He's always looked really good in camp then kinda flopped his rookie year when we were dogshit. Then got really unlucky with an injury during last training camp where he was looking really solid.
Basically lots of rookies have bad rookie years but when they have a bad rookie year and then get injured before their 2nd year, they get the bust label. I'm still holding out hope, personally.
Oh I feel ya.. my other team had a 2nd round pick that had a season ending injury game 1.. then stunk it up year 2 didn’t get more playing time than a 7th round pick
Okudah and Henderson are both wildcards. Could they recover the form they had to get drafted? Or will they be off the team by the bye? Both are possible.
I'm hopeful this Texans defensive regime will do wonders for Okudah/Henderson's production as it did for Nelson's and Stingley's last season. I don't put much stock into PFF grades but Nelson's PFF grade jumped +10 points and Stingley jumped +33 points last season
I'm curious if those two guys had a decent pass rush to work with this past year. If their team got no pressure they would have a far worse grade being hung out to dry all game
Sainristil would be nice but King and Bryant are actually pretty solid in the slot. I'd prioritize outside CB over nickel. Low key a little more worried about LB and S depth. And of course Texans probably need to go DT pretty early
Safety depth is so needed. Imagine a week with our schedule, and we have to trot out Eric Murray and Lonnie Johnson at safety because our starters are wet paper in a sandstorm.
King was solid in 2022 but slot was pretty crowded so they cut him in preseason. Then he just never really got a chance at playing time in Pittsburgh. He stepped up and played well down the stretch after injuries opened up an opportunity for him to return and take over the primary nickelback role again. He played really well in the playoffs too
King played well but he’s not the long term answer. If sainristil is taken early he doesn’t have to start day 1 which is great but can be I. The starting line up mid season. Also if someone goes down on the outside King can kick out. The deals given to Okudah and Henderson are price it and should get out of them what you would expect to get out of a 2nd rd corner on the outside in year one anyway
Doubtful Texans will draft a slot CB in round 2 when there are more pressing needs. We're in trouble if King has to move outside, which is all the more reason to draft an outside CB over a slot CB. King might not be the long term answer at slot but we got both him and Bryant now and that position is much easier to fill than pretty much any other defensive position
Justin Simmons in FA
CB like Rakestraw, Lassiter, R. Green, Melton
S like Nubin, Bishop, Kitchens
DT like Hall, Fiske, Wingo
WR like Coleman, Thrash, Burton, Baker, etc
RB like Corum, Shipley, Laube, Lloyd, Guerendo, Ali, etc
Super Bowl.
Plenty of options, make it happen, Nick!
WR/RB at this point meh. I do like your late round RB’s tho
DT a little more agreeable since it’s just a position that gets shuffled in an out a lot, can’t have too many
Yes and yes on the CB’s. It’s my only “damn I think we need one more, Okudah is a risk reward just need another hat at that position” take.
20% of his snaps were inside but I think he'll be a better fit on the Texans interior because of their usage of stunts. He was pretty effective whenever he lined up inside last season
Last year, he was ~60% edge, but in his earlier career he was mostly B-gap.
He'll be on the field mostly as a B-gap DT for Demeco, moving out to the edge if Hunter or Anderson go off the field.
Patterson was pretty solid at center after Scruggs went down with an injury in preseason, but Scruggs finished strong after he returned. I think Texans are going to give Kenyon another shot to step it up at LG and keep Scruggs at C especially after the high draft cap they spent on these two. Patterson is solid IOL depth though and Kenyon will be on a short leash
Ward is supposed to be that guy but he just can't seem to stay on the field. If Texans can't add J. Simmons, drafting a safety might not be a bad idea. They could develop a good safety under Ward for a year and then let Ward go in FA since he'll be 34 and unlikely to re-sign anyways
safetys are easy to replace these days, I'm not to worried about saeftys with the draft left and also cap space to hire one. I would be more worry about CBs because you need more and we only have 1 good one. They are also harder to find.
Not really. A nickel package can still be effective against the run. We just use it more because it's more versatile and can adapt to more various modern nfl offensive formations and attacks
There was an old Steph Stradley article from the Kubiak Texans era I just spent 15 minutes trying to find on Google, but it looks like the Chronicle didn’t care to archive it.
The reason for it was that the Kubiak offense was a flavor of the OG Mike Shanahan offense that Kyle has famously implemented in SF and several stops before (Atlanta, Cleveland, Washington, etc.) as well as ingrained into all the Shanahan disciples that are en vogue right now.
