Texans trade for Mallett
 

6th round pick.

I am not high at Mallett at all, but I don't mind the deal. Low round pick for a guy who might be marginally better than Fitz (doubt it) and who might be a possible future option (really, really doubt it). Classic low risk high reward.

The question right now is not if he is better than Fitz. It's is he better than Case? And the Texans believe he is.

He is a FA after the season, so a 1 season rental as a backup.

Actually it's a conditional 7th.

@ChronBrianSmith: Appears initial media reports of #Texans sending sixth-round pick were incorrect. #Texans give up conditional 2016 7th rounder for Mallett

Meh. They've made a bad situation mediocre. I'm not going to turn any cartwheels any time soon over any of our options. It didn't cost us much, so why not give it a whirl.

That's practically nothing. So this is a good deal, because I see no downside and almost nothing but upside, though it may turn out that he's not any better than what we had with Keenum. Time will tell, but in the HCs mind (and that's what it's all riding on here), he's a better option to Fitz than what we had before the trade.

Wow. Heard the rumors all summer but didn't see it coming.

Not quite sure what happened to Keenum. I think it is probably a confidence thing.... because of late, he just didn't resemble the loose and decisive 70% completion percentage slingin' guy that came out of U of H any more.

Mallet will have some cramming to do. Gotta think he's eventually going to be the #2 with Savage inactive on game days.

I'm right there with everyone else. I don't like Mallett but at least he knows the offense and has a big arm. Mayock loves him. I don't know what that means, though, really. And Case was terrible. So it's very possible that this makes the team better immediately, likely that it makes the team better a month or so in, and very unlikely that this makes the team worse.

I do really like the waiver signings so far.

Having a guy who knows the offense in the QB meetings helps Savage learn the reads quicker and should help his progress. That's my theory.

True.
Hard to be disappointed if OB thinks it makes the team better.
Especially for the price.

Obviously this helps us at the backup position (at least in O'Brien's mind). But a team that ignored the QB position all summer and is expected to be mediocre at best does not make a trade for a better backup. This is at least partially in the hope that having Mallett here for a year unearths a (virtually) no cost long term answer at QB. Even if the chances of that are 1 in 100, I like the chance compared to the cost.

As for Keenum, he was just never that good. Slinging it around against East Carolina in a HS offense is just different than playing NFL QB.

I just hope we see enough of Mallett to definitively know what he is, and that we don't give him some kind of idiotic extension before we know (the unnecessary, early extension is a Texans hallmark).

Depends on the QB. Plenty of pass-happy small school QB's have made the transition to the NFL. Certainly, Garoppolo (Eastern Illinois) looks promising.

One could see the price of Mallet going down when Garoppolo got drafted in the second round. The Texans, waiting for this to hit rock bottom, is the "penalty" that the Texans will pay getting him up to speed.....

I totally agree it depends on the QB. Small school QBs can succeed, big school guys can fail. Spread guys can succeed, pro style guys can fail. All of that is true. I'm not saying he CAN'T do it in the NFL because he's a small college spread guy. I'm saying he doesn't look like the same guy in the NFL because he is no longer at a small college running the spread.

If a small school guy succeeds in the NFL, it will be because he has the traits an NFL QB needs. Those are not necessarily the same traits that a QB needs to succeed at UH (or any other college). So the reason NFL Keenum doesn't resemble UH Keenum is because he is playing a game that is different on almost every level.

Just mentally, the ability to get to the line quick in college and let your OC call a play from the sideline and signal it to your offense after the OC reads the defense is much different than the ability to make a complicated play call in the huddle, go to the line, read the defense yourself, check the protection/audible/check with Me's/etc... and get it all done before the snap while the defense is constantly shifting presnap. So Keenum might have a great mental makeup for the college game but not have it mentally in the pros (probably why he gets buried by the blitz). Being confident and completing %70 in college does not mean you are capable of doing that in the NFL.

The more I think about this trade the more I like. I think it improves the team today by giving them a better #2. If Mallett becomes the starter then it has a better QB and #2 QB

As for the the bust talk, the QB coach Godsey has been in NE working with the offense, so he has seen Mallett's progress since he was drafted.

At the draft was he worth the rumored 2nd round, not likely. And we replaced NE comp pick in 2016 had they kept him and not played him.

I see your point but you initially reduced it to "he was just never that good". Keenum *was* good at the college level.

Yes, but it makes you a more attractive candidate for the NFL than Joe Blow who struggled at the college level...

Yep and while Mallet gets up to speed (4 to 8 games maybe), Fitz will have his opportunity to cement his starter's role or lose his starter's role.....

This move is more significant than it seems, Fitz will start to throw picks and make mistakes as the season begins to wear on him to reveal his true colors. But Also because Mallett will be the "veteran" and a decision will have to be made in the off season to bring him back or let him walk in fa.

I really wanted Keenum to succeed but I expected he would be gone after this season anyway. He's not the starter and he's not the project which means he was going to be pushed out soon enough. Got to live the dream of starting in the NFL and a lot of undrafted QBs can never say that.

As for Mallett, really shrewd of the Texans to wait New England out.

Think of it this way. Instead of Bortles, Bridgewater or Manziel, we have Clowney and two projects for starting QB who might pan out for the cost of a supplemental 4th and a conditional 7th. Mallett has a really strong arm but, coming out of college, his accuracy was questioned. He almost never got to be tested backing up Brady so I still see him as a project, not a veteran.

We better pray Fitz has good health for the first 6-8 weeks of the season because I'd be shocked if the Texans' offense is so similar to the Patriots that Mallett doesn't have to learn new plays although he at least is probably familiar with the nomenclature and possibly the checkdowns. IOW, I don't think Mallett or Savage is going to be ready if Fitz goes down until the second half of the season.

But we still have the option of taking a QB high in the draft next year (15th or higher) if neither Mallett nor Savage pans out. Both fit the mold of what O'Brien wants so it is up to him now to develop them.

I honestly meant Keenum was just never good as an NFL player. I got roasted by about half the board last year for saying he had no chance to be our QB this year.

And you were right. I know I was a loud voice for Case to get a chance to play and start. And he did play ok for a couple games and then he appeared to stop progressing.

Well he is now gone, good luck to you Case, Houston loves you and always will.

My sentiments also. Ya, he did kind of tease us in those first few games... what did he have, like 7 TD passes with no INT's in his first few starts? I think a lot of us were thinking he'd become - at the very least - a decent backup. But the light went out somewhere..... He had trouble picking up the blitz but so did his linemen and his running backs. His accuracy, his bread and butter, was off, etc. But it's all water-under-the-bridge at this point. He got as much a chance as any UDFA probably ever has...

Perhaps someone will give him another chance. There's plenty of examples of NFL QB's, some high draft picks, that look like slugs their first few years and then the light comes on... i.e., Brees was kinda mediocre in his early days, Alex Smith looked like a bust for a while....yada, yada...

In 2007 before that years draft we gave up our current years 2nd round pick, our 2nd round pick for the next year, and the equivalent of that years 4th round pick (swapping our #8 overall for the #10 overall) and received in xchange from Atlanta 26-year-old Matt Schaub. Granted Schaub had played some regular season games and was a more sought after prospect than 26-year-old Ryan Mallet is today. But what we parted with to get Mallet is nothing, especially compared with the sizable bounty that Schaub cost the Texans at that time.
The way I feel about Mallet right now is kinda the way I feel about the Texans 2014 season: I really don't know what the hell to expect, but right now it feels very exciting and there's a great anticipation for it to begin this Sunday. You know, kinda like the proverbial box of candy. You never know what you are gonna get.