NFL.com mock draft

We can all talk about OG, DT and FS until we are all blue. Imagine what the Texans’ braintrust is going through? I am most certain (which translates to “never wrong”), that the Smithiak conglomerate is debating the same as we are. OG, DT, FS…all areas of need, all positions that will have some talent available at 20. This is exciting and it is setting up great for the Combine when these guys will be out there getting measured, questioned, timed, and being asked to turn their heads and cough…

We probably won’t be able to till the 4th. Its hard for me to not say NT is our biggest need, on the fact that yes our corners and safeties could be better, but we don’t even have a single NT on our roster. Not ONE.

Alabama’s Mike Johnson is a name being thrown about for round 3.

I’m with you bfd, a good NT turns this line into something scary similar to what’s in Minnesota.

Collapsing the pocket so other people can get the sack doesn’t tend to show up on the stat sheet.

He has good power but below average lateral agility. In college he got away with just bullrushing opposing linemen, he’s not going to be able to bully people as much in the NFL and he doesn’t have the technique or athletic ability to play any other way. Plus he’s struggled with conditioning his entire playing career, the chances of him being a 3 down player are slim to none.

Hair sessions! FTW!

I tend to agree that Bradford will get snatched up by somebody. I can think of a few teams that could use his services. I’m not predicting they will draft him. One could make a case for all of these teams: Cleveland, Oakland, Seattle, Carolina, Buffalo, St Louis, Jacksonville…all picking in the top half of the draft, I believe. You might be able to add Minnesota to the lists of teams that might want to pick a QB, depending on what Favre does. But, we won’t know that before the draft, I’m sure.

Technique.

but I dont agree about the CB vs good d-line argument. A great d-line would put more pressure on the QB, which in turn takes pressure off the CBs. If the QB is being sacked more and has less time to throw the ball, the CBs know they wont have to cover for as long and due to that will have more confidence and it will appear that they are playing better because they are only covering the WRs for 2 seconds instead of 3 (i just made up those numbers but you get the idea). It also works the other way around though. If a team has great corner backs, they will make the QB hold onto the ball longer and the line would probably get more sacks/pressure, making the d-line appear better.

The slot isn’t there for a CB. You and I can go back and forth on DB vs. DL, but a CB at 20 is likely going to be a big reach.

FS depth is so good that the fall off from Earl Thomas (who would have been better suited returning to school) to a guy like Nate Allen isn’t that much.

There’s just no reason to harp on a DB at 20.

As for your thought, no. I look at the Vikings who have an average secondary , and they get pressure because of their front four. I look at our front four and think Zgonia/Cody/whomever is a huge weak link. We don’t collapse the pocket at all. When the QB doesn’t need to move around…there’s a problem.

I mean that it was God-awful, possibly even historically bad. We made piss poor QBs look hall of fame worthy, and no that wasn’t because we weren’t getting a good pass rush. It’s because literally 1 sec after the snap there’s at least 1 WR who’s already wide open on any given play. There have been occassions where we’ve had a rusher with a relatively free path to the QB, who then throws it 10-15 yards downfield to a a reciever who for some reason doesn’t have a defender within 5 yards of him. Our secondary was that bad.

What’s worse, the best player we had back there may not even play for us next year. I’m not saying you should be running in the streets in a wild panic, but i’d completely understand if you did. The idea that bringing in a NT of all things would make this impending cotastrophe melt away to me is like sitting in the middle of your house that’s burning down around you trying to convince yourself that it’s not getting warm at all.

It’s absurd to draft a NT in the first simply because there won’t be another probably untill the 4th round. You take each round by itself and draft the best player to help your team out of who’s available. If we’re in the position of needing to replace a starting CB through the draft, hell yea I think that puts CB at the top of the list as I can’t think of any other position where we need the player to make an immediate impact therefore we have more freedom to take a guy later on and try to coach him up. Whatever problems you have with Houston playing two interchangeable tackles rather than using a big space-eating NT, that’s what they’ve done so far and this past season the worst you could say about our starting DTs were that they were both solid against the run but didn’t get enough pressure inside. That to me doesn’t sound like a huge gaping need, it just sounds like someone is fascinated with the idea of having a true NT to the point that they’re belligerent towards the idea of drafting anything else.

The Texans coaches have been reported as saying that they like Studdard and Caldwell at the OG.

but I watched several Alabama games this year and was disappointed. He is tragically obese when being in shape would have earned him roughly 5-10 million dollars more than he is going to get. That tells me that as soon as he gets his first fat contract he may lose his desire to stay at just 100 lbs over his ideal playing weight. Maybe I am placing too much emphasis on his girth, but I would much rather have Dan Williams.

UT doesn’t have to be able to play 3-4 DE it’s just their most likely fit if their team is switching to 3-4. Same with the 4-3 NT, they don’t have to be a great 3-4 NT, they’re just likely going to be forced to play it if the team switched over.

4-3 NTs play on the weakside and purposefully take on the center and guard which makes it harder for them to make a play themselves, but frees up the weakside defensive end who in traditional 4-3 defenses is the smaller speed rusher variety. UTs by comparrisson just take on the strongside guard leaving the strongside defensive end matched up by the tackle and possibly chipped on by the TE. The idea is to hold position in the middle of the line and strong side with a speed rusher coming from the weakside and often times a blitzing rusher coming from either inside or outside the strong side either getting to the CB or forcing to move around in the pocket and make a hurried throw. On rare occassion teams even try to overload blitzers on one area so that even in the event that the offense picked up one it would be near impossible to pick up both. Some modern 4-3, schemes (like the colts) now use 2 speed rushers at end and even use 2 interchangeable DTs who are more of the penetrating breed than block absorbers.

3-4 NTs technically do the same, although at times they take on the strongside guard and center instead of weakside. Which ever side the NT crashes to, the end on the other is responsible for taking on the tackle and guard on the other side. 3-4 NT is harder to find because it’s more crucial that they not only occupy their two blockers but hold their ground so as to not give up huge running lanes as the ends on either side are under more pressure themselves. As a result 3-4 ends are kind of like hybrids between 4-3 tackles and ends. They have to be bigger and better at taking on blockers head on that most 4-3 ends while penetrating the line and rushing from the edges is much less important.

The Texans currently have 2 ends that could pass for 3-4 ends in most systems as they’re both big guys who hold their points well off blocks and 2 tackles that are both somewhat a “tweener” of the smaller UTs used sometimes today and the 4-3 NTs primarilly used for occupying blockers. As a result their biggest advantage of course is that they’re almost completely interchangeable at the line, both ends can play on either side and both tackles can and do play each tackle position. On passing downs one DE slides over to DT with a smaller more tradition 4-3 edge rushing end takes his position.

Some people don’t think this works for us, but I disagree. We were very strong at the point of attack this year, actually winning the battle at the line of scrimmage at times where in years past we seemed to have a hard time defending inside runs. It’s just not the typical 4-3 defense you see around the league today, it’s more of a line controlling front relying on blitzes to get pressure on the QB and the secondary to prevent the pass untill it can get there. It allows the team to have a “vanilla” look as they don’t really disquise anything, because their goal is to line up and dictate what you’re going to do, whether you see it coming or not. I admire that kind of football and am rooting for it to work out.