tukafan21

Jammie Robinson come on down!!! I'm shocked he's been inactive, really liked the tape I saw on him and thought he was a steal where we got him in the draft. Hopefully this forces him on the field as I think he has the chance to be a tackling machine

Well that's the weird part to me The "easy target" is the coach and GM who spent the entire offseason talking about how we have a contending team built and just need to insert the QB and how Bryce is the man for that job. They're literally saying they made the decision, fans are already mad at both of them anyways, but for some reason they want to lay the blame on this one at Tepper's feet.

The real answer is that Bryce won the job once Reich and Fitterer decided they weren't concerned about his size and being able to hold up long term. He blew them all away with his brain, which isn't really surprising given the QB acumen on this coaching staff, he talked about the game and the QB position in a way they have never seen from a college QB before. Once he did that, he was always going to be the pick if they decided they were okay with how small he was. That would have been the easy way to talk Tepper out of the decision if they didn't think he could hold up, as convincing him that he didn't have the football ability wasn't going to happen, obviously, as every analyst agreed that if Bryce was 6'2", he'd be a no brainer #1 pick and the Bears probably take him and trade Fields. The most likely scenario is actually the opposite, that Tepper as an analytics guy was concerned about Bryce's size and Reich/Fitterer (and probably McCown) talked him into not being concerned about it because of his super brain for the QB position. Once everyone was on board with the size concern, it really was never even a question, it was always going to be Bryce.

They traded for the #1 pick of the draft in a year that there wasn't a consensus #1 QB, to think that the owners don't then want to be there to see the pro day is just asinine. The #1 pick had only been traded twice since 2000, this isn't a common occurrence and people are jumping to wild assumptions because they showed up to a pro day and gave him a hug.

Confirmation bias There isn't a single person here who follows enough Texans, Colts, etc insiders to know what their owners are up to with the combine and pro day stuff. So you see the Teppers doing it and assume they're the only ones doing it because YOU only see the pictures of them (despite not following the right people to see it from the other teams) and then also assume it means they're forcing football decisions (again, despite any evidence of this happening). Again, lots of players, coaches, execs, end up speaking out about how their owners made too many football decisions when that's been the case, haven't heard one former Panther make those claims.

The guy just spent $2 Billion to buy the team a few years ago, you're damn right he's going to show up to the combine after trading away our future to get the #1 pick, but it doesn't mean he had anything to do with picking the player, it's just nonsense to assume as much with literally ZERO evidence towards it, like not even the smallest bit. Cool, there are pictures out there of Mrs Tepper hugging him at the pro day. I guarantee that every owner, coach, and FO member who met with Bryce, Stroud, AR, Levis in the pre-draft process shook their hands and/or gave them a hug, just doesn't mean someone took a picture and posted it on twitter (or maybe they did and you just don't follow the right Texans people to have seen it, which is very possibly the case).

OH MY GOD How did I miss this one?!?!?! Tepper told Bryce something the entire NFL and it's fans knew was the case, stop the presses, this man is out of control

Just because they were there, doesn't mean they were active in the decision making process, one doesn't mean the other. I'd be willing to bet that the owners of the team with the #1 pick have been at a good 90%+ of the pre-draft dinners with potential targets of that top pick, and the ones they weren't were due to scheduling conflicts and they 100% met/spoke with the players before the draft pick was made. You people are taking a giant leap from, "they were at the dinner" to "they made the decision" with absolutely zero evidence to back it up

It's never been much of a secret when NFL owners are the ones who are forcing football decisions on coaches and the front office. Jerry Jones just named himself as GM so it was never a secret Daniel Snyder was very obvious with it as well, often times with past coaches, execs, players talking about how he made the decisions very often. There hasn't been a single whiff of anything where the Teppers put their finger on the scale for a specific player and made the front office sign/draft them because of it. And no, trying to have them go after Watson doesn't count as I think Tepper easily could have made the call to give him the fully guaranteed deal to get him and he decided not to.

