Houston Texans coverage | Blessan or Stressan⁉️ | Host of “Second Guessan” | 53 Man Roster Tool: https://xitter.cf/t.co/NyC3botfVr
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Comparing the Marvin Harrison Jr. trade straight up to the George Pickens trade ignores a pretty significant difference in contractual value.
Dallas acquired Pickens with ONE year remaining on his rookie deal and no fifth year option available as a former second round pick.
Houston acquired MHJ with two years remaining PLUS a fifth year option for 2028.
Pickens had a stronger statistical resume at the time of his trade, but he also had three full NFL seasons compared to Harrison's two and a handful of games in 2026.
Production absolutely matters, but so does the amount of affordable team control you're acquiring. Both need to be considered when evaluating trade compensation.
Houston Stressans retweeted
hey it’s halftime. I wrote about CJ Stroud and the Texans passing game.
sports.yahoo.com/nfl/article…
Marvin Harrison Jr. would never.. as a Texan.
Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer on WR George Pickens: “He needs to understand that he impacts us in the running game as well. He’s got to do the same thing in the run game, picking up safeties and blocking corners, just like Javonte (Williams) does, picking up blitzes so he can catch balls.
“That’s part of the team-first mindset, and GP does understand that. When he’s going, they’re going to play soft inside. When he’s not going then the safeties get pretty good runs at our backs. And that’s got to improve.”
DeMeco Ryans on the Texans defensive line and their ability to stop the run:
“I think our guys up front, they don’t get enough credit. Our D-line, they’ve done a great job of stopping the run, and they continue to do a great job.”
Ryans added that the defense needs to improve against the pass:
“We’ve got to be able to make more plays on the football. We’ve had opportunities, multiple opportunities throughout the game.”
Trent Brown on the Texans defense on @thesetshow_:
“I think the defense is still the defense, bro. Sometimes teams have really just been able to take shots, and when teams get a lot of chunk plays, it makes things look worse than what it really is.”
On Houston’s pass rush:
“You get a lot of max protection. That front seven, the front four is a beast. I don’t think anybody really wants to see that on any given Sunday.”
Brown pointed to the difficulty of blocking Houston’s edge rushers one-on-one, along with Sheldon Rankins and Jadeveon Clowney, and believes the defense will hit its stride just as the offense has.
Tank Dell on the Texans’ increasingly crowded WR room with the additions of Marvin Harrison Jr. and others:
“We feed off each other’s energy. We feed off each other making plays. If I see Nico make a play, in a not selfish way, I want to go out there and make a play. I’m going to be happy for him.”
Dell emphasized embracing the competition rather than viewing it negatively:
“Don’t be selfish and don’t look at it as a bad thing. When there’s blessings in the neighborhood, then you’ll get blessed.”
Says the key is to keep working hard, be ready when your number is called and make the play.
Houston Stressans retweeted
a lil mesh traffic 3rd down teaser
CJ Stroud Week 6 Full-Game Analysis
QBSPC only.
Join: patreon.com/theqbschool
Suspect this might’ve been the case. The texas route for a TD by Travis Hunter was actually an option route.
Henry had outside leverage so he broke in.
Thread comparing Reed Blankenship and M.J. Stewart against Jacksonville, including film of their snaps, PFF grades, on/off defensive splits and my overall takeaways.
Starting with Reed, who played 33 snaps before exiting.
PFF grades:
-Overall: 30.4
-Coverage: 34.3
-Run defense: 45.6
-Tackling: 25.8
Reed had a rough game. There were some solid coverage reps, but also a few where he got beat, along with missed tackles. The playing surface certainly didn't help on some of these.
Here's a cutup of essentially all 33 snaps.
PFF grades aren’t always accurate or reflective of what actually happened on film, but I’m including them as an additional reference point.
Jacksonville's offensive efficiency before and after Reed exited:
Reed ON (33 plays) vs. Stewart ON (36):
• EPA/play: +0.02 vs. +0.28
• EPA/dropback: -0.03 vs. +0.51
• Passing success: 47.4% vs. 58.3%
• Rushing success: 64.3% vs. 33.3%
• Pressure rate: 35.3% vs. 25.0%
Jacksonville was considerably more efficient passing with Stewart on the field, while Houston defended the run better.
Obviously, these numbers don't isolate either player's performance, but they're interesting context.
Full comparison below.
I've defended Reed Blankenship quite a bit this season. I thought he played poorly in Week 1 but improved incrementally in the following weeks. Jacksonville was a step backward.
Where I largely disagree with the prevailing sentiment is the idea that Reed is playing so poorly that the Texans have had to change how they play defense to accommodate him, or that he's somehow responsible for the struggles of the entire secondary.
The Texans aren't traditionally a heavy man coverage team. They've gotten away from their heavy quarters usage in most games this year, but I think that's much more likely a product of opponent specific game plans than Reed's limitations.
If anything, if the concern is that Reed struggles in coverage, playing more quarters would generally help protect him. So the argument that they're moving away from quarters because of him doesn't make much sense to me.
Has Reed had communication issues? Sure. But outside of Week 1, I haven't seen many obvious busts on film that can definitively be attributed to him.
I feel like a lot of this narrative is based on deductive reasoning: Reed is the only new starter in the secondary, the secondary has had communication issues, therefore Reed must be responsible.
But that doesn't necessarily make it true, and I haven't seen the film consistently support that conclusion.
I've seen just about every member of the secondary have their own issues, whether it's communication, leverage, technique or simply getting beat. It hasn't been exclusive to Reed.
I've always liked M.J. Stewart and felt he's underrated, but I don't think the Jacksonville film suggests he's necessarily the drastic upgrade some expect. Both had good and bad reps, and the playing surface and M.J.'s lengthy layoff are worth considering.
I'm not arguing Reed has played well or that he should start over M.J. I just think a disproportionate amount of blame is being placed on him, particularly regarding communication and the idea that Houston has had to change its defensive approach to accommodate him, without much clear evidence on film to support those claims.