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Texans off-season thread


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On 3/16/2018 at 10:43 AM, Texansfan713 said:

Apparently we signed some Pats special teams player.

Johnson Bandemosi.  First off, fulfills naming Texans secondary naming convention (John', Joe's, Jack's).  This is going to end up being a significant under the radar signing.  First off, it finally gets us a gunner that's worthy of the title.  One of the most maddening traits of the Rick Smith era was his habit of stocking the bottom of the roster with players too slow or unathletic to play their position which not only makes for a slow unathletic special teams unit, but sets you up for disaster when either due to injuries or game situation, these guys actually have to take defensive snaps or even start (Pleasant, Keo, Nolan, Barber).  What I like about Bandemosi is that in addition to proven special teams desire and skill, he has situational usefulness as he runs a 4.39 40 and is one of our few 6 footers so he can contribute in quarters/prevent and red zone if required.  

I have no problem with a developmental spot or two in the secondary, but it needs to follow the AJ Bouye, Andre Hal model of guys with an NFL set of tools worth developing that can contribute on special teams in the meantime OR guys that have demonstrated or upside special teams ability like Bandemosi.  We seem to be perpetually stuck in limbo with the Eddie Pleasant/Kurtis Drummond of the world that aren't ever going to develop into decent secondary components, but also haven't done much more than just take up space on special teams rather than excel.  Corey Moore's runs like molasses in the secondary, so why would you have him out there running down returners who are usually the fastest players on the team?  Charles James might have had heart, but if your depth is so poor that you have a 5 9" CB with 4.6 speed lining up against Aaron Rodgers and Jordy Nelson, it's the GM's fault, not his when he literally falls on his face. Day 3 is where you take upside players that might not be ready to step into a lineup, but bring some tools that can be used in the meantime, yet Rick Smith regularly threw away the picks on players who had neither upside nor utility like Treston Decoud, Kenny Hilliard, Keith Mumphrey. 

 

 

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BTW - it's not against the rules for someone to be a core special teamer AND key contributor/starter.  Adorree Jackson, Jabrill Peppers, Adam Jones, Micah Hyde, Patrick Peterson, Malcolm Jenkins on D.  Remember the days of JJ Watt blocking kicks?   Dion Lewis, Tyler Lockett, Jamison Crowder, Tyreek Hill, Christian McAffery, Tarik Cohen, Alvin Kamara, Darren Sproles, Julian Edelman, Jarvis Landry, Ted Ginn, Antonio Brown all say hi. 

Rick Smith/Kubiak seemed to think once players rose to become starters, they were too valuable for STs (O'Brien sent a nice message early on by kicking Swearinger to the curb for refusing to play STs, but we seem to have reverted to the culture of players "graduating" from STs after 1 or 2 years).  Quinton Demps averaged 30+ yards per kickoff return for KC returning 33 and was effective on 52 returns as a rookie for Philly, yet returned 7 kicks in 5 seasons for us despite averaging 33.8 yds. Daniel Manning was one of the top kickoff returners in the NFL for Chicago including cracking 1,000 kickoff return yards in 08 yet only returned 15 kickoffs for us in 3 years despite averaging 29.7 yards (of course, we let him return to returning after he lost his wheels and starting gig in 2014).

Now I'm on record thinking sticking Will Fuller returning punts is a bad idea but that's because of his scrawny build and that when he get's hit he breaks bones. Yes, JJ Watt doesn't need to be exposing his back leaping for kicks. But if 25 year old Mathieu isn't a core special teamer, we're idiots.  Stick Kevin Johnson out there to actually earn a paycheck and learn to tackle without getting dragged 6 yards. Jordan Todman taking up a roster spot while not even returning kicks and Treston Decoud not even active while we struggled to even have enough WRs, TEs, CBs, to execute the playbook and chasing street FA QBs instead of keeping Brandon Weedon is one of the most absurd roster decisions I've ever seen.

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12 hours ago, EliteTexan80 said:

Just thinking about that. It's either:

CB: Colvin, Kareem Jackson, Jonathan Joseph, Kevin Johnson, Trenton Decoud

S: Mathieu, Andre Hal, Corey Moore, Lonnie Ballentine

Or it's:

CB: Colvin, Joseph, Johnson, Decoud (rookie).

CB: Mathieu, Jackson, Hal, Moore, Ballentine.

Kareem Jackson is the wild card. There are signs pointing to him transitioning to one of the S roles, but we'll see.