Oh my god, she hugged him, so obvious that the Teppers forced Fitterer/Reich to take him after that, how could I be so blind. Shocking that the owners of the team wants to meet the potential #1 overall draft pick that you want to build your franchise around. Said it the other day, the Teppers only involvement in the draft pick (after the trade was made) was approving of who Reich and Fitterer wanted to take, and I don't think they'd have said no to either of Bryce or Stroud if the football guys wanted them.

I do think we made the wrong pick (please prove me wrong Bryce, I so badly and sincerely want to be wrong). I don't think it was Tepper As I said in another thread, Tepper is 99% the reason for the trade, but once the trade was made, the pick itself was 99% Reich and Fitterer. There is no proof anywhere that Tepper has been sticking his nose in specific football decisions. Directing the team to figure out the QB position, sure, but I don't think for one second he's ever had any impact on which players we target and go after, he leaves that up to the football people.

Again, people are conflating "spreading the ball around" with "calling plays for Hurst" There are only a VERY small group of TEs in the NFL where teams regularly call plays that are meant to target the TE on the first read, without counting, I'm guessing there are only 5 or 6 TE's in the league right now that have teams who regularly call plays to specifically target their TE throughout the game (and "regularly" means 5+ play calls a game that the TE is the first and main read on the play). That doesn't count teams like the Patriots whose offense is somewhat built around regular TE targets (and even then, they regularly rotate which of their TE's is the #1 target on the play) and it doesn't count the small handful of plays that every team calls in games where their TE has a specific matchup advantage over the defense. "spreading the ball around" is on the QB, not the coaches calling plays (again, not counting taking advantage of specific matchups on a game-by-game or even play-by-play basis). Hurst isn't a good enough TE to warrant more than 2 or 3 specific play calls meant to go to him a game, and even that might be more than he's worth, and that is no knock on him, it's just the way the game is played and that he's not an elite TE in today's NFL. Yes, spread the ball around to all our pass catchers, Hurst included. But no, do not start calling more specific plays for Hurst, he's not THAT guy and it would just be horrible play calling to purposefully be trying to target him as the first read any more than he already is. Hurst is NOT Greg Olsen, he's not a guy we're going to gameplan around getting the ball to and scheme open. He's a nice solid TE who will get his targets from the QB working through his progressions and finding him when open, and that's perfectly fine.

No, the OP is not talking about spreading the ball around, he's talking about the coaches drawing up specific plays for Hurst to be the first and main target, which I'd be very strongly against. You're talking about the QB, whether it Bryce or Dalton, spreading around their targets to include Hurst some more, which I'm fine with. Hurst is an average TE and there is nothing wrong with that. Send him out on routes and sure, give him 5 or so targets a game through the QB working their progressions and finding him when open and it's the best read. But Hurst is NOT the type of player that you purposefully call specific plays for where they're the #1 option unless there is some serious mis-match with the opponents not good at covering the TE position, which is what the OP was calling for. There is a significant difference between the two and it's not just semantics, I'm fully on board with what you're saying, but not the OP. You're acting like I'm saying we should ignore Hurst or keep him on the bench, but I'm not, I'm just saying he should never be the first read or have a play called to purposefully try and get him the ball over one of our WRs outside of specific matchup situations. Sure, maybe a play or two a game because the defense is ignoring him, dial up a play call for Hurst. But outside of that, he's not a good enough player to make him the first or second read when we have Thielen, Chark, Mingo on the field, and I could even make the argument that Laviska should also take priority over him due to him being so much better at making plays happen once he has the ball in his hands than Hurst does.

