Fantasy Football Daily - 2021 Franchise Focus: Houston Texans

Episode Date: August 11, 2021

Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan) and Tom Brolley (@TomBrolley) preview the Houston Texan's 2021 season in the companion podcast to the 2021 Franchise Focus piece on FantasyPoints.com. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time to the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoint.com. Top level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. Going out with a whimper. Our 30-second and final franchise focus podcast here at FantasyPoint.com and the Fantasy Points podcast is the Houston Texans. We waited as long as we could to see if anything would come of the Deshawn Watson allegations, the serious allegations, the trade rumors.

And Tom, as we sit here recording this, we are recording this on Tuesday, August 10th for publication Wednesday, August 11th. Nothing has happened. And at this point, I'm not sure anything will happen this year because even as cynical as the NFL can be, I kind of like think this is almost too cynical to blow up your future assets from a team trading for Deshawn Watson or from the Texans perspective taking what teams would probably think are trying to make a low ball offer for Deshawn Watson. It's cynical to think that a team's like, well, you know, if we don't pay market price, you know, it's going to be okay because, you know, like, I mean, it's just a messy situation here. By the way, he's Tom Brawley, I'm Joe Dolan. The Houston Texans are, I mean, the worst team in professional football. They were one of the worst run teams in professional football.

Poor David Culley's coming in here with his head coaching job. And his starting quarterbacks playing safety in training camp. Deshaun Watson obviously has all the sexual assault or harassment assault allegations. He's in trade rumors. He doesn't want to play for the Texans. He's got no leverage because of these cases. I mean, it is just, Tom, a disgusting, messy situation. And frankly, I don't like talking about it.

So how are you today, my friend? I'm doing good. I wonder if Texans fans even want to listen to this podcast. Oh, God, no. This can probably be one of our least listened to podcasts. But yeah, you're right. It's just a pretty tough situation. He's been a guy, you know, avoided in drafts all summer long.

You know, even with his upside, if he doesn't. does play in games, but I don't know. I just, I just doesn't feel like, I mean, we, we had, John McLean, the long time beat writer on Monday, you know, tweeting out that, you know, Deshaun Watson's never playing again for the Texans. And I kind of, I kind of lead with the general there. You know, I just don't see the motivation, you know, Deshaun has said he doesn't want to play, you know, for the Texans anymore. You know, they're clearly going, you know, They're trying to tank. They're trying to get one of the top picks in next year's draft.

So, you know, why are you going to play Deshaun Watson? And, you know, maybe he gets hurt. And then your asset, your potential trade asset, you know, gets devalued. And we all know Deshaun Watson's one of the best quarterbacks in the league whenever he's on the field. You don't need to showcase him at all this year. So just from that point of view, you know, I just don't know if he's going to play again. And then on the trade front, I feel like a lot of the trade talk stuff has been, you know, generated by his agent here, as he should.

You know, that's his job to generate some buzz, but it just doesn't make a lot of sense for these teams that would trade for them, not knowing what the league might do in terms of suspension, if there's going to be criminal charges coming down, you know, the pike eventually. So, and then it makes those, you know, the Texans would be selling a depressed asset at this point, too. They'd be selling on the cheap. So, you know, it just doesn't make, it just doesn't add up, uh, from a lot of different angles here.

So, you know, is there a chance he could play at some point this season? Yeah, sure. Certainly is. The NFL has, you know, they're dragging their feet on this. They're waiting as long as possible to do something to put him on the exemplist, do whatever they might do. But, you know, as a betting person who does the betting stuff for our site, you know, the odds are probably more stacked against him that he's going to play a game for the Texanists.

I mean, like, let's look at it from, to sum up what you said, Tom. if the Texans are willing to trade Deshawn Watson on the cheap, while fully acknowledging how cynical that conversation is, if the Texans are willing to trade him on the cheap, the Texans probably know something. So why would a team even be willing to acquire him on the cheap? You bring in a new face of your franchise and the guy gets immediately subpoenaed him by a grand jury?

And your fan base turns against you for making the trade. I mean, and then on the flip side, why would a team be willing to pay full price if they know that could come down. None of it has made sense to me all offseason as to why a team would make this trade. And like, well, yeah, Deshawn Watson's don't come along all that much. But if you have the assets to trade for Deshawn Watson now,

you have the assets to go get somebody else. You have the assets to go get Aaron Rogers or Russell Wilson if he wants out. Or who's the next quarterback who wants out. Yeah, this is going to be, this is, becoming a yearly thing. This is, you know, this is a trend that isn't going away. There's going to be, you know, I don't know if there's going to be an elite quarterback, you know, up for sale every off season, but I think this is a trend that's, you know, become more, you know, it's going to become more consistent here, you know, every passing year. It's just so, I mean,

I just don't get it. And by the way, every single day that passes makes this less likely. You know, people are talking about Philadelphia. Oh, you know, that's the team. I was like, But every day, you know, you hear these teammates, oh, we love Jalen Hertz. You know, he's a leader and whatnot. And you're going to blow up your locker room for a guy who might be in jail. Like, I mean, I just don't get it. Anyway, Houston Texans, Tom, four wins minus 105 to the over, plus 2,200 to win the AFC South, plus 800 to make the playoffs, plus 10,000 to win the AFC, plus 20,000 to win the

Super Bowl. This team's going nowhere. Yeah. I mean, this is a. about as low a win total as you'll see here. Even with a 17 game schedule, we're aligned at just four wins here. The only team, kind of in recent memory, it does have a little bit of similarities is that New York Jets team from a few years ago in 2017, they had a three and a half win total coming into the year, and they crushed it.

