The biggest head scratcher as the reports of the final roster cuts come in, is fourth year linebacker, Xavier Adibi. Adibi looked very impressive throughout the preseason and it looks as though he was a casualty of the numbers game. Adibi was one of the guys that seemed to breathe new life with a new defense. We have a hard time making sense of it. For the most part though, the best players made the team.
Offense: (24)
QB (3) Schaub, Leinart, Yates
RB (4) Foster, Ward, Tate, Slaton – Some are surprised by Slaton making the team but as we mentioned here already, we think it’s a good move. It’s also a possibility that he could be traded.
TE / FB (5) Daniels, Dreesen, Graham, Casey, Vickers - as we’ve mentioned before, despite a poor camp, we thought Vickers was a lock because he can do much of what Casey can.
WR (4) Johnson, Walter, Jones, Bryant – Bryant was the only depth wide receiver who looked like he belonged on the field
OL (8) Brown, Smith, Meyers, Brisiel, Winston, Butler, Caldwell, Newton (Smith IR) – Newton is a head scratcher initially but I believe he’d destined for the practice squad. I’ll explain in a moment.
Defense (26)
DL (6) Watt, Cody, Smith, Mitchell, Jamison, Bulman – Bulman stands out as the oddball here. He looked unimpressive in the preseason. Veteran, Damione Lewis looked better but got the axe.
LB (9) Williams, Cushing, Ryans, Barwin, Reed, Sharpton, Braman, Dobbins, Nading – Nading has no business being on the team. If any LB’s are cut after a few waiver moves it had better be Nading or TBB is going to revolt. Braman (Rivers McCown’s new favorite player) had better make this squad full time!
CB (7) Joseph, Jackson, Allen, McCain, McMannis, Harris, Carmichael -Carmichael makes you wonder as well unless you think what we’re thinking, practice squad.
S (4) Quin, Manning, Nolan, Barber – Barber beat out Demps because he is a haus on special teams
Special Teams (2) Rackers, Weeks – Maynard gets cut, we believe, due to the fact that Rackers starting missing kicks with him holding. The Texans will have to find a punter before Sunday.
Derrick Newton, the athletic, but raw tackle drafted in the seventh round and Roc Carmichael, who was injured and barely saw the field both made the team but we believe they are destined for the practice squad. They are simply on the roster while Rick Smith waits for teams to fill their rosters. Once that happens, these two will be cut and signed to the practice squad in exchange for what we hope will be another guard and another inside linebacker.
Caldwell is the only depth at guard and there are only 4 inside linebackers. Two of them, Cushing and Ryans are coming off of major surgery. We’d like to see another ILB (preferably, Adibi) and a guard that wasn’t in camp with Newton and Carmichael on the “p-squad”.
I’m truly not trying to be oppositional or mean. I like Slaton, he’s a good guy and had a great year for us…several years ago.
However he’s produced exactly squat since then. And he’s suffered from fumble-itis. The time for good old boys making the roster on this team because gosh-darn-it-he’s-a-nice guy is OVER. If a player cannot reasonably be expected to make a positive contribution to the team making the playoffs, nay, the Super Bowl, then he has no business on the roster.
Slaton cannot even be considered dependable to get us to the 20 yard line on kick off returns. It’s time for Steve to start selling insurance or whatever he intended to do after football.
I pray he doesn’t get hurt.
Adibi is a shocker to me. It looked to me like he played as well as any of our LBs. Better, in fact. But – at least on the defensive side of the ball – I have to assume these decisions are being made in the cruel, harsh light of what it takes to win.
Dave, slaton injured his neck in 2009.one of the side effects of the injury was numbness in his right arm. That numbness led to the fumbling issues. He had surgery to repair the disk prior to the 2010 season. We believe that he reinjured it in the preseason. We did an expose’ about it. He fumbled on the goal line and we saw him get up clinching his hand as if he was trying to regain feeling in it. He was a shell of himself after that. While I don’t disagre with you about his play in 2010, I do believe that he, if healthy has the ability to be a high quality depth player for the Texans. My biggest issue with him has always been that he doesn’t have the patience to read the cutback lanes. But the line he was running behind in 2008 is vastly improved. I think he can be an effective option long term. He’s younger than Derrick ward and in the NFL you have to assume running backs will go down. You can never have too many. Having said that, its possible the Texans kept him because they still believe they can trade him once running backs start to go down early in the season. He certainly has more value than ogbonnya.
Until they are concrete about the status of Foster, Slaton is the third back on gameday. I don’t know if his average last year was padded due to a long run (I can’t recall any from Steve), but he proved serviceable last year. I’m OK with it.
Suprised about Adibi, he seemed to have a really active preseason. I’m very excited Braman made the team. Who knows if he makes it next year or even makes it to Week one, but it’s a good story.
If Braman doesn’t make it to week one and Jesse Nading does I will have serious doubts about this teams ability to evaluate talent. They have always had issues with that in the past (on defense) but so far Phillips has been spot on with what we’re seeing. The Adibi move is the only head scratcher from that standpoint. If Braman goes and Nading stays I’m going to start working about Wade.
Barrett,
I saw someone make a good point regarding the Saints game. When Adibi was playing inside, we were getting run on quite a bit. Perhaps he was not filling the right gap. That has been an issue with him since he was drafted. What has looked good to us this preseason, has been his pursuit to the edge and his playmaking ability rushing the passer. In other words, he may still be the same undisciplined player that inflicted this team in 2008 and early 2009. Just a thought.
I said my peace about Steve, I’ll let it go and hope I’m wrong. If I am I promise to come here and own it, let you guys slap me around a bit.
OT – This thing with Antonio Smith is very sad. They’re saying no foul play is suspected, sounds like a bad accident after a big party. From all the reports I’ve seen nobody else was hurt, so at least there’s that. Prayers for the guy that drowned, and from a purely selfish point of view I hope Antonio is able to separate that away from his football mind. Man that sucks for him.
This guy (G) Thomas Austin we claimed off waivers from New England, do you guys know anything about him? What I see is that he was with the Vikings, then NE, then waived. Is he something to get excited about?
Another question, if we claim him off waivers he has to go on the active roster, correct? Who’s slot is he going to get?
Battle Red Blog reports that Mark Berman reports Nading has been released to make room for Brett Hartmann. Do you see us going into season with a rookie punter, or is this open?
Joe,
It looks like a rookie punter to me. That’s fine with me. Even if he costs us a couple yards every punt, his kickoff leg will make up for it. We will be kicking off more often than we punt so I think there is justification to take the risk on him. Most importantly, Nading was cut!