Those aren't even close to the same thing, a RB who is mainly used as a runner is only involved when they directly call runs for him, while a TE can be on the field for lots of snaps, have lots of routes run, but not be involved because the QB decides to keep throwing to other players. Yes, every play of course has multiple reads, but in this offense, unless they directly call a play that makes him the first read, the most he's ever going to be is the 3rd read on any given play as Thielen and Chark will almost always be the first 2 (assuming progression patterns on a certain call don't dictate something else of course). I don't think it's semantics when talking about getting an at best 3rd read (and honestly maybe 4th or 5th on a given play behind Mingo/TMJ/Sanders) involved in the offense as you say. The coaches can get him involved by calling specific plays for him while the QB can get him involved by checking down to him more often, two very different things and not at all semantics with how they're talked about. Again, the OP was talking about purposefully getting him involved more and throwing to him, which I again say doesn't make much sense unless matchups dictate it because Thielen will always be a better option on similar routes/needs. I have no issue with the QB's using him more, but I wouldn't suggest the coaches running specific plays for him at the expense of plays run for Thielen who is pretty clearly our best pass catcher in my eyes.

I have no issue to him being involved, but I was responding to the original post asking why plays aren't called FOR him, and having Thielen who does similar things but better is the reason why.

My point isn't that we shouldn't be running those plays, but if we're going to run them, they're better off being ran with Thielen as the first read instead of Hurst. Hurts is a solid player, but he's not a difference maker that you're regularly drawing up plays for, not when you have a better version of what he does best in Thielen already on the squad. Not saying you don't play Hurst, it's just why more plays aren't called for him.

Because he's... Hayden Hurst?!?! Solid TE, but he's not a player that you are specifically calling plays to get the ball for. Particularly not when we also have Thielen who plays a similar role of the short to intermediate routes, check downs, over the middle stuff, but is better at it than Hurst.

Oh I absolutely picked up a new football team to root for over the past year Wrexham Association Football Club that is! I’m all in on Wrexham

TMJ to the Jets for Mecole Hardman Lets be real, TMJ seems like a bust and we need speed at WR, while the Jets apparently have zero interest in playing him. It would be a fresh start for TMJ while adding desperately needed speed for us

Stats can be misleading this early in the season. They played two of the best passing offenses in the league the first two weeks, hard to judge them on their passing stats solely on that.

Wow I kinda hate you for making me laugh so many times in what must have been an emotional and tough post to write. You kept sneaking in the comedy after touching moments and it almost made me feel bad to laugh, haha. Took me a minute to get past the “literal poo eating grin” My sincerest best wishes to your wife’s battle and to your whole family… Keep Pounding!!

100% If we played today in the first two games, we'd be sitting at 2-1 right now. Seattle is one of the best teams in the NFC, that stadium is the toughest place in the league to play, and we did it in the road with a QB who has been taking backup snaps since mini camp. I'm upset we lost like everyone else, but today was a MASSIVE improvement over the first two weeks. And look, I don't mean to pile on Bryce, but honestly, Dalton was the difference. He just looked like an NFL QB out there in the way he played, moved, threw the ball, all of it. Bryce still looks like a scared little kid out there, and I don't just mean his size.

Really? We hung with one of the best teams in the NFC, in the rain, on the road, in the most hostile stadium in the league. I'm not happy with the loss, there are still lots of things that need to be improved upon, clearly. But to not think we looked better today than in the first 2 weeks is just being angry to be angry. We looked god awful in the first 2 weeks, that was a clear improvement over those games (albeit still a step back from last year, but that's beyond the point).

We just better not hand over the #1 pick, sure #2 would be bad, but if we give over the #1 pick and in 20 years, Caleb Williams is a HOFer and Bryce is a bust, it would go down as the worst trade in NFL history. Other trades obviously have been bad and not worked out, but if that scenario played out, there'd be nothing else that could ever top it. That's really my biggest fear on the season, it's not one that I expect to play out, but it's certainly possible, especially if we keep getting killed by injuries.

He might not be wrong, it was the worst kept secret that the Texans wanted Bryce and would have taken him #1. If Stroud ends up a stud with Bryce a bust, that win that got Love fired will end up being what saved the franchise.