Alex Smith, maybe didn't get quite as constant of pressure as I'd have liked. But one big plus was that Alex Smith didn't do ANYTHING with his legs this game. Seems like mobile QBs picking up 20 yard chunks has always been a Texans weakness, and Smith was completely contained today. 2 rushes for 2 yards.
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This defense makes the Texans capable of being in every game and winning most of the them. Hopefully, Brock will continue to develop in the offense and stop making bad turnovers. The football Gods are lining up for the Texans as their 3 of the toughest road games coming into this season were at NE, at Minn, and at Denver. Those teams now have Brissett, Bradford (without Peterson), and Siemian facing a really good Texans defense. The Texans now have the potential to win all 3 of those games.

 
If we can't win on a short week against the Pats having to now start their 3rd stringer and probably without Gronk, I'm going to be concerned that we are just pretenders at this point. Obviously it is no gimme game, but luck is on our side for timing on the matchup. Minn should be a tough game, but I think we have the upper hand there on both offense & defense, just need to limit our turnovers. I am not confident the O'line will hold up against Denver at all and we are going into their house with Brock, that may be an ugly one.

Defense looking stout, just need to get the offense clicking better, not going to be able to surprise people on those deep shots too much if we can't execute the rest of our offense.

 
Paraphrasing someone from radio:   "It's a good thing Will Fuller doesn't have better hands. Because if he did we'd never have been able to draft him at 21."

Edit to add:  Hopefully they get better as he develops further.

 
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By the way, if you haven't seen this yet...

A list of all WRs in NFL history who had 100+ receiving yards in their first 2 games as a rookie:

Don Looney, 1940.
DeSean Jackson, 2008
Will Fuller, 2016
 

 
GregR said:
Paraphrasing someone from radio:   "It's a good thing Will Fuller doesn't have better hands. Because if he did we'd never have been able to draft him at 21."

Edit to add:  Hopefully they get better as he develops further.
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Not to take away from him because he played well, but if he hadn't of bobbled that early deep one it likely would have been a TD instead of being tackled at the 3. They then couldn't punch it in and Os was picked off by Peters the first time on 3rd down. Didn't come back to haunt them thankfully.

 
Buckna said:
GregR said:
Paraphrasing someone from radio:   "It's a good thing Will Fuller doesn't have better hands. Because if he did we'd never have been able to draft him at 21."

Edit to add:  Hopefully they get better as he develops further.
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Not to take away from him because he played well, but if he hadn't of bobbled that early deep one it likely would have been a TD instead of being tackled at the 3. They then couldn't punch it in and Os was picked off by Peters the first time on 3rd down. Didn't come back to haunt them thankfully.
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That was actually the exact thing that they were discussing that prompted that paraphrased quote then.  And he's got a point, without those hand issues we wouldn't have got him at all.

 
GregR said:
That was actually the exact thing that they were discussing that prompted that paraphrased quote then.  And he's got a point, without those hand issues we wouldn't have got him at all.
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Likely true. Although there sure were tons of draft experts, both professional and on these boards, quick to wonder why we would draft Fuller that "early." Or that we would trade a meaningless late round pick to move up and make sure we got him with "better" guys on the board. Doctson was injured and Treadwell has done nothing, who's laughing for now?

 
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Yeah, it's still early obviously, but just knowing what we know right now, if they held the draft again today I don't think we'd be getting him again unless we traded up higher.

You know, the odd thing is, he's had the bobbles on the deep passes in the pros and been fine on short passes, while in college he was money on deep passes most of the time (5th best catch percentage in college football on deep passes), and it was the shorter stuff he had issues with.

Hopefully he's improving his hands overall but just had a pair of bad deep ones.  I'll take him either way.  Hand issues or no, teams have to account for him.

 
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GregR said:
Yeah, it's still early obviously, but just knowing what we know right now, if they held the draft again today I don't think we'd be getting him again unless we traded up higher.

You know, the odd thing is, he's had the bobbles on the deep passes in the pros and been fine on short passes, while in college he was money on deep passes most of the time (5th best catch percentage in college football on deep passes), and it was the shorter stuff he had issues with.

