OFF THE TOP OF MY BALD HEAD
Barry Warner: One last look at the 2018 NFL Draft
May 1, 2018, 6:00 am
Justin Reid was a terrific pick for the Texans. Michael Hickey/Getty Images
The first draft of Texan GM Brian Gaine was done without first-or second round picks. Many teams had Stanford safety Justin Reid as a late first selection. With the first of his three third round picks, Gaine wasted no time in getting a starter. Reid has also played corner for coach David Shaw. With his impressive length and fluid hips, Reid will start when the season opener. Defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel has the Honey Badger and the second highest rated safety in the draft.
Like baseball, you must be strong up the middle. Past safeties were poor in coverage, with some taking the worst angle, constantly giving up both yards and touchdowns.
“The more you watch Justin Reid,” Stanford head coach David Shaw said, “you put him in the category with the top guys in this draft at his position. You see speed, you see athleticism, you see versatility, you see tackling in space, you see good coverage.
“What’s so good is this guy is a tireless worker. He loves the game of football. This guy’s going to wear out the (defensive backs) coach because he’s going to watch film on his own.”
As they announced the next pick, the Texans took Martinas Rankin from Mississippi State. He is a guard or center, not the desperately needed left tackle. The move gives them depth at guard for the next few seasons. This season he’ll be a backup right tackle, behind free agent Seantrel Henderson, who has been suspended a few times for smoking weed.
I would have taken Ian Thomas, a tight end from Indiana with the next pick, instead of Jordan Atkins from UCF. The former minor league baseball player excels after the catch, but is only an average blocker and will replace Stephen Anderson
The Texans got a steal in round four with Texas Tech speedster Keke Coutee, a slot receiver and return specialist.
Say goodbye to Braxton Miller from Ohio State, a failed experiment drafted three years ago. Unless he studied both tape and the playbook and learns pass routes he will get waived.
Sixth round pick Duke Ejiofor, defensive end from Wake Forest, would have gone higher. But he is recovering from labrum surgery and should be ready for camp. He’s a local kid, from Alief High School and will probably be a practice squad candidate.
With the second sixth round pick they drafted another Mississippi State player, tight end Mark Thomas. At 6-5, 250 he played outside receiver, but will need to put on weight as a blocker and move inside. Here is the report from one NFL GM texted to me after the pick: ‘Monster size, but can he become a legit blocker? Has very limited football IQ. Talented but would only bring in as a free agent.”
I really thought this was a dumb, wasted pick, when a kid from Wagner College, Greg Senatt was still there. He’s 6-8, 290 and only played two seasons after quitting the basketball team.
The last sixth round selection, Peter Kalanbi, is another Stanford product. The edge rusher is 6-3, 252 and has underperformed in college.
The seventh-round pick, Jermaine Kelly, a defensive bank from San Jose State, was the best player on a terrible team.
The Texans did sign three street free agents as potential left tackles.
Jaryd-Jones Smith, a 6-6, 320-pounder from Pitt, Anthony Coyle, 6-6-305 from Fordham and Karl Malone Jr from LSU, an underclassman. For those of you from the millennium generation, look up his dad Karl Malone, which will be most interesting.
Jets get their man
“Sucking for Sam” paid off for Jets fans, hoping USC quarterback Sam Darnold ends the fifty years of franchise history. Since the legendary Joe Namath led them to the Super Bowl upset over Don Shula’s Colts, the Jets have never had a top tier quarterback.
I had Darnold graded as the top QB, followed by Josh Rosen, Baker Mayfield, Josh Allen and the kid I think will be a star, Lamar Jackson.
Vince blows it
Former UT star Vince Young, a bust as a pro, announced the Titans first round pick. Instead of pronouncing the name Harold Landry, linebacker from Boston College VY called him Honor.
That must make all of his professors at Texas feel so proud.
Bad look
Perhaps the biggest moment on Thursday night was watching the Steelers’ Ryan Shazier walking across the stage with his fiancée to announce Pittsburgh’s first pick. Upon reflecting a few days later on the emotional scene, the cynic in me could not help but shake my head.
It’s mindboggling that just five months after Shazier hurt his spine making a routine tackle the NFL is using his horrific injury to sell the unifying power of football. Take into consideration how long the NFL and the Steelers refused to address whether he’d be able to walk again.
