Quote (draino @ Dec 1 2013 03:16am)
You can draft a pass rusher any time. JJ Watt was drafted 11th overall. It's not every day that a team get to have the #1 pick and a chance at a franchise QB.
We'll see when the time comes. The team is hurting in so many areas that I'm nearly crazy enough to think that they may be better off trading the potential first overall pick if they can haul in a really good package filled with multiple draft picks. For now, we're 6.5 hours away from future hall of famer Tom Brady showing our defense just how bad we really are.
Mediocre quarterbacks like Chad Henne and Matthew McGloin are dominating us so I can only imagine what an elite quarterback can do against our one man defense. J.J. Watt is the only good player we have on defense right now. Whitney Mercilus is showing flashes of becoming a good player but even Johnathan Joseph has lost a step. Antonio Smith is overpaid and worthless at this point in his career. Kareem Jackson is having a bad season plagued by injuries. I no longer believe in his abilities to defend the deep pass.
At the moment, we have the worst inside linebackers in the entire NFL. Darryl Sharpton and Joe Mays don't even belong in the NFL much less starting on any team. Our safeties aren't any good but D.J. Swearinger has some potential. The middle of the field is undeniably wide open, run or pass, it's not hard for opposing offenses to game plan for the Texans defense. Tom Brady and the Patriots offense shouldn't have any problems making it look easy today.
We can mask our awful secondary if we had a strong pass rush and front seven (like in 2011) but we need Brian Cushing back along with two or three really good draft picks. I hope we can move to a 4-3 defense in 2014 if we bring in a new coaching staff. We quite simply don't have the personnel to run a proper 3-4 defense as I type this. You need numerous "good if not great" linebackers. We barely have one decent outside linebacker in Whitney Mercilus. And you need a brute nose tackle which we have never been able to find.
You can actually sell me on the idea of simply bringing Matt Schaub back in 2014 because he's under contract for three more seasons (after 2016). It we release him it would be a $10 million salary cap hit in 2014 and 2015 combined. With a healthy Arian Foster, Owen Daniels and upgrade at right tackle in free agency, there's at least some hope that the offense can be good again. What you can't do is sell me on the idea of not improving several positions on our defense. We need more pass rushers above all right now.
I actually believe we are tanking by continuing to start Case Keenum and Ben Tate. If we had started Matt Schaub at quarterback and Dennis Johnson at running back against the Jaguars in the last game, we'd probably would have won that home game. But oh well, I'm down with losing every game left this season. The good news is we're about to lose two games in the next four nights. So the next two will go by pretty quick.