Although perhaps not always fulfilling, things are certainly always interesting over at Texansville.
In a stunning development, the Texans ignored conventional wisdom and threw today’s National Football League draft into chaos by signing North Carolina State defensive end Mario Williams instead of USC running back and Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush as the no. 1 pick in the draft. The ESPN.com report is here and the Houston Chronicle’s John McClain’s story is here.
Although Chronicle sports columnist Richard Justice is typically apoplectic (see also this blog post) about the Texans’ decision to select Williams over Bush, the decision is not all that surprising. For their entire existence, the Texans have come into each season with the same basic problems — the team could not protect its own passer and could not put pressure on the opposition’s passer.
Despite those constant problems, the Texans were able to muddle through their first three seasons with the appearance of overall improvement, but then backslid in Season Four last year as the chronic problems became too much for the undermanned franchise to overcome. Thus, when contract negotiations between the Texans and Bush’s agent stalled this past week, the decision to attempt to address the Texans pass rush problem with the 6′ 7″, 295 lbs. Williams — who is about as fast as Texas QB Vince Young — was really not unreasonable at all.

There will be much knashing of teeth over the Texans’ decision to pass on Bush, but I’m not buying into that type of over-reaction. Last fall when the Texans’ season was going awry, most folks simply concluded that the answer to the Texans’ troubles was simple — fire General Manager Charlie Casserly, head coach Dom Capers and Capers’ staff. However, as noted in subsequent posts here and here, the solution to the Texans’ problems are not that simple.
Consequently, addressing one of the team’s chronic problems with the first pick in the draft is not an unreasonable decision. I only wish that they had done so with the first pick in the draft before Year One that the club used on QB David Carr. Oh well, better late than never.
By the way, almost 30 years ago, the Houston Oilers used the first pick in the NFL draft to pick Texas running back Earl Campbell, who elevated the Oilers into several seasons of championship contention and went on to become an NFL Hall-of-Famer. However, there is a key difference between then and now.
Unlike the Texans, that Oilers team was already a pretty good one when it drafted Campbell. In fact, one of the primary reasons that the Oilers were already a good team was defensive tackle Curly Culp, who the Oilers had obtained in a trade a couple of seasons earlier. With Culp plugged into the middle of the Oilers’ defensive line, teams could not run consistently on the Oilers and, with Culp occupying the interior offensive lineman, LB Robert Brazile and DE Elvin Bethea were free to generate a devastating pass rush off the edge. That rock-solid defense is what made those Oilers teams of that era good. The addition of Campbell made them nearly great, but that would not have been the case without players such as Culp, Brazile and Bethea.
In contrast, the Texans are not a good enough team yet for Bush to elevate them into a great one. Frankly, I am cautiously optimistic that Texans owner Bob McNair did not allow public pressure to sway him from addressing a core need with the first pick in this draft. Remember that key fact over the next several months as you listen to the Richard Justices of the world rail against the Texans’ decision to pass on Bush.
While we’re on the subject of the NFL draft, don’t miss this NY Times op-ed by Jim McFarland, a former NFL player, who proposes that the draft be abolished in favor of allowing each NFL team to negotiate with any former college player that they want after each season.
Finally, for absolutely the funniest thing I’ve seen regarding the draft in some time, don’t miss this video entitled “New York Jets NFL Draft Blunders.”
Update: L.A.-based corporate law and football expert Professor Bainbridge believes that the Texans blew it by not picking Bush, but points out that the Saints may have blew it even more by selecting Bush. And local blogger Kevin Whited makes the case that the failure to pick Bush reflects an overall lack of competent Texans management.