Houston Texans: Julién Davenport must be moved back to left tackle

With the injury to Seantrel Henderson, the Houston Texans need to move Julién Davenport back to left tackle. Why is that the case? Let’s look as to why.

The Houston Texans have shuffling around to do with the consistent struggles that were seen on the offensive line against the New England Patriots this past Sunday.  Time after time, we saw Deshaun Watson running for his life and just not getting the time he needed to make the decisions that he made with each play.

The pressure was intense on this unit and although they did hold their own early in, it became difficult for them to do so as time wore on throughout the game.   Watson also wasn’t making the best of decisions when he had the time of the pocket as well so I’d say that the offensive line as a unit was at least partially to blame.

But with Seantrel Henderson going down with a season-ending injury by breaking his ankle early in Sunday’s contest, the Houston Texans tried experiment with Julién Davenport at right tackle, the position that was held up firmly by Henderson.

What was thought to be a promising move was a disaster.  According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), through 63 snaps at left tackle, Davenport gave up nine pressures — four hurries, three quarterback hits and two sacks — and was getting out played by his nearest competition — Trey Flowers — who was getting everything he wanted and more.

He had taken just 11 snaps on the left side before sliding over to which he was performing well.  I’d imagine that the Houston Texans will be playing the matchups and move Davenport as they see fit but he seems to be a lot more effective on the left side if you ask me.

In fact, he’ll have to be moved to the left side out of necessity against the Tennessee Titans Week

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2 as he’ll be needed to help break up a pass rush fronted by defensive end Jurrell Casey and outside linebacker Brian Orakpo.  I just don’t think it’d be a good idea to stick rookie tackle Martinas Rankin there because of the risk of those talented pass rusher getting to Watson.

Rankin too had his struggles at left tackle last week, earning a 50.4 overall grade and allowing four pressures — three hurries and one sack against the Pats.

Davenport finished with a 55.3 overall offensive grade, 45.9 pass block grade and 59.8 run block grade of which the first two grades mentioned were second-lowest among the entire unit against the Pats.

All in all, the offensive line as a whole performed much better as a whole than last season where they had a 54.8 overall pass block grade in comparison to a 66.7 this past Sunday.  How about run blocking?  The unit has made some slight improvement from a 50.9 in 2017 to a 53.9 in Week 1.

It’s going to take a few seasons for this unit to get just right but I think the rebuilding process underway is a mild step in the right direction.

We’ll have to see about that.

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