Houston Texans: Watson under a lot of pressure but not because the o-line

Houston Texans quarterback, Deshaun Watson, has been under a lot of pressure by opposing defenses. However, this isn’t all the offensive line’s fault. Let’s take a look at why.

The Houston Texans have a had a poor start, that much, as disappointing as it is, is plain and simple. Sure, no one expected this 0-2 start that has warmed the seat of Bill O’Brien. There are also silver linings to this start as this team still isn’t your typical 0-2 team.

However, we aren’t here to talk about any of that. We are to discuss Deshaun Watson. So far this season, Watson has looked like a shell of the guy that lit the NFL world on fire last year. Perhaps he was even crowned a superstar too soon.

Watson, of course, still has immense amounts of potential and is and will be the Houston Texans franchise quarterback for a long, long time. So, don’t hear that I am saying anything to the contrary. His potential flashed this past week when he almost led the Texans back to a victory from being down 14-0.

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One thing that someone can look at to hint at why Watson has been struggling is the number of pressures and sacks he has faced this season. He is still grading out as an average passer but, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), those numbers plummet as he gets pressured.

Watson has been pressured nearly 40 times in two games. He has also been sacked a total of seven times. Those numbers are not good at all, especially for a quarterback that is still shaking off the rust from an ACL injury.

However, the story begins to change when you look at the offensive line’s stats for these first two weeks. Four of Watson’s seven sacks have been allowed by the offensive line. Yes, that is over half but, the picture gets clearer when you realize the Houston Texans offensive line has given Watson the second most amount of time in the pocket this season.

In fact, Texans center, Nick Martin, has been phenomenal this season. He has graded out as “elite” in terms of his pass blocking and has been the number one pass blocking center this season. Zach Fulton is also grading out well above average. In fact, even Julien Davenport is grading out above average in pass blocking.

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Martinas Rankin and Senio Kelemete have been grading out below average in pass blocking. But, as a whole, the Texans are grading out slightly above average in terms of pass blocking and have an above average pass attack.

So the pass blocking hasn’t been as atrocious as it may appear at first glance. Watson’s mobility helps extend the time that he has to throw the ball but, the line has also helped with that.

Watson has also been very slow through his reads and is sitting a long time. He’s been holding on to the ball for a long time as well. Protection can’t hold forever and these types of sacks are hard to assign blame to.

This offense has kinks it needs to work out. But, the offensive line is better than the surface shows and they showed leaps and bounds of improvement from week one to week two.

These struggles simply cannot be assigned to the line or to Watson. It is just a team working out all their bumps in the road as they build chemistry since they did not have a ton of time in the preseason to do so.

Next. The silver lining to starting the season 0-2. dark

The Houston Texans offense will continue to improve as the weeks progress just as they did from week one to two. This team may not be as contender-ready as initially thought but, they’re also not as bad as they come across. Here’s to the next fourteen games.

For more grades, advanced statistics and more at Pro Football Focus, subscribe to PFF’s EDGE or ELITE subscriptions at ProFootballFocus.com.

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