BRB Groupthink: Texans Grapple Over QB Committee

Who should be under center? We discuss.

While we approach the doom of a matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs, it’s still unclear who will start at QB for the Texans. Lovie Smith is keeping secrets hidden under his beard and away from the press… as if that will make an impact on the outcome of this game.

The Texans did have their best offensive showing in months when they played last week against the Dallas Cowboys. The offense looked creative, which is something we haven’t been able to say for two years. This

Texans-Cowboys was possibly the most well-rounded game of the season for Houston. Including the part where the texans coordinated a loss at the end. The question of the week is, do you think the texans should continuet this QB by commitee approach for the rest of the season

Vballretired:

Football is not a simple game, but it is a game best made simple. You put the best 11 players you have on the field and you call the play most likely to be successful. Obviously there are variables for different situations but the problem with these Stanford and Patriot guys is they want to be smarter than everyone else. They want to zig when they zag. Unfortunately, there’s a reason why they zag and that’s because it’s usually the most likely thing to succeed given the moment.

This doesn’t directly answer the question but I think it gets to the heart of why the Texans fail. Instead of doing the obvious thing they do the “smart” thing. That might mean picking one player over another. It may mean not selecting a certain position of need or adding a fullback when hardly anyone uses one. It may mean alternating quarterbacks. Who else does that? No one? See, we are smart. We zig while they zag. Except there is a reason no does and like most gimmicks, it ceases to work when it loses the element of surprise.

If they want to try other gimmicks be my guest but I have a much simpler and “dumber” idea. Put the best 11 guys on the field and give the ball to your best players. Yes, after Pierce most of them aren’t good but some are better than others and if you don’t know that by Week 14 I suggest you spare us the indignity of having to watch you fumble around trying to be “smarter” than everyone else.

Patrick.H

For novelty’s sake, sure. Has a team ever tried going QB by committee before? I don’t know if it’ll help the Texans in any meaningful degree, but it would be interesting if nothing else to see how this would affect opposing defenses. My guess is it’ll prove to be too clever by half some time during the Chiefs game and we’ll go back to having either all Mills, all Driskel, or, Durga help us, all Allen the rest of the way.

L4blitzer:

There is the old adage in football that if you have 2 quarterbacks, you have none. Then again, look at the QB play for the Texans this season and tell me if we’ve had any QB play. It threw Dallas off guard, but the NFL learns quickly. The dueling QB thing will not last If nothing else, this is an indictment of the current QBs. Mills must know he will not be the long term starter. The team is drafting a QB, unless they do something crazy in free agency. Whoever the new QB is, they are the future franchise QB hopeful. Now, who gets to coach that player? TBD

Corydlg:

Mike Wilbon of PTI has been calling for this for years. We have relievers in baseball, why not football. A guy is hot in 4th quarters, why not play him just 4th quarters? I’m not sure I’ve heard anyone else make the case for the dual system and I think it’s obvious why… it doesn’t seem to work.

Kenneth L.:

Here’s the thing: we can mess around and win a game. Most of our talent is injured we have a game to give, and we already are quite aware of what we do have in the QB department. This isn’t about finding talent at the QB position, this is about identifying literally random players throughout the pool who are system-agnostic and are purely diamonds in the rough. Pep Hamilton should be the sacrificial lamb heading into this offseason. At the QB position, I’d love to see the creativity; let Hamilton save his job. Fight for his right to stay with the team and coach up a young QB who we’ll draft. We know we aren’t going to win, so let’s have some fun right?