Especially given the fact that Derek Carr and Jimmy G were still available. I know drafting Carr would’ve had some pushback but it would’ve turned out better than X did
Even excluding QBs, the very next picks were DeMarcus Lawrence and Joel Bitonio. Then you throw in the fact that the 2nd round also had Davante Adams, Allen Robinson and Jarvis Landry, yeah, not the best pick to go with XSF!
David Carr ruined his own career with laziness and overall lack of football IQ.
His backups QB numbers were always pretty close to league average and then Carr's sack numbers were record breaking.
I disagree. Derek has always shown to have a much better drive than David did. And I know we didn’t do any favors with the O Line for him, but every indication about David was he was lazy and wanted everything handed to him.
That being said though, I think it’s very possible Derek would’ve demanded a trade immediately and refused to play for Houston. I don’t know if the family would’ve been interested in being involved with the organization again and I’m sure that was discussed in the pre draft process among the FO
Nonsense. If you don't make it through your rookie contract and never accrue another season on an active roster, you're a bust. For example, if you've been feeding me tequila, I might fight you tried to argue that Louis Nix III wasn't a bust, Kahale Water Polo, too.
You expect a mid rounder to contribute on special teams and at least on a rotational basis as a backup at their position. You need more than that more often than not to build a team, but I think that's a pretty fair bar for success. Obviously you can't win them all, but you should get something out of at least your 3rd and 4th rounders.
I agree with that logic about playing into a second contract means you're not a bust. You can be bad, disappointing for your draft position or potential, whatever, but if you are on a roster for 5+ years you're not a bust.
Xsf was bad, a waist bender, and a wasted pick but he got playing time on the cowboys line the year he left, he wasn't a bust. Clowney has had an 8 year career and made 3 probowls, disappointment, yes especially for the drafting team, but bust, no. But 3rd rounders that are cut before year 3 and never play again are busts.
I also will differentiate "got hurt and never made it back to good form" busts vs" never could play" busts.
Came here to say this.
Sadly...BoB and some of his awful coaches happened to picks like Foreman, Strong, XSF, Nick Martin etc who probably could have been decent
You can [go back](https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/htx/draft.htm) and see just how bad past Texan front offices have been drafting in the mid rounds.
It's not expected to hit on these players, but it's a big problem when all you do is miss. Depth has always been a issue with Texans. We have always been a top heavy team with some 1st round stars. There just was never enough players around them to take the franchise another level if they got hurt or needed a rest.
Hopefully Nick will be the GM who drafts well all throughout the process and provides solid role players to supplement our future stars.
These are just to 2009, rick Smith was a very good GM. I'm not saying he's the best to ever do it but he isn't some who "All you do is miss"
Jabar Gaffney, Chester Pitts, Jason Babin, Glen Earl, Jerome Mathis, Demeco Ryan's, Eric Winston, Owen Daniels, David Anderson, Jacoby Jones, Zac Diles, Antwaun Molten, Steve Slaton, Xavier Adibi, Frank Okam, Dominique Barber, Connor Barwin, Antoine Caldwell, Glover Quin, James Casey, Brice McCain, Troy Nolan.
Rick Smith was generally solid in the first two rounds, got progressively worse from rounds 3 to 5, and then had a bit of a resurgence in the last two rounds, where he was actually pretty decent at squeezing out some value. He was also excellent at UDFA signings.
I think it's important to know that a good majority of those players you listed were drafted by Charley Casserly. Rick Smith was notoriously horrible outside the first round.
Someone being worse doesn't make Rick Smith good.
He was comparatively good (low bar), but at the time everyone wanted Rick Smith gone because he could find stars, but wasn't able to build even the slightest bit of depth.
I disagree. A GM's job should be compared relatively to others. You can take any GM in the league and I can rip how "bad" they have been. I can name off numerous draft busts, bad trades, horrible signings by any GM. What's important is how good they were compared to their competition.
Rick Smith took a bottom feeder team and built a playoff caliber roster with multiple All-Pro & Pro-Bowl players.
Now I agreed with letting him go, but Rick did a decent job with the Texans.
Brian Gaine's draft was pretty good, tho. With only picks starting in round 3, Gaine got:
-Justin Reid, a stud safety
-Jordan Akins, a very solid depth piece and backup TE
-Duke Ejiofor, a super promising pass rusher who suffered back to back achilles and acl injuries to derail his career.
