Breaking Down The Texans Quarterback Options

The Houston Texans won’t be getting Tony Romo but there are some other quarterbacks out there to choose from.

After six tedious months of inescapable coverage, the Tony Romo saga has been mercifully put to bed.

We are all winners here. A lot of us might have gotten too excited about the deal that never really made all that much sense for anyone. Romo had finished only one season since 2012 and would put his body and legacy on the line going somewhere else. There really aren’t too many fits for a soon-to-be 37-year-old signal caller held barely held together by glue and scotch tape. Instead, Romo lands a second life as a broadcaster and we are all set free of the wall-to-wall frenzy.

The only real losers here are the Texans. Even by his own admission, Houston sat atop of the former Eastern Illinois star’s wish list. The cards were seemingly set when Brock Osweiler was unceremoniously dumped to Cleveland. Instead of a potential Hall of Famer, they are left with former fourth-round pick Tom Savage, draft bust Brandon Weeden as the backup, and the 25^th overall pick in a class devoid of a passer ready to start.

That’s what you call stuck between a rock and a hard place. With a loaded roster and an anemic division, Houston needs to reshuffle the plan at the most important position on the fly. They can’t waste another year settling for mediocrity. It’s hard to keep a defensive nucleus like they’ve put together for too long. Let’s take a look at their options at quarterback.

Tom Savage

To make sure I wasn’t being too harsh on the thoroughly anonymous passer, I went back and re-watched the Christmas day debacle between Houston and Cincinnati. The tape wasn’t encouraging. Savage is a slow-twitch player with poor athleticism, slow feet, and is slow through his progressions. He holds the ball below chest height and has a slightly long over the top release. He has enough arm strength to utilize the whole field, although he lacks accuracy throwing to the deep and intermediate ranges. In the Cincinnati game he failed to complete a single pass that traveled at least 10 yards past the line of scrimmage. You can see how that would be problematic.

He’s been in the offense for 3 seasons now and has the authority to make adjustments at the line. Savage doesn’t see the field well and leaves a ton of throws on the field. There are simply too many over aggressive, head scratching throws into coverage from him. He has some natural anticipation and he’s willing to throw the ball before the receivers break.

The Bengals saw his inexperience and teed off on Savage. They played single high or even cover zero in all non-obvious passing situations and left the middle of the field mostly open. They loaded the box and dared Savage to make them pay for it. He consistently failed to do so.

He lacks a natural feel in the pocket. His instinct is to vacate the pocket and break down the play rather than step up. To his credit, Savage was willing to stand in the pocket and keep his eyes downfield against the rush.

Needless to say, the answer is not on their roster right now.

The Big Names

Of course, Houston may well be forced to turn to the free agent scrap pile for another option. Anyone left available has fundamental flaws. Otherwise, they would have been signed already.

Jay Cutler presents the most upside of the group. The former Bear and Bronco has burned enough bridges that he may well be out of the league. We all know the book on Cutler. He’s an average quarterback who achieves a middling result through being annoyingly up and down. He has all the arm strength in the world and the touch to make eye-catching tosses down the field.

The quarterback possesses plus athleticism and better coverage diagnosis than you normally see from guys on the market. Of course, he’s maddeningly inconsistent mechanically and has a penchant for backbreaking turnovers at the worst of times. He needs to be tightly managed by the system and have strong supporting talent in order to succeed, as he did in 2015. According to some reports, teams have hardly mentioned him in their plans.

Whatever your political opinion on him is, there are legitimate on-field reasons that Colin Kaepernick remains unsigned. Once a single throw away from the Lombardi, Kaepernick’s warts have been thoroughly exposed in the post read-option era. He simply can’t play from the pocket. Kaepernick doesn’t read coverages, lacks touch, has a long and unorthodox windup, and has scattershot accuracy. Of course, he still does possess the game-breaking arm strength and athleticism that once made him a star. He is reportedly asking for $10 million annually. That won’t fly with any team.

Rental Options

Ryan Fitzpatrick could return to Houston, where he had one of his better seasons under Bill O’Brien. Fitzpatrick is a gunslinger who lacks the ammunition to deal. Despite having one of the worst arms in the league, he tries to make hero throws into coverage with regularity. This leads to turnovers in bunches. Still, he offers some value running the ball and is only one season removed from a 10-6 effort in New York. He may come cheaper than the bigger names listed above.

The Draft

We’ve all heard a million times that there isn’t a franchise quarterback in this draft. That sentiment is very much true and Houston shouldn’t count on any of these college stars to be their savior. Of the five big name quarterbacks, Deshone Kizer, Patrick Mahomes, and Davis Webb should not touch the field this season. Kizer and Mahomes are the most talented of the group, but have deep rooted mechanical flaws that a coach would need to program out of them. Webb is coming from the same offense Jared Goff struggled to translate into success into the league.

That leaves Deshaun Watson and Mitch Trubisky. Likely gone by the time Houston is on the clock, the two are rhythm type throwers who could succeed in a game manager role early on. While Trubisky is the better passer at this stage, Watson adds some additional value with his legs. Houston may opt to trade up to land one of the two.

Brad Kaaya and Nate Peterman could offer intriguing competition for Savage later on in the draft.

Trade

Picking late and without a second round pick next year, it’s unlikely that Houston will be able to swing a trade for New England heir apparent Jimmy Garoppolo. If Cleveland doesn’t have enough ammunition to make a deal, there is no way Houston will be able to.

A player we haven’t  talked about nearly as much is Cincinnati’s A.J. McCarron. He enters the last year of his rookie deal and showed flashes in relief of Andy Dalton in 2015. McCarron was a sharp, mechanically sound passer with an upgrade in arm strength over Dalton. You can’t knock the success he had at Alabama directing a roster bursting at the seams with NFL talent. Yet his ball placement was inconsistent and he couldn’t move the ball for long stretches against the Broncos and Steelers.