Retrospective - Texans and Reggie Bush

[Kiwon]

Now that the Texans are revamping their offense and have cut QB David Carr and RB Domanick Williams last year's draft decision seems even more puzzling....

Why did the Texans pass up Reggie Bush in the draft last year?

Did they expect Mario Williams to become THAT good, did the SI controversy surrounding Reggie Bush scare them off, or what in your opinion led to their decision. I still don't get it.

[MJZiggy]

They took the online management course taught by Matt Millen...

[b bulldog]

They should have selected the QB from Texas and all would have been good in Houston.......Vince Young than they could take Peterson in this draft.

[red]

i brought this up the other day

the bigger crime was they passed on vince young, the hometown guy that every single one of their fans wanted, because they were fine with carr. in fact they gave him an 8 million dolar bonus

then the fans said, well ok, it could be worse, but if we aren't taking VY we'll at least get the amazing reggie bush

whoops #2

it honestly seems to me like sherman is running the show, that teams is being run just like sherman was running the packers why he was in charge.

win now attitude with no thought what so ever to the future, none not even an ounce of thought

they said they were fine at QB and RB and they went for another position they needed. they pass up two of the better prospects in a long time, and here we are one year later and their QB and RB of the future are done there

[Kiwon]

they said they were fine at QB and RB and they went for another position they needed. they pass up two of the better prospects in a long time, and here we are one year later and their QB and RB of the future are done there

That's my point. Why did they take Williams over Bush or Young?

O' bespectacled beagle, do you have any thoughts?

[the_idle_threat]

I'm certainly no Patler, but I might have some idea ...

It's easy to look at things in hindsight, but the Texans could only go with the info they had at the time, which was the following:

Gary Kubiak was a brand new head coach a year ago, and he really hadn't had a chance to coach Carr yet. Carr had the "#1 overall pick" pedigree, he had a pretty good year in 2004 and probably no worse than an average year by NFL standards in 2005. He appeared to be doing OK considering how bad the team was around him. It's not inconceivable that the new coaching staff would give him some time to see if they could coach him up, especially when the team had glaring needs at many other positions---especially on defense. Also consider that Carr was close to the owner, Bob McNair, so McNair might have wanted his new staff to try and make Carr into a player.

Meanwhile, Vince Young was never seriously considered worthy of a first-overall pick by any source I saw, other than by fans of the Longhorns who might have been a bit biased. :D For that matter, Young was no slam dunk as the best QB, as many had Leinart and some even had Cutler rated as better long-term prospects. Remember that Young's stock only really shot up after the National Championship Game. There were lingering questions about his mechanics and completion percentage that still remain unanswered to this day. He also was hurt by the wonderlic score issue. Many expected him to fall to Oakland who had the 7th overall pick.

After the combine, Mario Williams was being compared with guys like Julius Peppers and even Reggie White for his combination of strength and speed. Williams actually had better size/speed numbers than Peppers, and Peppers was probably the most physically gifted DE in the game at the time. Williams was thought of as a "once in a generation" difference maker at the premium defensive end positon. IIRC, he was expected to go in the top 5 even before the combine (some had the Packers taking him), and after the combine he was generally considered out of the Packers' reach.

From the reports leading up to the draft, the Texans looked at Bush first, but they had trouble reaching a contract agreement. So they went for Williams, who was projected as the cornerstone for a defense that needed rebuilding.

I was surprised that they didn't find a way to get Bush signed. But after that, I wasn't all that surprised that they picked Williams over the other available guys, given his position, their needs and the info (and hype) available at the time.

None of the QBs on the board were clearly better than Carr---all of them had flaws. Bush was projected to be a rare talent, but talented running backs (especially undersized ones) can be found in the bottom half of the first round or even in subsequent rounds in most any draft. Meanwhile, you really have to be picking in the top ten in order to land a rare talent with both size and speed at defensive end. The guys that drop usually have only one or the other.

They probably should have traded down a spot or two. Maybe they didn't have any serious offers from the other teams at the top, and they probably would not have wanted to trade down very far and miss out on the top blue-chip guys.

Williams was expected to start slow and develop, rather than compete immediately for the defensive ROY award out of the gate. Meanwhile, Bush had an underwhelming start to his rookie season, which was kind of surprising. This opened the door for Young to win the offensive ROY award due to his comebacks and success in the win column, even though he didn't have very good passing numbers. It remains to be seen whether he will develop into a good passer at the pro level. If he doesn't, the league will figure out how to contain him, and the Titans will have little more than another Michael Vick.

In another year or two, the Texans may not regret the pick at all if Williams has developed into a force at DE. That's a big "if," of course, but it's still too early to tell. The jury's not out on any of these guys yet.

[Guiness]

Well put Idle - that sums it up pretty well. As you said VY wasn't even the consensus #1QB in the draft, forget #1 overall.

The one thing I'll dispute is how good of a year Bush had. I thought he did fine, and fit his role well with the team. Opposing defenses paid him a lot of attention, allowing other threats (Colston!) to run free.

[Partial]

Hindsight is 20/20, but lets not forget that Ron Wolfe said he talked to 6 other GMs in the league, and all six had Mario as the premiere prospect and player in the draft.

Can't blame them for taking a freak like that. I think they'll both be studs in time.

We could also say the same thing to every team for passing on MJD, the best player from the draft thus far.

[Zool]

Another thing was the Texans wanted the pick signed before the draft and Bush didn't sign, so they went to Williams agent and he signed.

[ND72]

I'm happy the Texans took Williams...cause I DEATHLY did not want him in GB.

[the_idle_threat]

Bush may have filled a valuable role on his team, but he had a slow start given expectations. After 8 games, he averaged 26 rushing yards and 39 receiving yards per game, and he had scored zero touchdowns from scrimmage. Great numbers for a third-down back like, say, Tony Fisher; humble ones for a guy who was supposed to be the greatest offensive weapon to enter the NFL in years. Definitely left the rookie of the year race wide open.

Check his game-by-game log (and my math) here: http://www.nfl.com/players/playerpage/407605/gamelogs/2006