You can look at any successful team and find players that were either cast off from other teams, or were never even considered by everyone else in the form of undrafted free agents. Tramon Williams has made so many plays late in the year this season that Texans fans have made their way through the five stages of grief that he was once on the roster and are now just tired of making any kind of connection to him. On the flip side, Arian Foster was arguably the best undrafted player of 2010. So where is the next unforeseen, successful player for the Texans? Check out the daily links across the jump and see if we can read the tea leaves.
There are three things that will never go away--death, taxes and Richard Justice's love for Vince Young. He wrote yet another article about signing the quarterback cast-off. He simply states, "There will be no quarterback controversy" as if he could just jedi-mind-trick the entire Texans fan base. I'm sorry that I keep subjecting you to the Justice - Young love connection. This will be the last time.
Justice didn't skip a beat when he moved on to trash Gary Kubiak and Richard Smith in comparison to Rex Ryan. He manages to get a shot or two in on Bob McNair as well. Some of his points are valid, but the motivation is just sad. Richard, when you write an article about signing the prospect that you're still pissed the Texans passed on coming out of college, and in the same day use another team's success to trash all the people who made the decision to make that pass, it's pretty transparent to everyone that you're a wee bit biased.
John Hallam thinks that the next unexpected star might already be on the Texans roster. I think that he is the only other person who hasn't completely given up on Antwaun Molden. If better defensive coaching can produce a Tramon Williams, why couldn't that lead to discovery of previously unseen talent?
Does the defensive coaching staff merrit that kind of confidence? Weigh in with your approval or lack thereof on Wade Phillips.
One person no one had confidence in five years ago was Dom Capers, but as Alan Burge points out, he has had a revival in Green Bay. While I think Capers was handed a raw deal being teamed with Charlie Casserly, I also think some coaches are great coordinators.
Diehard Chris starts the offseason acquisition process by identifying which positions lack a 2011 starter on the roster.
Daniel Charles does a great job of capping off his look back at the Texans' draft history with a great summation of trends the team employs. Couple that trend with Mocking the Draft's update top 200 draft rankings including breakdowns by position and enjoy.