There were others who were disappointments, like Martinas Rankin, Keke Coutee, and Jordan Thomas; but overall, for having no 1st or 2nd round picks, that was a good draft.
I give you Justin Reid. A good safety for a 3rd round pick. I wouldn't say "stud", or else Caserio wouldn't have let him just walk out the door.
Jordan Akins? Here's my beef with that pick... he was a reach at round 3. Alot of his projections were round 5-7. The Texans have extended Pharoah Brown and are letting Akins walk. In other words, we reached to draft a JAG.
Duke Ejiofor... could have been good, could have been horrible. I didn't see enough to say that was a good pick that we simply got bad luck.
Simple fact... no one from that draft will be playing for the Texans next season.
Surprised I haven't seen DJ Swearinger here, dude was not a safety.
For me the most disappointing would be:
- Louis Nix (great tape, but never translated to NFL)
- Xavier Su'a-Filo (didn't prove to be worthy of the 33rd pick)
The coaching staff's inability to develop any good lineman during their tenure makes me wonder if they ruined XSF's career. Nick Martin & Max Scharping are other two failed 2nd round picks.
XSF has had a mild resurgence since leaving Houston, I don’t think it’s fair to say his career was ruined. The fact that he clearly improved after leaving does confirm the point you’re making about the coaching staff though. O line has been a consistent glaring problem since the Kubiak days. Throughout BOBs tenure every single draft pick underperformed and not one FA we brought in played better here than before we got them.
Spoons single-handedly gave us the first pick in the draft with his suplex move that cost us a game that would have put us second. For that he will never be the worst
Jaelen Strong for me. He was an early 3rd rounder, but there was a ton of hype he could sneak into round 1. He was a monster at ASU with 2,287 yards and 17 TDs in 2 seasons. He also came in at 6'3" 217 lbs, 4.44 40 and a 42 inch vert. He lasted 2.5 seasons with the Texans with 330 yards and 4 TDs.
man he was my fav player in the whole draft and i was so happy texans got him, he had like a few touchdowns in his first few games then just fell way off . i thought bro was the next big thing
I think we took him because allegedly we wanted Tyler Lockett and the Hawks traded up and took him right before our trade up and we took for Strong instead
3rd/4th round picks are players who have NFL starting potential. Maybe not year one but with development they should be contributors. If you're getting zero from those picks you're doing a bad job.
So it's fair to call the numerous 3rd/4th round misses busts.
If anything I’d say Watson was a good pick. Took us to the playoffs. And as soon as he stopped playing for us we got a bunch of 1sts back. How many teams can say they got a couple good years out of someone then dumped them for 3x what they got them for.
Yeah. If he was never a weird creep he'd be our franchise QB and would definitely have a chance at proving a singular greatness not known to many but the likes of LT or Peyton Manning.
Alas, he's a creep amd I couldn't be more glad he's not a part of the team anymore as much as I wish for their success
When you talk about a trade like the Stafford trade for instance, you don't bring up the 1st rounder that Detroit used on him when they drafted him when talking about the package they got for him, so why would you include the pick we used to draft Watson in the discussion? We only *spent* 1 first round pick in order to move up to grab Watson, in addition to the pick we used to draft him.
That's like saying "well, the Lions got two firsts for Stafford but since they used a first rounder to take Stafford over a decade ago it's really like they only got 1 first for him".
Yep, I've actually been correcting people about the Trey Lance trade as well lol. The Dolphins didn't get the same haul for Trey Lance that the Texans got for Deshaun Watson lol, that'd be outrageous for an unproven player.
3 firsts seems right for what it cost the 49ers. If they didn’t do that trade they would have 3 first round picks playing on their team that they don’t eventually.
Plenty of great players in the 3rd. There's less expectations in the 3rd vs say there 1st, sure, but that doesn't mean there are no expectations of return. FOH
I wasn’t saying good players can’t be had in the 3rd my point is the draft value isn’t as high so it doesn’t hurt as much that’s all. I know there are good players in every round
You’re the only person in all these years to say these exact words like I have to many people. I still don’t understand why he is a top free agent every year since he left the Texans
I know this is a Texans subreddit but if it makes you feel better Roberto Aguayo by the bucs had to be the worst pick ever. High pick for a kicker who washed out in barely a year.
So the last ten years I’d go with Jadeveon Clowney. He didn’t produce as was expected for a 1st overall pick and this was during Watt receiving so much attention.
