Quote:
Originally Posted by Nconroe
according to Chron, Texans have 12 UDFA's, but not yet confirmed signed apparently:
Pos. Name School Ht./Wt.
RB Jeremiah Johnson Oregon 5-9/209
RB Arian Foster Tennessee 6-1/226
WR Mike Jones Arizona St. 6-4/211
WR Aubrey Bell Miss. St. 6-3/216
OT Jason Watkins Florida 6-6/318
OT Doug Dedrick Iowa St. 6-4/301
FB Bill Rentmeester Wisconsin 6-1/248
DT Josh Leonard Hawaii 6-2/292
C Charles Helems LSU 6-2/286
G Brandon Walker Oklahoma 6-3/306
DE Tim Jamison Michigan 6-3/256
OLB Toddrick Verdell Florida St. 6-3/222
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Okey dokey, we got us some warm bodies. These two RBs are exactly what I expected. I had thought the Texans may draft one Big and one Little RB, but they were "smart" enough to wait until after the draft. Jeremiah Johnson is probably the 3rd Down "change of pace" back that the Texans thought they were getting in Steve Slaton last season. Arian Foster is a talented kid, who if he can stay healthy, could take a bunch of carries away from Steve Slaton. If I were to project percentages, I'd like to see Slaton with 55%, Foster with 35%, and Johnson with 10% of the carries.
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players/518611
Tackle-Breaking Strength: Foster is more of a finesse-type runner than a power back, despite his size. He needs to stop dancing so much in the backfield, as he might have good weight room strength, but not enough to push the pile and get through traffic. He runs hard, with a good pad level when near contact, but needs to show better body lean in attempts to fall forward. When he gets too tall in his stance, he can get knocked back, as his base will narrow. When he keeps his pads down and runs with good lean, he can get positive yardage after initial contact. GRADE: 5.5
Compares To: OLANDIS GARY, ex-Denver -- Like Gary, Foster would make a capable reserve, but he lacks explosiveness and there are questions about his durability, making it unlikely someone would invest in him to be their featured back. He is an effective receiver out of the backfield, but for a big player he does too much dancing around looking for the perfect hole. He just needs to realize he is not a scat back and go back to pounding the ball between the tackles or he will just be the type that needs to audition for a different team in training camp each year.
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players/565639
Deceptively fast once in the open. Runs with a low center of gravity, bouncing and spinning off tacklers to maintain his balance. Excellent vision and the quickness to cut in either direction to take advantage of that space. Runs through arm tackles and keeps legs churning to get extra yardage outside or a first down inside. Natural hands, adjusting to high and low throws on screens.
Stays in front of blitzers and twisting linemen in pass protection.
Jason Watkins confounds me a bit. Just when I think I have an idea of what a ZBS OL looks like, we go and do something like this. Granted he's only a UDFA, I just wonder what they see in him. I try not to pay attention to the 5.51 - 40 or the 18 Reps on the Bench press. However, a 1.81 split on the 10 yard line, 7.89 - Cone, and 5.03 - shuttle leaves me scratching my head. I guess Fred Roland of Duke just wasn't available.
I almost forgot about Tim Jamison. He's a blue-collar, working class, lunch pail, insert cliche here, type of player. When watching the Sr. Bowl practices, Charles Davis mentioned how he didn't complain when the Michigan program was getting pounded. He continued to play hard and work hard and gave maximum effort when some other players began to hang their head. At that point, I figured he'd be a great guy to have around the lockerroom. That's the type of "character" this organization likes. He also has a little bit of talent. He's a next-generation N.D. Kalu.