Why Trindon Holliday Is Not On The Texans' 53-Man Roster Anymore

BRB Note: This post was written and scheduled to post late last night, after Tim had one too many Coors Lights while re-watching footage of your undefeated Houston Texans. He did send a draft to general manager Rick Smith before falling asleep though. Whether Tim's below rant influenced today's roster moves is up to legend to decide...

I don't ask this question lightly, as I try to be delicate when it comes to questioning why someone should remain employed. Trindon Holliday presumably has rent or a mortgage to pay just like the rest of us, so I'm going to do my best to be kind.

Seriously, though...why is Trindon still on the Texans' active roster? His only job is to return punts and kicks. With the ability to focus on those limited duties, you'd think he'd be, you know, good at it. I'd even take average. He's not.

Thus far in the 2012 regular season, Trindon Holliday has been downright abysmal as a punt returner, and he's shown a complete lack of awareness when it comes to returning kicks. Maybe it's because I've successfully blocked out most of the The Jacoby Jones Experience, but I do not remember seeing a returner so frequently make the wrong decision about whether to take a ball out of the end zone. Not only is Trindon not positively affecting the Texans' field position on most drives, he's actually negatively impacting it far more often than he should.

Perhaps the most damning thing I can say about Trindon Holliday is this: I feel just as uneasy/nervous/nauseous/terrified every time a ball is kicked or punted to him as I did when Jakespeare was back there fielding punts.

Holliday had a tremendous preseason and forced his way on to the roster. Kudos to him. I didn't necessarily agree with the decision to keep him on the final roster at the time, but I completely understood why it was done. To that end, however, I would cite the learned treatise of one Diehard Chris, who sagely described Trindon as "preseason special" while championing the idea that the Texans should part ways with their return man posthaste. I also readily admit that special teams as a whole has been extraordinarily poor this season; it's not like he's getting any help from his teammates in that regard. Furthermore, if we want to debate the quality of the job that Joe Marciano has done and continues to do as the sensei of the special teams unit, we can certainly do that (though it's probably best to save that for another, longer, more depressing post).

If anyone can give me a logical and convincing answer to the question posed in the title of this post, I'd love to hear it. Otherwise, it's time to open up a roster spot and leave the return duties to some combination of Justin Forsett, Keshawn Martin, and Danieal Manning.

News Update: As we now know, Trindon Holliday was released by the Texans this morning. Inside linebacker Brian Cushing was predictably placed on injured reserve, with no designation to return. To fill the two spots, the Texans signed LB Barrett Ruud, you may remember him from his time the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and promoted G Cody White from the practice squad, as another team showed interest in stealing the young guard.