Houston Texans: A potential 2018 quarterback depth chart to consider

The Houston Texans are going to have a lot of options at the quarterback position to back up Deshaun Watson. With Tom Savage and T.J. Yates both being free agents, I want to give you two names that I think would be a great addition to the QB room. I am aware that one name will create some controversy. Let’s get to it.

As we all know by now the Houston Texans finally have themselves a franchise quarterback. Let me repeat that again, the Texans have a franchise quarterback. I don’t care how many times I say this, it sounds to good to be true still to this day.

Deshaun Watson came into 2017 the No. 2 quarterback behind the presumptive starter in Tom Savage. After just one half of football in Week 1, Savage was yanked and the rest was history. Watson then burst on to the scene and in seven games, he put up 1,699 passing yards while throwing 19 touchdowns to eight interceptions with a QB rating of 103.0 and a completion percentage of 61.8.

To say the least he was good, even to the point of sensational. But then the unfortunate happened, Watson tore his ACL for the second time in his career at about mid season, ripping the hearts out of Texans fans everywhere.

Once the injury was confirmed, the Houston Texans had to turn the signal-calling back over to Savage. He did not perform well at all with his opportunity and also sustained a serious concussion in Week 14, effectively ending his 2017 campaign.

The Texans then let T.J. Yates — in his third tour of duty — finish out the season and performed like a low-string quarterback would under the circumstances.

I feel there are two quarterbacks the Houston Texans should take a look at once free agency opens March 14th.

Firstly, I think the Houston Texans should take a look at Tyrod Taylor currently under contact with the Buffalo Bills. I think his skill set would be ideal for the Texans and it seems the Bills don’t want him as their quarterback. I really like his athletic abilities and would feel a lot better with him at the helm if Deshaun had another unfortunate injury.

Tyrod had a solid 2017, posting stats of 2,799 passing while throwing 14 touchdowns to four interceptions with a quarterback rating of 89.2 and a completion percentage of 62.6.

Houston Texans GM Brian Gaine is familiar with Taylor as Gaine was the vice president of player

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personnel. I think he could get a cap-friendly deal done, with many teams already having a quarterback and the ones that don’t have quarterback seem to be eyeing the ones in this year’s draft.

My last quarterback and the most controversial of the two is none other than Johnny Manziel. Yes, I said it. I also understand that I may get blasted for saying this but hear me out first.

Manziel’s skill set is very similar to Taylor’s as far as escaping the pocket and his running abilities. Both Taylor and Manziel possess Deshaun’s mobility traits and hurt defenses alike with their legs.

I understand that Manziel may not be efficient like Watson or Taylor for that matter. But I do think he would benefit in that quarterback’s room with Watson and Bill O’Brien. This could be a great learning and maturity lesson for Manziel with O’Brien’s tough love and stern coaching. He’d also be learning from a humbled hard-worker in Watson, who will be a far cry from having a wet-behind-the-ears persona despite him going to his second season as a pro.

Not to mention I think Gaine could sign Johnny Football to a cheap, one-year “prove it” deal. It would not cost a lot and the return in investment could pay huge dividends if Manziel could show growth and maturity under O’Brien and Watson.

Next: Evaluating the Texans 2017 offense with a 2018 outlook

All in all, my Houston Texans quarterback depth chart would look like this:

I understand this is a long shot and I know most fans will bash this idea. But I’d still be okay with throwing out this option and stick with the status quo. But I’d feel a lot better if the aforementioned were the quarterbacks on the upcoming season’s roster.

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