I think you may be going a little overboard to denigrate this guy. I think that most will agree that Houston may have reached a bit on this guy at Pick 26, but in my opinion he was a solid mid-Rd 2 selection going into the draft and Houston did not reach too much in taking him.

Given the way teams were reaching for OT's in this draft, I think it is easy to understand why the Texans' may have reached on Duane Brown. Still he fills a need and if their coaching staff likes him, then all anyone can do is wait and see how he pans out.

In my opinion the Texan's draft was greatly impacted by their trade last season for Matt Schaub. Giving away two Rd 2 picks cost them valuable depth. It is even a bit questionable whether or not they would not have been better off taking Brady Quinn with their Rd 1 pick and keeping those two Rd 2 picks. If the Texans had drafted Brady Quinn in Rd 1 of the 2007 draft and not traded for Matt Schaub, then they could have taken Tony Ugoh - OLT - Arkansas with their Rd 2 pick. With Brady Quinn and Tony Ugoh manning the QB and OLT positions, the Texans could have drafted Rashard Mendenhall at Pick 19 in Rd 1 of the 2008 draft instead of trading back with the Ravens. In Rd 2 the Texans could have taken Calais Campbell and put him opposite Mario Williams at the LDE spot, or at least slipped him inside to the DT spot.

No one can tell me that the Texans would not have been better off with Quinn, Ugoh, Mendenhall and Campbell instead of  Okoye, Schaub and Brown. But hey, the league is saying that the Jags overpaid for Derrick Harvey, so what are you going to do?

Even if the Texans would've drafted, Quinn (which they wouldn've and never even thought of......Texans were tired of developing a quarterback----> see David Carr) They still would not have taken Mendenhall (Denver does not take first round runningback......and neither do we) Again we passed on Bush and now we passed on Mendenhall, watch what Steve Slaton (who ran in a zone scheme offense) will do in this offense.

You also can't speak on players "we would've taken in we didn't do this" and then say "and you can't tell me these players are better than what the have now"

Again.....you don't know who the heck Houston would've taken with that second round pick. We actually had bigger needs over LT in that draft (look at our 3rd round pick......a project WR with upside, because at that time we had no #2 WR)

Or how about this.....at that time a #2 CB was a bigger need, if we blew that #2 pick on a CB we wouldn't have Fred Bennett right now (who we got in the fourth) and we'd be up sh*t creak without a paddle, because he's now our #1 corner and was arguably the best rookie CB last year.

Houston's depth also wasn't affected by the trade.......the traded two #2's, but picked up a QB. So we got a pretty **** good player for one of those 2nds, so that means the trade only really cost us one #2 and when your FO is constantly plucking mid round steals out of the draft the last couple of years....that #2 is easy to absorb.

Another thing, I don't think Brady Quinn is all that good and I really didn't like him in college.....infact before the Schaub trade went down my biggest nightmare was that Houston was going to draft him, the guy never won a big game in his entire college career and I just feared David Carr part 2.....I'm so glad he is not on this team. I'd rather take Amobi Okoye (who as a 20 year old put up a hellava season for a DT) who has the skill of a young Sapp, than another pretty boy QB with good measurables, but never was able to win the big game. So yeah, I could easily sit here and tell you I'd rather have Schaub (who we don't have to wait 3 years on), Okoye (who not even done growing yet, and isn't even begun to reach his potential), Brown (who when you look at his measureables is every bit the athlete Ugoh is, and Steve Slaton than the players you listed above.

You see this speculation goes both ways and we could be here all day.

Classic post of somebody who has no argument......oh well, if you don't want to read it just don't respond, because we all know you read the dam thing. LOL.

This makes me chuckle.

Look man, there are myriad examples that when it comes to assessing and evaluating future talent, you might not quite be up to speed for this particular forum. What in the world did you read (because I have a suspicion you have not watched either of these players actually play) about these two that makes you think this? Or is it because one was 'ranked' higher than the other on a few websites? I have been wrong before and there is a chance that I am wrong now, but at least I know why I make my argument.

I think that your talents might be better utilized over on the other sections where people just like to 'slam' one another and ridicule opinions.

Why don't you leave the actual football talk for those that want to talk football?

Go heavy early. You do not maintain perfection, you work for it everyday.

He's not in the ballpark of the most athletic.

He's not the 5th most athletic.

Man, there's denial, then there's this guy.

As far as Alex Gibbs genius goes, how did that work out for Atlanta's overall offense during his tenure?

And remember to factor in Vick out of the rushing stats, while you do it. 

I'll read your stuff Carr Bombed....

I look at it this way. I find it hard to believe that anyone that is not a scout or part of the scouting process or being a coach in the organazation is able to make an evaluation better than those guys. I don't know much about the kid, his measurables, athleticism etc...  What I do know is Texans QB's get sacked a lot. There RB's do not get huge holes on a regular basis. Their OL Coach brought the leg breaking  cut blocking scheme with him (I think cut blocking should be banned but if the league says it is legal than all is fair game.) To sum up, IMO all that means is the Texans need help at OL and I think that to be a pretty fair assesment over there in Houston. Now if a great OL coach that is known for picking out those players perfectly suited for his zone scheme and is also known for molding them into good if not great players in his scheme, who can argue with the pick? If he was targeted specificaly than in my eyes the pick is not a reach. It meshes a need for the Texans OL with a Quality Player that was Targeted by the team. The only way I can justify arguing against the pick is that maybe corner or RB may have yeilded more value but in the end I think they made the right pick considering what they needed and as Carr Bombed said, they wanted him. It's hard to argue with that draft strategey. there is not much better than getting who you really wanted at a position you know you want and need to upgrade at. We wanted and needed Harvey and got him. Need plus want = happy fans. OL is not an exciting pick but if he gives Shaub an extra .3-.5 in the pocket D's will get picked apart and AJ is go