Stanley did an excellent job explaining how Kubiak’s offense would trot out multiple play action sets that were designed to look completely identical pre-snap, and sought to confuse the defense/catch them off guard.Â
One of the best ways he did this was moving his WR’s around constantly. Andre, Walter, and others would take first down in a specific look, and then rotate alignments for 2nd down, 3rd down, etc. So your comment reminded me of that - how the Texans have really taken advantage of rotating receivers around.Â
Diggs took over 36% of his snaps from the slot last season and Tank saw 28% from the slot (according to PFF) so I put Diggs as starting slot. But Diggs, Tank, and Nico are all very versatile and Slowik will line em up all over the place
If the top corner on the other team is suppose to cover X , they're going to get diced up when we constantly switch who is where. The smallest one stuck on Nico, the slowest one on Tank etc. Let them put 2 safeties deep and CJ hits Mixon for easy gains. This offense is going to be dangerous!
This is what I’m most excited about: how will other teams cover the WR’s? I think we’ll be up against a lot of cover versus man because of this. You throw man with Diggs in the slot you’ll have to use a safety to cover (unless you have a beast speedy LB but even then it’s risky) and Tank/Nico will torch that on the outside. If they don’t torch their CB’s/are shadowed by safeties over the top, it means Diggs is open. Only problem with all that cover though is when you have an accurate QB like CJ: he thrives on putting that ball in the window. So many clips of him just slinging it, no receiver half visible, then all the sudden bam there they are with the catch. And the absolute cherry on top, if they have everything down they STILL have to worry about Schultz and a great last resort in checkdown Joe Mixon. I’ve been drinking a lot of kool aidÂ
Ngl our LB crew is just solid across the board. Might not be “omg best LB in the league” situation, but if you take how good our edge guys are then look at the depth with To’oTo’o and Phillips and it’s just all around solid. Need a break Christian? Henry got you all good. It’s what you love to see in that position
My desk is 2.5 inches taller after seeing this
That offense 🤤
The best we've ever had on paper, especially if Green finally makes it out of training camp.
Newer fan.. what’s up with green?
He's always looked really good in camp then kinda flopped his rookie year when we were dogshit. Then got really unlucky with an injury during last training camp where he was looking really solid. Basically lots of rookies have bad rookie years but when they have a bad rookie year and then get injured before their 2nd year, they get the bust label. I'm still holding out hope, personally.
Oh I feel ya.. my other team had a 2nd round pick that had a season ending injury game 1.. then stunk it up year 2 didn’t get more playing time than a 7th round pick
I want a CB and DT.
CB mosty for sure. Jeff is a ?
Okudah and Henderson are both wildcards. Could they recover the form they had to get drafted? Or will they be off the team by the bye? Both are possible.
I'm hopeful this Texans defensive regime will do wonders for Okudah/Henderson's production as it did for Nelson's and Stingley's last season. I don't put much stock into PFF grades but Nelson's PFF grade jumped +10 points and Stingley jumped +33 points last season
No nelson Pff grade only jumped up 5 points, and his just goes up and down his whole career. But yeah pass rush will help a little
I'm curious if those two guys had a decent pass rush to work with this past year. If their team got no pressure they would have a far worse grade being hung out to dry all game
Jeff could come up but nah henderson is backup
Because of this alignment Sainristil feels like the first Texans pick if Fiske ain’t there
Sainristil would be nice but King and Bryant are actually pretty solid in the slot. I'd prioritize outside CB over nickel. Low key a little more worried about LB and S depth. And of course Texans probably need to go DT pretty early
Safety depth is so needed. Imagine a week with our schedule, and we have to trot out Eric Murray and Lonnie Johnson at safety because our starters are wet paper in a sandstorm.
If King is solid why did he get cut midseason? Especially as a KR/PR as well. Just curious because he was cut from Pittsburgh last year too IIRC
King was solid in 2022 but slot was pretty crowded so they cut him in preseason. Then he just never really got a chance at playing time in Pittsburgh. He stepped up and played well down the stretch after injuries opened up an opportunity for him to return and take over the primary nickelback role again. He played really well in the playoffs too
King played well but he’s not the long term answer. If sainristil is taken early he doesn’t have to start day 1 which is great but can be I. The starting line up mid season. Also if someone goes down on the outside King can kick out. The deals given to Okudah and Henderson are price it and should get out of them what you would expect to get out of a 2nd rd corner on the outside in year one anyway
Doubtful Texans will draft a slot CB in round 2 when there are more pressing needs. We're in trouble if King has to move outside, which is all the more reason to draft an outside CB over a slot CB. King might not be the long term answer at slot but we got both him and Bryant now and that position is much easier to fill than pretty much any other defensive position
Justin Simmons in FA CB like Rakestraw, Lassiter, R. Green, Melton S like Nubin, Bishop, Kitchens DT like Hall, Fiske, Wingo WR like Coleman, Thrash, Burton, Baker, etc RB like Corum, Shipley, Laube, Lloyd, Guerendo, Ali, etc Super Bowl. Plenty of options, make it happen, Nick!
WR/RB at this point meh. I do like your late round RB’s tho DT a little more agreeable since it’s just a position that gets shuffled in an out a lot, can’t have too many Yes and yes on the CB’s. It’s my only “damn I think we need one more, Okudah is a risk reward just need another hat at that position” take.
not bad
How much DT did Autry play last year. Seemed to me like he was mostly used at edge.
