Houston Texans: The three-step plan to a successful off season

Step #1: Making offensive line improvements a top priority

This one is a no brainer. It’s what we have been screaming for the moment the Houston Texans got their franchise QB in Deshaun Watson. He was, and still is, a prized possession of this football team that the Houston Texans can’t afford to lose.

It’s dumb how last off season I was believing in the hype of signing Zach Fulton, Senio Kelemete and Seantrel Henderson. I was convinced that any step with the worst offensive line in the league would be a good one and that signing these guys would at least help depth at the line. I was settled on the idea that these signings were for the better and it was hard to argue at the time.

I don’t know how big enough of an impact these guys had on the field but I know that our QB was sacked the most out of all QB’s in the NFL and second-most in NFL history. Sure, there were times that Watson held onto the ball too long but the amount of sacks he had taken are for pocket QB’s who are scared to use their feet. That daunting number of 62 sacks should not happen to a mobile QB like Watson and certainly indicated that he took an average of nearly four sacks a game.

Realizing that the Houston Texans had allowed that many sacks per game, it’s a wonder how they managed to get 11 wins.  We were ranked 19th in the passing game, which I think could’ve been much higher if the offensive line were stout.  It’s actually quite surprising with an offense led by Deshaun Watson, DeAndre Hopkins, Will Fuller, Demaryius Thomas, Jordan Thomas and Keke Coutee.

In the same cut, the running game was ranked 14th, which does look pretty good but I honestly think that’s due to a few long runs by Lamar Miller. I don’t think that they deserved that number in rushing because I felt like they had an unnecessary amount of rushing attempts along with a failed strategy that struggled to set up the passing attack.

With a much improved offensive line, the Houston Texans can extend time of possession and give the offense time to complete play-action calls or help the run game set up the passing game.

There are two things that I must address on why improving the offensive line should be top priority:

Here’s my first point.  Yes, I understand that this Houston Texans secondary was whooped. Despite Tyrann Mathieu‘s presence, Justin Reid‘s presence and Kareem Jackson‘s improvement, the opposing offense always found a way to expose an open spot on the field and it was getting annoying as hell. It’s completely understandable that many people would want Houston Texans to stick to their “Defense First” mentality and fix the holes in this secondary real quickly.

But this offense has the potential of becoming elite with if future adjustments are made. For example, in the Houston Texans Wild Card game, the Indianapolis Colts did not score in the second half but yet the offense was only able to conjure up seven points in a 21-point deficit. This, along with the 2016 Playoffs, has taught me that no matter how great your defense is, a team can only be a true contender in the league for a long time, or even in one game, if the offense can reach the end zone and move the chains.

An strong offensive line is all the Houston Texans need to have an offensive breakout year. This will also take the pressure off the defense and could give the secondary rest, helping their performance on the field.

It all starts with the offensive line folks.

And secondly, the other reason the offensive line must become a priority is it’s obviously so intertwined with Watson.

Let me be more specific — have you ever played Madden or NFL 2K and find a play or move that always tends to help in your favor, so you start to become used to it and the next thing you know it starts to become all you are doing when you zone out?

If yes, great! If not, then I hope I’m not the only one. But basically I’m trying to imply tendencies. There are ones that are good for you or for your team that can definitely help but there are also the bad ones that if they stick, they can be harmful.

This goes with Watson.  With a struggling O-Line, there may have been tendencies that he has developed, like erratic moves inside the pocket or questionable types of throws that shouldn’t be made.  It’s because these tendencies may have been formed as a result from huge pressure in the pocket. If the offensive line isn’t fixed soon, these tendencies could become a harmful part of Watson’s game and hard to remove.

I appreciate how Watson never puts the blame on them and how it’s his goal to keep them smiling no matter what but this line needs to improve quickly before it hurts Watson’s game or even worse, allows that hit to occur to which none of us wants. The shoring up of this team starts with this beleaguered unit folks.  If it’s not fixed, the Houston Texans will never reach the promised land.