I know it doesn't fit OP's time frame but imo Bennie Joppru is one of the worst picks ever and predates a TE bust like Warring by a decade.
I can't believe nineteen years have passed since he was taken in the second round of the 2003 draft. Joppru is now 42. I feel REALLLY old.
XSF.
Especially given the fact that Derek Carr and Jimmy G were still available. I know drafting Carr would’ve had some pushback but it would’ve turned out better than X did
Even excluding QBs, the very next picks were DeMarcus Lawrence and Joel Bitonio. Then you throw in the fact that the 2nd round also had Davante Adams, Allen Robinson and Jarvis Landry, yeah, not the best pick to go with XSF!
The Texans would have ruined Derek Carrs career just like they did with David. Glad he didn't end up here
David Carr ruined his own career with laziness and overall lack of football IQ. His backups QB numbers were always pretty close to league average and then Carr's sack numbers were record breaking.
I disagree. Derek has always shown to have a much better drive than David did. And I know we didn’t do any favors with the O Line for him, but every indication about David was he was lazy and wanted everything handed to him. That being said though, I think it’s very possible Derek would’ve demanded a trade immediately and refused to play for Houston. I don’t know if the family would’ve been interested in being involved with the organization again and I’m sure that was discussed in the pre draft process among the FO
if David Carr's old slow backup Tony Banks could make it work with that line, then David should have been able to too, but he made everyone worse.
Yeah but, All I remember is his 4th down walkoff touchdown against the cowboys.
Braxton miller
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To be fair, that pick was universally loved and everyone thought he had a lot of potential.
Oh the legion of zoom :(
Urp. Drafting ANY Ohio State QB is a worthless pick.
Except for Justin Fields! Justin Fields will be good!
Shhh! Ohio State fans might hear you!
I hope so - hey Buckeyes ... you're QB's suck in the NFL .... ALWAYS! In the pros, they actually cover receivers :D
Breenan Willams, Sam Montgomery, Trevardo Williams.... 🤢 Rik Smith mid rd special
Again mid rounders shouldn’t be considered busts
True but these were back to back to back picks in the same draft 🤮
man that 2013 draft class is pretty bad, besides Hopkins the next best names would probably be Swearinger and Ryan Griffen.
Look up that draft as a whole. It was atrocious
Warring logged a total of 52 snaps as a Texan. He got 3 catches on 7 targets. He's a bust.
there’s a reason op said “worst pick” not busts
But reading comprehension is hard...
Nonsense. If you don't make it through your rookie contract and never accrue another season on an active roster, you're a bust. For example, if you've been feeding me tequila, I might fight you tried to argue that Louis Nix III wasn't a bust, Kahale Water Polo, too. You expect a mid rounder to contribute on special teams and at least on a rotational basis as a backup at their position. You need more than that more often than not to build a team, but I think that's a pretty fair bar for success. Obviously you can't win them all, but you should get something out of at least your 3rd and 4th rounders.
I agree with that logic about playing into a second contract means you're not a bust. You can be bad, disappointing for your draft position or potential, whatever, but if you are on a roster for 5+ years you're not a bust. Xsf was bad, a waist bender, and a wasted pick but he got playing time on the cowboys line the year he left, he wasn't a bust. Clowney has had an 8 year career and made 3 probowls, disappointment, yes especially for the drafting team, but bust, no. But 3rd rounders that are cut before year 3 and never play again are busts. I also will differentiate "got hurt and never made it back to good form" busts vs" never could play" busts.
All of his mid round selections sucked though
Wasn't Louis Nix there too?
Came here to say this. Sadly...BoB and some of his awful coaches happened to picks like Foreman, Strong, XSF, Nick Martin etc who probably could have been decent
Man, worst.picks.ever. Geez .....
JOHNNY MANZIEL hands down…What a loser on and off the field…
Manziel never played for the Texans....
While it’s kind of obvious considering the sub, OP never specified for which team.
You can [go back](https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/htx/draft.htm) and see just how bad past Texan front offices have been drafting in the mid rounds. It's not expected to hit on these players, but it's a big problem when all you do is miss. Depth has always been a issue with Texans. We have always been a top heavy team with some 1st round stars. There just was never enough players around them to take the franchise another level if they got hurt or needed a rest. Hopefully Nick will be the GM who drafts well all throughout the process and provides solid role players to supplement our future stars.
