Casey vs. Dreesen

[papabear]

Originally Posted by barrett

Whether Hill can catch it is not what is relevant here. They didn't draft him to catch it when they already had OD and Dreesen on the roster. They drafted him to replace Bruener, a guy who was on the field for less than %25 of the snaps. And they didn't view him as a potential starting TE if they still went ahead and took Casey a round later.

They spent a 4th round pick on a situational luxury pick. It's a wasted pick even if he blocks great.

This has nothing to do with Hill or his performance but rather with drafting a guy to be the backup TE in the 4th round.

I understand what your saying I just don't agree with it on philosophical basis. Most fourth round picks, regardless of position, are likely to be back-ups. You hope that you hit a few home runs and find some guys who are instant starters and develop into stars, but that is the exception and not the rule. More often than not if you can just find a guy who plays a role, even a small one, and contributes on special teams (and hopefully develops into a more complete player) you are ahead of the curve. I also doubt that the Texans front office said this guy is never going to be more than a third TE, let's go ahead and take him. Jacoby Jones is probably on the field for 25% of the snaps, and that's just this year that he's started seeing more time as a WR, but that doesn't mean he doesn't play a useful role.

I would have preferred they went another route in the fourth, and thought the Casey pick was especially redundant(though it looks much smarter now), because at least with the Hill pick they went and got a guy who filled a role completely different from what we had on the team already.

I agree with you in the sense that we aren't deep enough across the board to start taking specialist early, but as the overall team talent gets better that becomes a luxury bad teams don't have.

I just can't agree that taking a blocking back-up TE in the fourth is automatically a waste.

[barrett]

Originally Posted by papabear

I understand what your saying I just don't agree with it on philosophical basis. Most fourth round picks, regardless of position, are likely to be back-ups. You hope that you hit a few home runs and find some guys who are instant starters and develop into stars, but that is the exception and not the rule. More often than not if you can just find a guy who plays a role, even a small one, and contributes on special teams (and hopefully develops into a more complete player) you are ahead of the curve. I also doubt that the Texans front office said this guy is never going to be more than a third TE, let's go ahead and take him. Jacoby Jones is probably on the field for 25% of the snaps, and that's just this year that he's started seeing more time as a WR, but that doesn't mean he doesn't play a useful role.

I would have preferred they went another route in the fourth, and thought the Casey pick was especially redundant(though it looks much smarter now), because at least with the Hill pick they went and got a guy who filled a role completely different from what we had on the team already.

I agree with you in the sense that we aren't deep enough across the board to start taking specialist early, but as the overall team talent gets better that becomes a luxury bad teams don't have.

I just can't agree that taking a blocking back-up TE in the fourth is automatically a waste.

Fair enough. Like I said, I don't disagree with Hill and am not judging him, just the slot and the position.

Either way I would love for him to all of a sudden look like a starting TE right about now.

But I think it will be David Anderson that replaces most of OD's production.

[papabear]

Originally Posted by barrett

Fair enough. Like I said, I don't disagree with Hill and am not judging him, just the slot and the position.

Either way I would love for him to all of a sudden look like a starting TE right about now.

But I think it will be David Anderson that replaces most of OD's production.

Hill and Anderson are both going to have to step up big time now....just saw where Casey had a minor procedure on his knee and will be out at least this week.


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/fb/texansfront/6698814.html


When it rains it pours....

[Nconroe]

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/St...?STORY_ID=5766

Yes, wow, two TE's , OD for the year and Casey out till Nov. 23 prediction.

Kevin Walter and JJ have reasonable size as well to help fill this role. Then Andre Davis and Anderson can be wideouts, so I guess a lot of options with good skilled players.

[Roy P]

Well, no pressure on Casey to do anything other than heal his knee. Dreesen should be okay in this offense. Many of us thought he'd be able to put up big numbers if OD wasn't ahead of him, so now he'll get his opportunity. Just like Ryan Moats, Dreesen will have a shot to make his case.

Kubiak has stated we may just stick with what we've got this week. I'm of the mindset that perhaps getting Joe Klopfenstein on this roster, might not be a bad idea.

[NBT]

Remember how after the draft, a lot of us were carping about drafting two tight ends, and there won't be enough balls to go around. How quickly ones impressions change. Wish we had OD and Casey for this week, but Kubiak said (on 610), we will do the best we can against Indy with what we have, and look around the league to see if there are any FA TE's out there. Hurry up and get back Casey. We are going to need you.

[chuck]

So with OD out for the year and Casey out for at least this game the team is left with Dreesen and Hill and whoever they bring in off the street, which will be whoever the Broncos have cut last. Bob, help us out here.

I think that those of us who've been wanting to see the Texans spread the field more both to disguise their plays and to find better running lanes might get what we wished for, for better or for worse. No one spreads the field and runs the ball like the Indianapolis Colts, so why the hell not give them back some of their own?

If the Texans do spread out to run as well as pass this is going to really stress-test the blitz pick up abilities of the RBs, and even if they bunch I would expect the TEs to miss all sorts of blocking assignments so Schaub's going to have to know exactly where the hot read is at all times.

This will be a very interesting game.

[papabear]

Originally Posted by chuck

No one spreads the field and runs the ball like the Indianapolis Colts, so why the hell not give them back some of their own?

This is somewhat off topic, but i hear this a lot...the Colts run two TE sets very often. I'm not saying the Colts don't spread the field, but they run behind 2 TE's all the time. Off course one reason the Colts are so good is that Manning audibles to whatever play will work best depending on what the defense is showing, including shifting formations if necessary.

One thing i hope to see from the D this week is showing different looks pre-snap, and then shifting after Manning starts doing his song and dance.

I have no worries about Dreesen. He's capable of contributing in the passing game. Sure he's might not be as dangerous as OD, but they want be able to ignore him. He's been aroud this team enough to know his assignments, so that shouldn't be a huge concern.