Houston Texans: Team officially names Tom Savage as starter

The Houston Texans head coach Bill O’Brien has come out today and said in no uncertain terms that Tom Savage will be the starting quarterback come September 10th for the team.

The Houston Texans had already made this stance before the preseason started, but after Deshaun Watson’s performance against the Carolina Panthers in the first preseason game, the door was left open for speculation that Watson could unseat Savage with another great performance or two.

But after the Texans most recent game against the New England Patriots where Savage went eight of nine for 98 yards compared to Deshaun Watson’s three of ten performance for 102 yards, Bill O’Brien put an end to any question of who the starter would be going forward.

The news came from Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle. Here’s what Bill O’Brien had to say about his decision to proclaim Savage the official number one.

"Deshaun is a very, very good young player who has a bright future in this league. Let’s put the cards on the table, but Tom has been here for four years. The way we want to play, the style relative to getting guys lined up, protection points, route reads, putting guys in the right spots, Tom’s ahead of Deshaun."

O’Brien is jumping ahead of any quarterback controversy with this move and perhaps alleviating any pressure off both Watson and Savage so they can now use the rest of the preseason to just play their games now that their roles are official.

It’ll be interesting to see how they both play going forward now that O’Brien has made the official declaration of their roles. One thing is for certain though. The leash for Tom Savage will be very short.

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The Texans know their window with JJ Watt and Brian Cushing may be nearing a close. And while they still have Jadeveon Clowney, they don’t want to waste any time while their division foes are still at best mediocre opponents.

The Texans so far have taken advantage of playing in a weak division, but the turnaround for teams in the NFL can be swift. There’s no time to waste here so if Savage is the guy, he’s going to need to keep up the performances he’s had that earned him his starting job.

The issues for him going forward will be ability to improvise and making decisions quicker so the pocket doesn’t collapse around him. The positives are that he is efficient and accurate as evidenced by his 17 of 20 pass completions for an 85 percent completion rate.

O’Brien making this declaration this early is interesting because if Watson puts up a couple great performances in the next two games and Savage struggles, he most likely won’t be able to go back on his word as he knows the dysfunction an uncertain quarterback situation can cause a locker room.

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A lesson learned during the Brian Hoyer–Ryan Mallett debacle where Hoyer was pulled just after one half of football in the first game of the year in the 2015-2016 season. Here’s hoping we don’t suffer another quarterback carousel and that no matter who owns that starting job, whether it be Savage or Watson, they do well enough to stay put.

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