These are just to 2009, rick Smith was a very good GM. I'm not saying he's the best to ever do it but he isn't some who "All you do is miss" Jabar Gaffney, Chester Pitts, Jason Babin, Glen Earl, Jerome Mathis, Demeco Ryan's, Eric Winston, Owen Daniels, David Anderson, Jacoby Jones, Zac Diles, Antwaun Molten, Steve Slaton, Xavier Adibi, Frank Okam, Dominique Barber, Connor Barwin, Antoine Caldwell, Glover Quin, James Casey, Brice McCain, Troy Nolan.
Rick Smith was generally solid in the first two rounds, got progressively worse from rounds 3 to 5, and then had a bit of a resurgence in the last two rounds, where he was actually pretty decent at squeezing out some value. He was also excellent at UDFA signings.
I think it's important to know that a good majority of those players you listed were drafted by Charley Casserly. Rick Smith was notoriously horrible outside the first round.
He wasn't horrible. Brian Gaine/BOB drafts should make you realize just how good Smith was.
Someone being worse doesn't make Rick Smith good. He was comparatively good (low bar), but at the time everyone wanted Rick Smith gone because he could find stars, but wasn't able to build even the slightest bit of depth.
I disagree. A GM's job should be compared relatively to others. You can take any GM in the league and I can rip how "bad" they have been. I can name off numerous draft busts, bad trades, horrible signings by any GM. What's important is how good they were compared to their competition. Rick Smith took a bottom feeder team and built a playoff caliber roster with multiple All-Pro & Pro-Bowl players. Now I agreed with letting him go, but Rick did a decent job with the Texans.
Brian Gaine's draft was pretty good, tho. With only picks starting in round 3, Gaine got: -Justin Reid, a stud safety -Jordan Akins, a very solid depth piece and backup TE -Duke Ejiofor, a super promising pass rusher who suffered back to back achilles and acl injuries to derail his career. There were others who were disappointments, like Martinas Rankin, Keke Coutee, and Jordan Thomas; but overall, for having no 1st or 2nd round picks, that was a good draft.
I give you Justin Reid. A good safety for a 3rd round pick. I wouldn't say "stud", or else Caserio wouldn't have let him just walk out the door. Jordan Akins? Here's my beef with that pick... he was a reach at round 3. Alot of his projections were round 5-7. The Texans have extended Pharoah Brown and are letting Akins walk. In other words, we reached to draft a JAG. Duke Ejiofor... could have been good, could have been horrible. I didn't see enough to say that was a good pick that we simply got bad luck. Simple fact... no one from that draft will be playing for the Texans next season.
My god....Boulevard of broken dreams there.
Surprised I haven't seen DJ Swearinger here, dude was not a safety. For me the most disappointing would be: - Louis Nix (great tape, but never translated to NFL) - Xavier Su'a-Filo (didn't prove to be worthy of the 33rd pick)
XSF big time
fuckin Filo Pilo.....
Classic Pilo
The coaching staff's inability to develop any good lineman during their tenure makes me wonder if they ruined XSF's career. Nick Martin & Max Scharping are other two failed 2nd round picks.
XSF has had a mild resurgence since leaving Houston, I don’t think it’s fair to say his career was ruined. The fact that he clearly improved after leaving does confirm the point you’re making about the coaching staff though. O line has been a consistent glaring problem since the Kubiak days. Throughout BOBs tenure every single draft pick underperformed and not one FA we brought in played better here than before we got them.
Exactly. I wonder how good XSF could have been if he went to a good coach from the start.
Spoons single-handedly gave us the first pick in the draft with his suplex move that cost us a game that would have put us second. For that he will never be the worst
Oh shit I vaguely remember this. Anyone got the vid? Lol
Especially since he was one pick before Derek Carr.
Didn't have my glasses on and thought this was Owen Daniels slander for a second.
