DROPPING CLUES!
How DeMeco may have tipped his hand on Houston Texans draft plans
Apr 11, 2023, 2:44 pm
DROPPING CLUES!
The NFL Draft keeps getting closer and for the Houston Texans, the buzz continues to build on what they will do with the No. 2 overall pick.
It is peak speculation season. Some reports say Houston is locked in to taking whichever of the two — Bryce Young or C.J. Stroud — fall to them at No. 2, others say the Texans could look at going defense with its top pick, and a few even have the team trading its selection all together.
Head coach DeMeco Ryans spoke with reporters on Tuesday as the Texans open up their offseason training program. He spoke about various topics, and he also might have just shown a peek at what Houston is planning to do with its top pick come April 27.
Ryans was asked about what he expects from veteran quarterback Case Keenum, who the Texans signed as a free agent this offseason. His response included focusing on how much of a professional the University of Houston product is, and Ryans also said how he is going to be a coach on the field.
“With Case and all of the experience he has, [we] just see him as a guy that can come in and help the younger guys that are in the room,” Ryans said.
Currently, the Texans have three quarterbacks on the roster: Keenum, last year’s starter in Davis Mills and E.J. Perry, who spent all of his 2022 rookie season on the practice squad for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
This is when the tinfoil hats come on, while Mills and Perry are both young, it is hard to believe the Texans brought in Keenum to only help guide them.
Ryans later talked about both Stroud and Young. He didn’t reveal anything about the two specifically other than Stroud visited the Texans last week and Young will visit soon.
He did give a peek behind the curtain on how Houston has approached meeting with players ahead of the draft. Ryans said every encounter is organic because each individual is different. The Texans are seeking to understand each player and learn about what motivates them, he added.
When it comes to selecting a quarterback to be the starter for a team, Ryans also gave his input on what qualities they should have. A quarterback, regardless of their age, needs to be worthy to be a starter, Ryans stated. That is all that matters in his eyes.
What makes a quarterback worthy? Being able to galvanize a locker room, the head coach has said in the past.
As for whoever the Texans take at No. 2, assuming they do not trade the pick, there will be, in theory, some type of pressure for that individual to produce at a high level. Especially if that player is a quarterback.
For Ryans though, that won’t be the case. At least not internally.
“I’m not putting pressure on a guy to come in and just because of where you are picked in the draft, it is unfair to say that a guy is the leader of an organization, and he hasn’t played one snap for our team,” Ryans said.
Before the tinfoil hats come off, the expectation to be a “leader of an organization” is most synonymous with one NFL position.
The NFL Draft can’t get here soon enough.
There's no denying that this year's World Series champs (LA Dodgers) have some serious firepower on their roster. And one of the ways they were able to assemble such a talented team involved players like Shohei Ohtani being willing to differ their money.
Just this week, there was some speculation that the Yankees could do something similar when restructuring Gerrit Cole's contract, that would allow them more flexibility in the present.
The Yankees ended up calling Cole's bluff about opting out, and no adjustment was made to the contract.
But this situation got us thinking, would the Astros consider a tactic like this to maximize the roster? At this point, it doesn't seem all that likely. Just last year, the team handed out a $95 million contract to Josh Hader, without any differed money.
The other factor that also has to come into play is the tax threshold. The organization would have to give the okay to go over it again in order to make a splash signing this offseason. Which unfortunately does not sound like the plan right now when listening to GM Dana Brown at the Winter Meetings.
Astros pitcher hires a new agent
Now that MLB free agency is in full swing, most of the attention moving forward will be focused on players like Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso, and Juan Soto.
But for Astros fans, there might be someone else to keep an eye on this offseason and next. Starting pitcher Hunter Brown quietly hired super agent Scott Boras recently.
With Brown still another season away from his first year of arbitration, he should be with the Astros for the foreseeable future.
However, the hiring of Boras does raise some interesting questions. Why make the move now? Certainly, Brown could use some more cash, as he's set to make less than a million in 2025.
Perhaps Brown wants to land some HEB commercials to fatten his wallet. And if Bregman does leave the team in free agency, a spot will open up for another player, in theory. And three of the players in the HEB ads are represented by Boras (Jose Altuve, Lance McCullers Jr. and Bregman).
Jeremy Pena has been stacking cash from Taquerias Arandas for several years now, maybe Brown would like an opportunity to do an endorsement similar to that.
I say all this half kidding, but Brown does look like the future ace of this staff, and I'm sure there are plenty of advertisers that would have interest in Hunter.
There is another element that could have initiated the hiring of Boras. Would Brown be willing to sign an extension early with the Astros similar to the deal the team made with Cristian Javier?
Their situations are actually pretty comparable, except Javier was one year further into his career (3 years of MLB service time) and eligible for arbitration before agreeing to the extension.
If Brown was heading into arbitration this offseason, it wouldn't be surprising at all for the Astros to be considering a long-term deal with him that buys up all his arbitration years. The 'Stros love these types of contract extensions. We've seen them do it with Bregman, the aforementioned Javier, and others.
One of the main differences though between Brown and Javier is their rookie year numbers. Brown only pitched 20.1 innings in his first season (2022). While Javier pitched 54.1 innings his rookie year. However, his rookie season was in 2020, so Javier completed a full year of service time despite the shortened season. Whereas Brown didn't get called up until September 2022.
Another difference is performance. Javier never posted an ERA over 3.55 in his first three seasons. As opposed to Brown, who had a disastrous year in 2023. He made 29 starts, recording an ERA over 5.
It wasn't until May of 2024 that Brown started using his two-seam fastball with great success and becoming one of the most dominant pitchers in the American League.
The Astros had a bigger sample size to judge Javier. However, if Brown has another quality season in 2025, Houston and Brown should definitely be having conversations about an extension. Especially with Framber Valdez being in the final year of his contract in 2025. Hunter could be the unquestioned ace one year from now.
Still, though, there are some concerns with handing out these early extensions. For example, if the Astros had it to do over again, would they still extend Javier?
After receiving his extension before the 2023 season, he went on to post the highest ERA of his career (4.56), and then blew out his elbow in May 2024.
And if we're going by Luis Garcia's recovery timeline from Tommy John surgery, we may not see Javier pitch at all in 2025.
So even with a sample size of three terrific seasons, the Javier extension looks like a miss with the benefit of hindsight. It will be interesting to see if that deal impacts Dana Brown's decision-making going forward.
Especially since Javier was Dana's first big contract extension as the Astros GM.
Be sure to watch the video as we discuss how the Astros can get the most out of their roster, the pros and cons of signing Hunter Brown early, and much more!
*Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcasts. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and Charlie Pallilo discuss varied Astros topics. The post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon. Find all via The SportsMap HOU YouTube channel or listen to episodes in their entirety at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
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