I hate to be "that guy", but I assume you are confusing your Rick Smith secondary roster fodder. I assume you mean Kurtis Drummond, not Lonnie Ballentine.  Mr. Irrelevant Ballentine played in 4 games & had 3 IR trip seasons for the Texans before Allen Robinson and he went knee to knee and Ballentine dislocated his knee tearing PCL and LCL.  Came back late in 2016, but didn't look right and added groin and ankle injuries to the knee problem only lasting 2 games.  Didn't even come close to making the team last year looking awful in preseason falling behind Drummond, KJ Dillon, Malik Smith and Denzel Rice and Treston Decoud somehow owning roster spots to open the season. 

BTW - 6' 3" safeties that run sub 4.4 is exactly what I'm talking about with upside to groom vs. a waste of space like Decoud.  Ballentine had supplanted Pleasant and was pushing Hal for snaps, and was having a huge game before he blew up his knee. Tough break for a guy who worked hard to finally get his shot, but he did draw an NFL salary for 3 seasons or $464,000 per tackle.

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11 hours ago, Apollo Stallion said:

I hate to be "that guy", but I assume you are confusing your Rick Smith secondary roster fodder.

Yeah, they all kind of blend together nowadays. Kurtis Moore or Eddie Rice or Denzel Washington - don't know.

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20 hours ago, Apollo Stallion said:

Johnson Bandemosi

More I read on this, more I like. He and Matthew Slater made up the gunners on the Pats, and the Pats always have one of the better coverage units in the league.

Did anyone mention that we added Sammie Coats to the team, or was that a rumor?

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Picked up off of waivers. Should compete against Ellington and Brax for the #3 spot. Great deep speed, can probably come in on ST too.

He never picked up in Pittsburgh (which is a concern, Pitt WRs are usually well coached and contribute quickly) but maybe he can do something here. Who knows.

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1 hour ago, EliteTexan80 said:

Picked up off of waivers. Should compete against Ellington and Brax for the #3 spot. Great deep speed, can probably come in on ST too.

He never picked up in Pittsburgh (which is a concern, Pitt WRs are usually well coached and contribute quickly) but maybe he can do something here. Who knows.

i remember that one game he had where he came in and did pretty good. I'm kind of excited to have him. I think if Watson can make Fuller work, he can make Coates work too

 

I'm really curious to see how we address TE

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1 hour ago, EliteTexan80 said:

More I read on this, more I like. He and Matthew Slater made up the gunners on the Pats, and the Pats always have one of the better coverage units in the league.

Did anyone mention that we added Sammie Coats to the team, or was that a rumor?

You guys should be pleased, he's a great ST guy and a pretty decent CB. You don't want him starting, but he showed flashes as a good 3rd/4th corner. Certainly never going to be a complete liability.

One of my favourite "Who?" guys on our roster. Gutted we lost him, but happy he went to a team I like.

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So we are basically still without a starting LT, and there are not any options left. I guess that means that we will either start a rookie, davenport or move Allen. 

seems like our line will look like this:

Allen/fulton/Martin/Kelemete/Henderson with Mancz and Davenport in the swing roles. Not as bad as last year, but definately needing a LT. Maybe we can get by with Allen this season and draft one in the 1st round next year. We will have two 2nds, so we should be able to trade up and grab whichever LT we want next year. 

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13 minutes ago, Pastor Dillon said:

Maybe we can get by with Allen this season and draft one in the 1st round next year. We will have two 2nds, so we should be able to trade up and grab whichever LT we want next year. 

Next years' draft class at T is really strong from what I've read. Trey Adams, Jonah Williams, Greg Little really look like franchise level guys (People say that Adams would be a late 1st round pick had he declared this season, coming off of an ACL tear). 

A lot can happen between now and then and names can drop like Connor Williams and Orlando Brown did - but at the moment, we just need to find a guy who will do a good job for 16+ games and we don't need to find a potential long term starter. 

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On 3/13/2018 at 4:54 AM, EliteTexan80 said:

I'm putting more thought into this. Ervin and Foreman are both coming off of career threatening injuries, and Lamar Miller is miscast in his current role of every down RB. There's really been no word on Alfred Blue, either (I do think he should be kept, simply for his ST play). Jordan Todman is a waste on this roster.

AP could be a nice addition to this offense, and he probably comes cheap. 

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Right now I place the needs as

 

LT

TE

Backup QB

Backup RB

 

We should be able to get a TE in the draft who can catch passes. We will most definitely sign a vet QB to backup Watson.  I think we will resign Blue if Foreman isn't going to be back for a while.  Continuing to get secondary and OL depth is a priority come draft time.

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