The Drive's Clint Stoerner lists three things the Texans' offensive line moves this offseason have accomplished.
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00:00I just looked at it, this has to be depth, and then it's just immediately, it's depth
00:05and immediately, boy, they're really going hard in at tackle, as opposed to the interior,
00:12and does this mean something for Titus?
00:14Yeah, well, there's so many different talking points about this.
00:19Brent Brown, former New England Patriot, and, I mean, 10-year pro, 31 years old.
00:29He hadn't just been with New England, he's played with the Raiders, with a few different
00:33teams.
00:34Raiders, 49ers.
00:35Signed a couple big deals.
00:36Tango.
00:37Yeah, there's obviously a history there with Cole Popovich, Nick Caley, Nick Casario,
00:45you know, there's a history there.
00:47They know what they're bringing in the building, but Trent Brown being the position is the
00:53one that surprises me.
00:56Again, the way the Texans are going about fixing their offensive line problems, fixing
01:02their pass protection problems, is an interesting path to me.
01:06I think they've made bigger splashes, both in trading, Laramie Tunsil, as well as who
01:10they've signed and who they've brought into that offensive line room in the form of tackles,
01:15not guards.
01:16I think it's been splashier, higher ceiling guys, more pelts on the wall type of guys
01:23at the tackle position, which is interesting to me.
01:28But I got to thinking about this, and I've had more time because I went on Air Friday
01:33with you guys, but this strikes me, Ron, as a reactionary move to what they experienced
01:44last year, which I guess everything is to a certain degree, but when you look at really
01:48how this thing went down last year, we know the pass protection sucked, right?
01:53But if you look at it, the fact that there were so many guys that were so quickly thrust
02:02into situations where they were playing out of position, right?
02:05Titus Howard, once again, that's the elephant in the room because he was making so much
02:08money to be a right tackle, and he ends up playing guard again, right?
02:12Nick Broker, a depth player that wasn't even in your two deep to start with, but he's an
02:16interior offensive lineman, ends up one play away, one injury away from having to play
02:21right tackle as the season moved along.
02:24They end up, because of injury, having to play second round pick Blake Fisher, right?
02:34Juice Scruggs literally, now he got injured as well, but Juice Scruggs literally played
02:38all three interior positions, right?
02:41Jarrett Patterson at one game, one time when Kenyon Green got hurt, had to go in and play
02:45guard, right, before he ended up playing center and then getting hurt after that.
02:50So to me, this is the moves that they've made signify a couple of things.
02:59The Texans have made several moves on the offensive line, and I think they signify several
03:03things.
03:04Number one, I think they had to improve their depth, and there's no doubt about it.
03:08There is better depth across the board on the current Texans offensive line than at
03:16any point last year.
03:18I don't think interior offensive linemen having to play guard and tackles having to play inside.
03:31I don't think that's going to be a problem in a reactionary form.
03:34Titus Howard may end up being a guard, but I think it's going to be a play and it's not
03:37going to be because somebody got hurt.
03:39So I think, number one, better overall offensive line depth, I think, has been achieved.
03:45Number two, I think there is a more physical mentality in this offensive line room.
03:52It wouldn't have been hard, and it's not real hard to have done this, right?
03:56I think they were super soft, relatively speaking, but I think the physical mentality is closer
04:04to what D'Amico Rhines, a defensive-minded head coach, the Swarm head coach, actually wants.
04:10If you look at what Ed Ingram brings to the table, struggled in pass protection, but appears
04:16to be an absolute beast in a run game, right?
04:19You look at the Lake and Tomlinson kids, same thing.
04:22You look at Cam Robinson, there's some weaknesses there, but as a more physical, there's some
04:28dog in there.
04:29You look at Trent Brown, again, there's some dog in there.
04:32It seems like there's guys that are going to be, on a day-to-day basis, there's going
04:37to be a little bit more of a physical mentality, right?
04:40And then number three for me is, I think there's an identity, it looks like there's an identity
04:44more so to this team, which is going to be a downhill run team instead of, hey, Trent
04:50Brown, we're going to toss this thing your direction.
