Houston Texans Draft: Needs and Greeds

By: Colin Cook

No one can say the Texans had a "bad season". They did make the playoffs and win the Wild Card game, but aside from never having a losing playoff record, the Texans' final six or seven weeks of the 2012 season have been...well, abysmal.

The first twelve or thirteen weeks were absolute magic for Texans fans, as they put every team they played against on blast, dominating every aspect of the game. Sure, Matt Shaub had targeted his tight ends more often than any time in his career. Sure, they led the league in 'time of possession' with their ground attack led by the spry Arian Foster. But the Texans' offense, on the whole, was not showy.

In my years of being a fan of this team, I've come to expect us to kick field goals more often than scoring touchdowns; to the point that whenever we're in the other team's thirty yard line, and it's third down, I'll usually walk away and do something else while the field goal and commercials take place.

Since Eric Wilson was traded to the Raiders, the offensive line has definitely struggled to protect Schaub, and even though he is one of the least sacked quarterbacks, that added pressure would definitely force him to rely on the 'easier' tight-end passes.

Offensive Needs:

Before the Texans run off to find a true #2 wide receiver to co-star beside Andre Johnson after a career season, they need to fix that offensive line problem. It isn't as bad an o-line as, say, the Eagles, but you never want to let a crack in a dam get too big. The Texans need to solve this problem as soon as possible, especially with Shaun Cody's back injury.

Offensive Greeds:

I trust and believe in Matt Schaub 100%. Even after his highly erratic final six or seven weeks of the season, he is definitely one of the league's best quarterbacks, not only as a player but as a human being. As much as I hate to say it, and as much as the organization hates to say it (they gave him a four-year contract extension) Shaub's time may be coming. It may just be the aforementioned offensive line issue, which is why this isn't a 'need', but Schaub's erratic play was just heartbreaking to watch. To see us go from a #1 seed to playing in the Wild Card again was just terrible. Not that I'm blaming Shaub, but he did contribute.

The defense of the Texans, however, is a solid wall. Can you run through a solid wall? Nope; you can only beat yourself against it until you manage to break through a weakened spot. But how else do you get past a solid wall? Well, you can always throw the ball over it!!

Defensive Needs:

Oh my goodness, how can our secondary be so tremendous and then become so atrocious week-by-week? If you watch the game tape of the Texans' loss to the Packers, you will see Aaron Rodgers and his wide receivers making plays that are miraculous at best. Against the Patriots and Tom Brady, you can see the same thing. Now, I said the same thing before their losses to the Patriots, "If we can use our awesome pass rush to put pressure on these quarterbacks, they'll be bad!".

It didn't work. Our secondary is definitely improving, but as good as Wade Phillips is at blitzing, their coverage seems to be the weakest point on this team. And you know what they say about a team and it's weakest link...

Defensive Greeds:

Far be it from me to say that a dirty play by the Jets affected our defense by knocking Brian Cushing, but did you notice that, every week, the commentators kept using a merry-go-round of names for our linebackers? Yeah, that's because the injuries piled up so high we had to pull players off of free agency just to play. Brian Cushing is the burning soul of our defense, any Texans' fan will tell you. The team clearly plays at a higher level with him around. Then Brooks Reed went down. And then Dobbins...

This is probably the most worthless thing to ask for, but the defense cannot get the injuries that they did this season. Even the secondary was running on empty! Alan Ball? Who is that?! Granted, our defense played like champions week in and week out (there are YouTube videos that back up that statement) regardless of the injuries, but you can never rely on second-string players in a starter world.