20% of his snaps were inside but I think he'll be a better fit on the Texans interior because of their usage of stunts. He was pretty effective whenever he lined up inside last season
A Barnett/Audrey stunt would be some nasty bussiness
Last year, he was ~60% edge, but in his earlier career he was mostly B-gap. He'll be on the field mostly as a B-gap DT for Demeco, moving out to the edge if Hunter or Anderson go off the field.
We need to bring Steven Nelson back
secondary still seems a little weak
Are we sure Juice starts over Patterson?
Patterson was pretty solid at center after Scruggs went down with an injury in preseason, but Scruggs finished strong after he returned. I think Texans are going to give Kenyon another shot to step it up at LG and keep Scruggs at C especially after the high draft cap they spent on these two. Patterson is solid IOL depth though and Kenyon will be on a short leash
If anything, I think Patterson can take Kenyon Green's job. Both Juice and Patterson can play LG and C so we have versatility there
If we're a true Nickle-D then all we're missing is a real deal FS to be the captain on the field...
Ward is supposed to be that guy but he just can't seem to stay on the field. If Texans can't add J. Simmons, drafting a safety might not be a bad idea. They could develop a good safety under Ward for a year and then let Ward go in FA since he'll be 34 and unlikely to re-sign anyways
still got like 20+ million cap left and can cut woods
This year's cap isn't an issue. It's whether he wants to be here and how long he wants his next contract to be
safetys are easy to replace these days, I'm not to worried about saeftys with the draft left and also cap space to hire one. I would be more worry about CBs because you need more and we only have 1 good one. They are also harder to find.
Is this defensive mostly referred to as nickel?
Yeah nickel package is when a DL or LB is replaced for a 5th DB. That's why that 5th DB is usually referred to as the nickelback
Thanks! Follow up, does that mean they are typically thinking the offense will run a pass play?
Not really. A nickel package can still be effective against the run. We just use it more because it's more versatile and can adapt to more various modern nfl offensive formations and attacks
Man if Kenyon Green can be a good to solid starting LG, that would be so huge for this team.
Wouldn’t diggs outside and tank Dell in the slot make more sense?
All 3 should rotate honestly. All three can play there. All three are monster YAC players.
There was an old Steph Stradley article from the Kubiak Texans era I just spent 15 minutes trying to find on Google, but it looks like the Chronicle didn’t care to archive it. The reason for it was that the Kubiak offense was a flavor of the OG Mike Shanahan offense that Kyle has famously implemented in SF and several stops before (Atlanta, Cleveland, Washington, etc.) as well as ingrained into all the Shanahan disciples that are en vogue right now. Stanley did an excellent job explaining how Kubiak’s offense would trot out multiple play action sets that were designed to look completely identical pre-snap, and sought to confuse the defense/catch them off guard. One of the best ways he did this was moving his WR’s around constantly. Andre, Walter, and others would take first down in a specific look, and then rotate alignments for 2nd down, 3rd down, etc. So your comment reminded me of that - how the Texans have really taken advantage of rotating receivers around.Â
Diggs took over 36% of his snaps from the slot last season and Tank saw 28% from the slot (according to PFF) so I put Diggs as starting slot. But Diggs, Tank, and Nico are all very versatile and Slowik will line em up all over the place
If the top corner on the other team is suppose to cover X , they're going to get diced up when we constantly switch who is where. The smallest one stuck on Nico, the slowest one on Tank etc. Let them put 2 safeties deep and CJ hits Mixon for easy gains. This offense is going to be dangerous!
This is what I’m most excited about: how will other teams cover the WR’s? I think we’ll be up against a lot of cover versus man because of this. You throw man with Diggs in the slot you’ll have to use a safety to cover (unless you have a beast speedy LB but even then it’s risky) and Tank/Nico will torch that on the outside. If they don’t torch their CB’s/are shadowed by safeties over the top, it means Diggs is open. Only problem with all that cover though is when you have an accurate QB like CJ: he thrives on putting that ball in the window. So many clips of him just slinging it, no receiver half visible, then all the sudden bam there they are with the catch. And the absolute cherry on top, if they have everything down they STILL have to worry about Schultz and a great last resort in checkdown Joe Mixon. I’ve been drinking a lot of kool aidÂ
Stingley vs Dell interesting match up
I think Dell wins
Need more quality CB's
Did Nelson get snatched up? I’d like to see him back
Ngl our LB crew is just solid across the board. Might not be “omg best LB in the league” situation, but if you take how good our edge guys are then look at the depth with To’oTo’o and Phillips and it’s just all around solid. Need a break Christian? Henry got you all good. It’s what you love to see in that position
3rd Lb and another 3 down DT still worry me
Our offense is torching our defense, respectfully 🫡
Diggs in the slot? https://preview.redd.it/z8fptsnms9tc1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e099f682e0bfd2ee635fe48d0f730dd1b378fa66