04:52Can you get 360 pounds or whatever it is?
04:56Can you pull out there and stretch to the sideline, like a more between-the-tackle,
05:02attack downhill, hit them immediately instead of stringing things out sideline to sideline.
05:07So whether we're talking better O-line depth, the mentality, more physical mentality in
05:14the O-line room, or having a clear identity of, hey, we're going to run the football right
05:18at you when we do run it, I think they have accomplished some things with these O-line
05:22signs.
05:23Yeah, I think they do want to get more physical, and that's why, to me, I just wonder, when
05:32you say to yourself, all right, I know we traded Laramie Tunzel, but since trading
05:39Laramie Tunzel, we've added Trent Brown, who you just spoke of, Cam Robinson, who, listen,
05:46of all the guys they brought in, he's coming in, getting like a little over 12 guaranteed
05:51up to 14 on a one-year deal.
05:54I'd imagine he is starting at left tackle, but you bring him in, and now that gives you
06:00a four, four guys that I think for a lot of teams, or maybe not a lot, but many teams
06:08would be looked at as starters, not necessarily like Charlie Heck is a swing tackle, straight
06:15up looked up as that.
06:17I think these are four guys in Fisher, Howard, Robinson, and Brown that could be looked at
06:23as guys that would be starter caliber, like more than just swing tackles.
06:29And with that, Clint, it just makes me have to wonder, well, you don't have four of those
06:33guys, does this mean, is this signaling to us that is not viewed as a tackle, but viewed
06:43as a guard?
06:44And that's the part, for me, that I look at this, and you looked at this Trent Brown move,
06:51and maybe it's just depth, and maybe he may, maybe it'll be like Marcus Cannon, who they
06:55brought in and had some history with, but didn't ultimately remain with the team long
07:03term.
07:04Who knows?
07:05But that just sent me to the thought of, was this a signal to us and everybody that Titus
07:11Howard is in the fold as a guard?
07:15Could be, but I hope not.
07:16Could be, but I hope not.
07:17I hope this is a play of, we're going to have plenty of tackles, we're going to keep foot
07:20on the shelf, we're going to make sure we've got tackles in our building that we can rely
07:24on and we don't have to go out there mid-season and move a guard that can't even play guard
07:27on this team to potentially tackle, or go out and hunt down Austin Dekulis somewhere
07:32else and bring him back and have him start at tackle again.
07:36I hope this is a concerted effort to build that tackle depth, and we just haven't seen
07:40them address the interior offensive line the way that we hoped to.
07:44There's still some time left, there's still some players out there that could potentially
07:48fill those voids, assuming they're healthy.
07:51They could still make a late push here in free agency, and the draft, and really put
08:00some pieces together on the inside to go with all these tackles.
08:03I hope the plan isn't to move Titus down, I think he's a tackle, I think the Texans
08:08are better with Titus Howard at tackle as one of the starting tackles, but we'll see
08:13what happens.
08:14But any way you slice it, the Texans have made a lot of moves, again, not the path that
08:18I would have taken.
08:21But if we just look at the moves the Texans have made, we're talking better O-line depth
08:26across the board, we're talking about a more physical mentality in the O-line room, and
08:32I think there's a clearer identity of what they want to be in the run game as well with
08:37this most recent signing of Trent Brown.
08:40Again, any of these signs could end up being guys that don't have anything left in the
08:44tank and we're just trying to make a push for one last contract.
08:47I hope not, I hope they do, but that's what I'm pulling from it.
08:52I can't believe Cam Robinson fits in that.
08:54Well, you're right, if this is a guy that can go out there and get $12-14 million, this
08:58guy's still got Trent on the tires, he can still play.
09:03At some point in time, you hope they're pretty confident in a couple of these tackles that
09:08they're going to be here and they're going to play at a high level, they're not too old,
09:10they're not out of shape, their best years aren't necessarily behind them, they've still
09:14got something they can prove moving forward.
09:17But that's where I'm at, I think the depth is significantly better.