They got, Josh McCown came in, a veteran savvy quarterback, and, you know, they won two of their first three games, I believe. And they got to five wins overall, past their total. And, you know, I think there could be a path for the Texans to do that. If they kind of follow, you know, the similar route, if they would give Tyrod Taylor all the starts this season. But, you know, they go out and they draft Davis Mills in the third round. That was their first pick in the draft. So I just don't think they're going to let Davis Mills, you know, basically take a red shirt year. He's a guy that hasn't played much, even during his college career at Stanford. So he needs to get out there and get game reps. So, you know, I'm not giving an aisle's bet, but I'm leaning towards the under with the wins.

But, you know, I could see them, you know, maybe challenging for four or five wins if Tyraud Taylor was the guy for the entire season. But, yeah, I just don't think that's going to be the case. Yeah, and Tom, I mean, just. Is there anybody here you're interested in? I will admit. I will admit. You know, Cooks, I think Cooks, you know, he's a deep threat. Tyrotho's a good deep ball.

As a wide receiver four or five in best ball, I'm totally cool with that. I will admit, like, if I've needed like a fourth running back in best ball and he falls to like the 12th round, I think you could do worse than David Johnson just because I feel like he's going at least, especially if you're going with like a zero RB or a hero RB kind of approach where you have one guy, you feel good about and you just want to cobble together the rest. David Johnson can have some value. But I tell you one thing, I have not been excited to draft a single Texan. And in the obvious reason.

Yeah, I'm right there with you, Joe. I mean, I don't know the exact numbers, but I doubt I'll have any Texans player above like 10% on my teams this year. Oh, yeah. You know, I've taken, you know, some shares of Brandon Cooks when he slipped a bit. you know, because there's a chance for him to have a pretty nice target share here. He's the kind of the only guy that's really, you know, really viable, especially after, you know, they traded Randall Cobb as part of that Aaron Rogers, you know,

ultimatum there to, you know, come back to Green Bay. So it got thinned out a little bit more, but I've been probably more, you know, I've taken a couple shots on like Nico Collins really late. He's, you know, it sounds like he's played. fairly well in camp so far he was a i think a third or fourth round pick out of michigan uh real talented guy that was underutilized there uh because of their quarterback's situation so you know he's he's an intriguing talent but yeah it's it's gonna be you know even all their skill positions it's it's you know i want to like david johnson potentially a little bit more but you know they bring in philip

linds mingramm rex burkhead you know it's just a just a mishmash of guys that are a one-year deals that, you know, they could throw, you know, they could mix and match these guys all season long. So even if I knew somebody was guaranteed to have a big rule, you know, I probably wouldn't be too excited about them. But you throw in all these one-year contract type of guys that could have rules. And it makes it even less intriguing for me, you know, with this team. So, yeah, it's maybe a little cooks, maybe a little David Johnson, and maybe a little Nico Collins at the end of drafts. Yeah, and then again, with the Deshawn Watson thing, some people are drafting them in best balls. And I mean, there's obviously some upside there.

But I, like, who's he playing for? Is he playing at all? I mean, that, that's a, that's a personal preference type of thing. And I haven't doubted much. Yeah, I mean, if he's like your QB3, you know, you're a guy that you're a position that you're okay, taking a big zero from all season, you know, I don't, I don't have a big issue with it. I, I'm in the camp that he probably won't play a snap this. season. But, you know, if it's a QB3, I can, you know, I can see the justification for that

just because he has that huge top five upside. But, you know, even if he does play, you know, this team's a freaking mess. Like, he doesn't have any playmakers. I know he got it done last year, but, you know, his level of interest, you know, probably won't be that high. So, yeah, I just, there's just, hasn't been much appeal for me to consider him late in drafts. All right, Tom, that'll wrap up the Houston. I'm going to go stick my head in a toilet right now. Hey, we're done though, Joe! We're done!

Thank the Lord. Talk to champagne! 32 articles, 32 podcasts, shipped out the door, and just in time for week one of the preseason tomorrow, make sure you go to FantasyPoints.com. By the way, for anybody who has listened to this podcast, I'm going to throw out a little special treat. Oh, yeah.

Give it to them, Joe. Use the code 21 Broly 10. to get 10% off of FantasyPoints.com. I want to see how many people listen to this podcast, the Houston, Texas podcast, and listen to all the way through. I literally have not given out that code yet this year on any, you know, podcast or whatever. So we'll see if we get any subscriptions based on this podcast. That'd be somebody listened to 12 minutes of Houston, Texas talk today. So, yeah, 21 Brawley 10 gets you 10% off at FantasyPoint.com.

This might be a flawed sample, though, Tom, because if you are a sicko, enough to listen to 32 of these podcasts. You probably already have a subscription. So just follow that away. We will be given out the early bird special sometime in November. So don't worry if you want to get on the board for 2020. But yeah, 21 Braille 10 will get you 10% off at fantasy points.com.

Go read the articles. Go listen to the podcast. Go watch the live streams. Draft season is here, baby. Projections, cheat sheets, articles, podcasts, live streams, everything you could possibly want up at fantasy points. com. betting previews. Tom's got those for you premium subscribers. It has been a wonderful time talking

about all of these teams with you. At FG underscore Dolan for me on Twitter. At Tom Broly for Tom, at fantasy PTS for the site. Thank you everybody. And good riddance to the franchise focus series, at least for 2021. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform. And come Join the roster at FantasyPoints.com.