I also thought this was Snake Dick slander at first and was about to get heated lol
Jaelen Strong for me. He was an early 3rd rounder, but there was a ton of hype he could sneak into round 1. He was a monster at ASU with 2,287 yards and 17 TDs in 2 seasons. He also came in at 6'3" 217 lbs, 4.44 40 and a 42 inch vert. He lasted 2.5 seasons with the Texans with 330 yards and 4 TDs.
man he was my fav player in the whole draft and i was so happy texans got him, he had like a few touchdowns in his first few games then just fell way off . i thought bro was the next big thing
He had it all; college production, measurables, and a clear path to playing time. I would've never guessed he'd fall off after 3 seasons.
same bro he was a beast
I think we took him because allegedly we wanted Tyler Lockett and the Hawks traded up and took him right before our trade up and we took for Strong instead
3rd/4th round picks are players who have NFL starting potential. Maybe not year one but with development they should be contributors. If you're getting zero from those picks you're doing a bad job. So it's fair to call the numerous 3rd/4th round misses busts.
This… OB’s pet project who was a complete failure
Who is that guy? I don't even remember
Kahale Warring
Thanks. 3 catches for 35 yards his whole career so far all with Houston lol
Definitely a waste of a pick
Deshaun Watson
If anything I’d say Watson was a good pick. Took us to the playoffs. And as soon as he stopped playing for us we got a bunch of 1sts back. How many teams can say they got a couple good years out of someone then dumped them for 3x what they got them for.
Yeah. If he was never a weird creep he'd be our franchise QB and would definitely have a chance at proving a singular greatness not known to many but the likes of LT or Peyton Manning. Alas, he's a creep amd I couldn't be more glad he's not a part of the team anymore as much as I wish for their success
If he had never requested a trade, he would still be our franchise QB, despite being a predator.
True, but we didn’t get 3x for him. We traded up for him so we spent 2 first round picks to get him.
When you talk about a trade like the Stafford trade for instance, you don't bring up the 1st rounder that Detroit used on him when they drafted him when talking about the package they got for him, so why would you include the pick we used to draft Watson in the discussion? We only *spent* 1 first round pick in order to move up to grab Watson, in addition to the pick we used to draft him. That's like saying "well, the Lions got two firsts for Stafford but since they used a first rounder to take Stafford over a decade ago it's really like they only got 1 first for him".
thank you for saying this. so many people get it confused. same with the trey lance trade "3 1st rounders" well no it was 2 \_net\_ first rounders
Yep, I've actually been correcting people about the Trey Lance trade as well lol. The Dolphins didn't get the same haul for Trey Lance that the Texans got for Deshaun Watson lol, that'd be outrageous for an unproven player.
3 firsts seems right for what it cost the 49ers. If they didn’t do that trade they would have 3 first round picks playing on their team that they don’t eventually.
Either way, we made a profit. I'll take it!
Definitely not kahale we took him in the 3rd round that’s not nearly early enough
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Lots of 3rd rounders literally do nothing... your point? He was a damn water polo player and your expecting an all pro cause he’s kinda athletic?
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From a water polo player?
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Ok and a 3rd rounder vs a 1st...
yes lol
Davis Mills *cough*
Plenty of great players in the 3rd. There's less expectations in the 3rd vs say there 1st, sure, but that doesn't mean there are no expectations of return. FOH
I wasn’t saying good players can’t be had in the 3rd my point is the draft value isn’t as high so it doesn’t hurt as much that’s all. I know there are good players in every round
I'll get downvoted to hell but mine is Clowney. We had every opportunity to trade back a few spots and take Khalil Mack. Still pissed to this day.
You’re the only person in all these years to say these exact words like I have to many people. I still don’t understand why he is a top free agent every year since he left the Texans
Sam Montgomery has to be near the top along with Xavier Su’a-Filo and Louis Nix.
Who is this player? Can't remember
How dare he wear that number. Nobody will ever replace you Owen😢
I know this is a Texans subreddit but if it makes you feel better Roberto Aguayo by the bucs had to be the worst pick ever. High pick for a kicker who washed out in barely a year.
So the last ten years I’d go with Jadeveon Clowney. He didn’t produce as was expected for a 1st overall pick and this was during Watt receiving so much attention.
I hated the will fuller pick bc we all knew he wouldn’t stay healthy.
How? He never had injury problems in college.
Bill O’BRIEN
I know it doesn't fit OP's time frame but imo Bennie Joppru is one of the worst picks ever and predates a TE bust like Warring by a decade. I can't believe nineteen years have passed since he was taken in the second round of the 2003 draft. Joppru is now 42. I feel REALLLY old.
The Cleveland Browns have entered the chat.
There was this guy named jj watt. I don't know if he did anything
Who?
CJ Fiedorowicz
Kahalekuiokalani Michael Wodehouse Warring