With the Texans 53 man roster set for now, let's take a look at the changes from the team that took the field during the ultra-forgettable Week 1 of the 2009 season when those bully Jets beat up on our weakling Texans.
New Texans players in 2010 are shown in bold.
Wide receiver (5): Andre Johnson, Kevin Walter, Jacoby Jones, David Anderson, Dorin Dickerson
Gone from the 2009 opening day roster are Andre Davis (IR) and Glenn Martinez. The Texans took 6 WRs into Week 1 last year.
Offensive line (9): Duane Brown, Wade Smith, Chris Myers, Antoine Caldwell, Mike Brisiel, Eric Winston, Rashad Butler, Kasey Studdard, Shelley Smith
Gone from the 2009 opening day roster are Chester Pitts and Chris White. I'm guessing the Texans are not too happy about losing prospect Steve Maneri over the weekend, but as a development tackle there was no place for him on the 53. Keep your eye on him at New England.
Tight end (4): Owen Daniels, Joel Dreessen, James Casey, Garrett Graham
Gone from the 2009 opening day roster is Anthony Hill (Reserve-PUP). It's a strong group provided Daniels returns to form.
Quarterback (3): Matt Schaub, Dan Orlovsky, Matt Leinart.
Gone from the 2009 opening day roster is Rex Grossman. Again, it really doesn't matter who the backup QB is because if Schaub goes down, so do the Texans chances for a winning season.
Running back/Fullback (4): Arian Foster, Steve Slaton, Derrick Ward, Vonta Leach
Gone from the 2009 opening day roster are Chris Brown and Ryan Moats. If they can stay healthy, this is a much stronger and capable group of RBs than the Texans started with last season (not saying much, I know). Foster was on the practice squad to open the '09 season.
Defensive line (9): Antonio Smith, Shaun Cody, Amobi Okoye, Mario Williams, Connor Barwin, Earl Mitchell, Frank Okam, Tim Jamison, Jesse Nading
Gone from the 2009 opening day roster are Jeff Zgonina, Tim Bulman (IR) and DelJuan Robinson. Jamison and Nading started '09 on the practice squad.
Linebacker (6): Xavier Adibi, DeMeco Ryans, Zac Diles, Kevin Bentley, Darryl Sharpton, David Nixon
Gone from the 2009 opening day roster is Chaun Thompson. Brian Cushing is on the suspended list and does not count against the 53. Adibi starts in his place and Nixon, who was claimed off waivers after final cuts on Saturday, will fill in on special teams until Cushing returns.
Defensive back (10): Glover Quin, Kareem Jackson, Brice McCain, Antwaun Molden, Sherrick McManis, Jamar Wall, Bernard Pollard, Eugene Wilson, Dominique Barber, Troy Nolan
As I said before, the turnover in this group is striking. Gone from the 2009 opening day roster are Fred Bennett, Dunta Robinson, Jacques Reeves, Nick Ferguson and John Busing. Nolan spent the entire '09 season on IR. Pollard was a free agent pickup a few weeks into the '09 season.
Specialists (3): Matt Turk, Neil Rackers, Jonathan Weeks
Gone from the 2009 opening day roster is Kris Brown (IR). Weeks was a bit of a surprise keep since he's a one trick pony and it's a luxury to carry a dedicated long snapper.
Comments
might have been better if you showed the change from the starters from last year
I've covered that numerous times. Kareem Jackson, Arian Foster, Wade Smith and Rackers are the main changes at the starting positions. This was a different look by design - a look at the entire 53. Thanks for reading.
Thanks AJ, I think that with few exceptions any improvement in the Texans in 2010 is going to come from improvement in their second and third year players rather than from the newcomers.
If Duane Brown and Arian Foster continue to improve and if James Casey, Antoine Caldwell, Jacoby Jones, Xavier Adibi, Frank Okam and Brice McCain are better in 2010 then the Texans should be a stronger team.
I doubt that Jackson, in his rookie year, will be a significant upgrade over Dante Robinson and Wade Smith might be better than Kasey Studdard but he won't be better than Chester Pitts. Although I like the potential of Mitchell, Dickerson and Sharpton I think that it is unlikely that any of them will have a major impact as rookies although I am hoping that they can be contributors.
Derrick Ward may turn out to be the biggest upgrade if he returns to the form that he showed with the 2008 Giants. If he does and if he and Foster can stay healthy then the running game should be pretty good and that should really improve the offense.
I would include Troy Nolan as the 15th on your list as well, since he's never gotten onto the field for us.
That's a lot of turnover for us, but we still seriously lack depth on defense. David Nixon, Jesse Nading, Tim Jamison, Jamar Wall, and Antwaun Molden do not belong in the NFL. That doesn't even include the fact that Frank Okam is a marginal NFL talent who doesn't fit our scheme at all, and we have no idea if McManus belongs in the NFL, and he will likely be our dime corner.
Offensively I think we have great depth. The only problem that I see is that we only have 1 back-up OT.
Let's hope we can avoid injuries this year and then fill in depth next offseason.
Yeah, I guess I left him off since he was drafted last year and was in camp for a while....though technicaly yes he has never played a game.
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