Houston Texans: T.J. Yates should be named the starting quarterback

The Houston Texans season is holding on for dear life by some thin threading and it all rest on the play of the quarterback. For the first time since signing with the Houston Texans two weeks ago, T.J. Yates is getting first team reps and I think he should be the starter moving forward.

The Houston Texans season has been in shambles since the announcement that Deshaun Watson will be out for the remainder with a torn ACL. That news hit us all like a ton of bricks and it certainly is a big blow to our playoff hopes for this season. In just a little over a half a season, Watson has proven that he’s is the GREATEST quarterback that this franchise has ever had.

It’s absolutely amazing how he was able to cover up all of the deficiencies of this team and they definitely were exposed against the Indianapolis Colts this past Sunday. But the team came out as I expected — the offense was stagnant, Tom Savage was failing to zero in on the immense amount of weapons we have on offense and everything just looked like a discombobulated mess.

At one point in the game, the offense was so bad that the team was barely garnering 2.8 yards per play which is stark contrast between the amount of production this offense would get with Watson at the helm. The numbers would be triple nearly quadruple that if he were calling the signals.

But let’s not state the obvious. As much faith I had put in Tom Savage as our quarterback, especially of how he performed against the Jacksonville Jaguars late season, he clearly is not someone with can put our faith in to win games.

Not only that, but he holds on to the ball too long. This past Sunday, he was averaging 2.71 seconds in the pocket to make a decision to throw which is unacceptable. I guarantee if he waits that long to throw against the Los Angeles Rams this Sunday, their pass rushers, particularly Aaron Donald we be all over him.

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To compare, Russell Wilson averages close to 3.5 seconds to throw in the pocket but the difference is that he is trying to extend the play to make something happen. Savage simply doesn’t know what to do and just tries to makes the best of the time he has left when the pocket eventually collapses. Usually nothing good comes out of it.

And Savage will start having nightmares of Calais Campbell chasing him all afternoon again. Jabaal Sheard had his way with him last week, so who’s going to be mystery man against Savage this week? You can bet your bottom dollar that it’s going to be Donald.

I’ve had enough. Since it’s clear that the Houston Texans won’t try to go sign Colin Kaepernick to save the season, they need give Savage the short hook this game at let T.J. Yates jump and be the starter for the rest of the season. And according to the Chron’s Aaron Wilson, he’s already getting first team reps.

Yates is not Watson by any means but he has the ability to use his legs when things go south to try to make something happen for this team. He is a traditional quarterback as well but he has a little extra pizazz with is style.

Yates is still averaging 6.8 yards per attempt in his career versus the 4.9 yards that Savage is averaging this season. Lest we not forget that Yates is the all-time passing yards leader for the North Carolina Tar Heels, his college alma mater, at 9,377 total amassed. Although his best damage has been against the Cincinnati Bengals, I think he could help this team win some games or at least keep us in them.

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That’s why I propose that he should start because until Josh Johnson gets up to speed with this offense but Yates is still the best option regardless. Johnson has been sitting on the couch for goodness knows how long so he’s definitely not ready to start calling signals just yet.

The season is being held together by bubble gum and paper clips; but damn it, I want to see a quarterback take command of this offense and get these guys out of the doldrums! Is Yates the guy? We shall see but I honestly think that he is.

Go Texans.

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