Five NFL teams poised for a fall in 2015
By Andrew Garda
What? A 9-7 team? Can the Houston Texans really be poised for a fall?
Yes they can, and while they skated by on defense last season, offensively I cannot help but wonder if this is the year that not having a reliable quarterback does them in.
Of course, the relative lack of quality in the AFC South is in their favor. I suspect the Jacksonville Jaguars will be better this season, but they won’t be a huge threat. Meanwhile, the Tennessee Titans don’t look like a real challenge. The Indianapolis Colts do, but they are far from perfect.
There are some challenging teams on this schedule though, including the New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints and Cincinnati. The New York Jets could be a problem as well, though that all hinges on how they figure out their own quarterback issues.
But it’s not an easy schedule for the Texans.
The strength of this team is on defense, mostly due to J.J. Watt. Vince Wilfork should be a good addition to the middle of the defense, which had issues at times and Rahim Moore is a nice upgrade at safety. However, this team needs another pass rushing threat to counter the attention to Watt, as the New York Giants managed last season.
We’ll see if they added enough—and Jadeveon Clowney can stay healthy and perform—so that the defense can continue to improve.
The offense though, that’s a real issue. The team got rid of Andre Johnson, which is mitigated by DeAndre Hopkins outstanding 2014 but we’ll see how he performs with the downgrade of Cecil Shorts and the upgrade in attention from cornerbacks.
Arian Foster was tremendous—when he was on the field, something of a consistent problem the last two seasons. Just like when the Giants were able to shut down Watt, not having Foster on the field creates an advantage for the opposition. Alfred Blue had some good moments but didn’t perform quite as well as Foster.
More than anything though, the quarterback position bothers me. While Watt might be worth a couple of wins himself, I believe the lack of a reliable signal-caller costs the Texans at least that much—if not more—in losses.
This year it comes down to Ryan Mallett, Tom Savage and the big free agency addition—Brian Hoyer. I am no Hoyer fan. He’s OK on his best days, but mediocre more often than not. Perhaps this team can get away with that, but my feeling is it will bite them in the win column this season.
Unfortunately, this is a poor year to need a quarterback, so this team is just making due with what they could. That said, had they drafted a quarterback with one of their first two picks last draft, this would be a different conversation.
Maybe Savage suddenly clicks and can start or Mallett delivers on the promise we’ve heard so much about, but ultimately I think the team falls from the moderate heights they reached last year.
Which is frustrating, because a very good quarterback could make a huge difference for this team.