Hopefully he's improving his hands overall but just had a pair of bad deep ones.  I'll take him either way.  Hand issues or no, teams have to account for him.
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You hit the nail on the head. Safeties are playing deeper, and paying him attention, which means the rest of the offense has more space to operate in. This will pay major dividends for the Texan offense.

 
Gronk listed as probable last I saw.

Have to wonder if AJ Bouye will be used on Gronk if he plays, like Bouye was with Kelce last week.  O'brien said after the game their thought was... Bouye has a bit more length to him than some of our other corners, normally covers Hopkins in practice well and has shown he does better than many against someone with a big catch radius like Hopkins.  Leading them to think maybe he'd be able to play a larger tight end well. Kelce only had 5 for 34 and no real game-impactful plays, compared to 8/128 and 6/106/2 in their two games last season against Houston.

 
Different year same team. Got no business being on the same field as the big boys like the Patriots. I feel like the Factory of Sadness Cleveland guy right now.... I just want them to be "watchable" in a game like this. Drops, fumbles, penalties....and generally looking and playing like a bunch of p###ies.

What a lame franchise. Put up a fight and quit playing like pansies...

 
Yeah, I still have the damn second half to watch but checked the play by play to see how the scores happened and all.  Ugh.  A well-played loss could have stomached.

 
Just when you get your hopes up they may have turned a corner and be a very good team, they get embarrassed on national television yet again. Getting (rightfully) brutalized by the media today. Still early in the season but even if they can get the offense going and correct the mistakes, gonna take a while to get out from under the shadow of that putrid performance last night.

I said in the game thread against the Chiefs that Ervin looked terrible returning kicks. Height of irony they put somebody new in who fumbles it on his very first one, then go back to Ervin in the 2nd half and he coughs it up too. Too early to fire the special teams coach?

 
Lash said:
that moment when you look at all the money you gave an unproven Osweiler
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Eh. It was the market price of getting a player who has a shot at developing. The only other option was go after a developmental QB and then you're wasting years from JJ Watt's career and still it might not pan out. It wasn't all that much anyway like I've said before, comparing contracts by percent of the cap at the time of each contract his contract ranks down past 20, with several QBs behind him guys still on their rookie contract who would be making more but for that.

And it's silly to think the book is written on him. He's had what, is it up to 10 starts yet? Isn't trending well so far, but 1 game doesn't make him a bust any more than his beating the Pats last year with the Broncos made him a franchise QB.

Media hammering them after the game. Hopefully it lights a fire under them for the rest of the season. Can't be easy to look at NFL.com and see headlines like, "Texans exposed as a pretender vs. top competition".

 
GregR said:
Eh. It was the market price of getting a player who has a shot at developing. The only other option was go after a developmental QB and then you're wasting years from JJ Watt's career and still it might not pan out. It wasn't all that much anyway like I've said before, comparing contracts by percent of the cap at the time of each contract his contract ranks down past 20, with several QBs behind him guys still on their rookie contract who would be making more but for that.

And it's silly to think the book is written on him. He's had what, is it up to 10 starts yet? Isn't trending well so far, but 1 game doesn't make him a bust any more than his beating the Pats last year with the Broncos made him a franchise QB.

Media hammering them after the game. Hopefully it lights a fire under them for the rest of the season. Can't be easy to look at NFL.com and see headlines like, "Texans exposed as a pretender vs. top competition".
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Don't feed the trolls. :P

 
Pats utilized two deep defense forcing Brock to read the defense and make the throw.  He couldn't and that was the game.  That said, the play calling was simply awful.

 
Did Texans homers see anything different in week 4 with O'Brian calling the plays? I saw Fiedorowicz had a good game and has been getting the lions share of the snaps this far. Is he someone that could potentially be utilized more in the offense moving forward? I don't have much knowledge about O'Brian's play calling tendencies or his reliance on TEs being involved in the passing game.

 
Texans fans, is Fuller now full time at Punt return for those of us in yardage leagues?  Tyler Ervin was/is handling them right?

 
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