What?
The OLB (USC's Cushing) I can understand, and I'm OK with Cincinatti's Connor Barwin, after all, most people consider him to be an OLB in the NFL anyway. If there's one thing the Texans needed, it's help at Linebacker and in the secondary.
What I don't understand is this: Not drafting ANYONE until the 7th (and final) round to address the glaring need at Safety, not getting a running back, and drafting TWO tight-ends?
The tight-end picks are especially confusing given that the current TE (Owen Daniels) was a pro-bowl player last season. The 'excuse' provided by local media is that the Texans needed a blocking tight end to plug in during short-yardage and obvious-run situations. OK, fine. That explains away Anthony Hill, but it doesn't go anywhere toward explaining James Casey. Now, don't get me wrong, I like Casey, I think he's going to be a fine player in the NFL. I'm just not sure if the Texans are the place where he can grow into being that good of a player. Rumor also has it that Casey will be used in the Wildcat formation, which means that the Texans used a 4th round pick on a player to run a gimmick offense that's likely to be figured out by NFL D-coordinators within a couple of years.
And, oh by the way, Liberty's Rashard Jennings was still on the board, a tough, no-nonsense RB that could have been the between-the-tackles solution that the Texans needed to fix their pathetic short-yardage offense. There's talk, especially by Chron.com writers, that the Texans are going to try and find an RB through the free agent process, but history proves the late-round drafting track record to be superior to the FA track record in running backs. More likely is the fact that writers are working to explain away Kubiak & Co's aversion to spending high draft picks on backs, something that worked for them in their Denver days, but which has proven less than successful in recent years. (How's that working out for Mike Shanahan these days?)
Most fans won't remember, because of the focus on David Carr, but the failure in the Texans organization during the Charlie Casserly/Dom Capers era wasn't, primarily, due to mistakes at the top of the draft. (although they did make several) Their failure was primarily in the second, third and fourth rounds, wasted rounds whose lack of production decimated a growing team.
This year's Texans made good picks in Rounds 1-2 & 6-7, everything else in the middle is subject to further review. It might be the A+ draft that Chron writers are portraying it as, but then again it might not. It might be a hot mess.