Many parents in our nation are at crossroads when it comes to allowing their sons to play football. Ryan Shazier is the strongest argument against football, and the NFL used him to sell the future of the sport. I don’t give a damn about the rule change on a rule on hitting with the crown of the helmet in the wake of the former Ohio State star’s injury. the linebacker went to make a normal tackle, and he left on a stretcher. There will be more injuries like Shazier’s.
Someone picked over the weekend will have their career cut short by head or neck or spinal injuries.
That in itself is one of the major hurdles the once pristine NFL must deal with.
By the numbers
In an effort to suck in gamblers, Las Vegas wasted no time in publishing their first bet on number of wins each franchise would have in 2018.
The wise guys had the Texans winning 9.
Put me down for the under.
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Through 20 games, the Houston Astros have managed just six wins and are in last place in the AL West.
Their pitching staff trails only Colorado with a 5.24 ERA and big-money new closer Josh Hader has given up the same number of earned runs in 10 games as he did in 61 last year.
Despite this, these veteran Astros, who have reached the AL Championship Series seven consecutive times, have no doubt they’ll turn things around.
“If there’s a team that can do it, it’s this team,” shortstop Jeremy Peña said.
First-year manager Joe Espada, who was hired in January to replace the retired Dusty Baker, discussed his team’s early struggles.
“It’s not ideal,” he said. “It’s not what we expected, to come out of the shoot playing this type of baseball. But you know what, this is where we’re at and we’ve got to pick it up and play better. That’s just the bottom line.”
Many of Houston’s problems have stemmed from a poor performance by a rotation that has been decimated by injuries. Ace Justin Verlander and fellow starter José Urquidy haven’t pitched this season because of injuries and lefty Framber Valdez made just two starts before landing on the injured list with a sore elbow.
Ronel Blanco, who threw a no-hitter in his season debut April 1, has pitched well and is 2-0 with a 0.86 ERA in three starts this season. Cristian Javier is also off to a good start, going 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA in four starts, but the team has won just two games not started by those two pitchers.
However, Espada wouldn’t blame the rotation for Houston’s current position.
“It’s been a little bit of a roller coaster how we've played overall,” he said. “One day we get good starting pitching, some days we don’t. The middle relief has been better and sometimes it hasn’t been. So, we’ve just got to put it all together and then play more as a team. And once we start doing that, we’ll be in good shape.”
The good news for the Astros is that Verlander will make his season debut Friday night when they open a series at Washington and Valdez should return soon after him.
“Framber and Justin have been a great part of our success in the last few years,” second baseman Jose Altuve said. “So, it’s always good to have those two guys back helping the team. We trust them and I think it’s going to be good.”
Hader signed a five-year, $95 million contract this offseason to give the Astros a shutdown 7-8-9 combination at the back end of their bullpen with Bryan Abreu and Ryan Pressly. But the five-time All-Star is off to a bumpy start.
He allowed four runs in the ninth inning of a 6-1 loss to the Braves on Monday night and has yielded eight earned runs this season after giving up the same number in 56 1/3 innings for San Diego last year.
He was much better Wednesday when he struck out the side in the ninth before the Astros fell to Atlanta in 10 innings for their third straight loss.
Houston’s offense, led by Altuve, Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker, ranks third in the majors with a .268 batting average and is tied for third with 24 homers this season. But the Astros have struggled with runners in scoring position and often failed to get a big hit in close games.
While many of Houston’s hitters have thrived this season, one notable exception is first baseman José Abreu. The 37-year-old, who is in the second year of a three-year, $58.5 million contract, is hitting 0.78 with just one extra-base hit in 16 games, raising questions about why he remains in the lineup every day.
To make matters worse, his error on a routine ground ball in the eighth inning Wednesday helped the Braves tie the game before they won in extra innings.
Espada brushed off criticism of Abreu and said he knows the 2020 AL MVP can break out of his early slump.
“Because (of) history,” Espada said. “The back of his baseball card. He can do it.”
Though things haven’t gone well for the Astros so far, everyone insists there’s no panic in this team which won its second World Series in 2022.
Altuve added that he doesn’t have to say anything to his teammates during this tough time.
“I think they’ve played enough baseball to know how to control themselves and how to come back to the plan we have, which is winning games,” he said.
The clubhouse was quiet and somber Wednesday after the Astros suffered their third series sweep of the season and second at home. While not panicking about the slow start, this team, which has won at least 90 games in each of the last three seasons, is certainly not happy with its record.
“We need to do everything better,” third baseman Alex Bregman said. “I feel like we’re in a lot of games, but we just haven’t found a way to win them. And good teams find a way to win games. So we need to find a way to win games.”