Every-Thing Sports
Jermaine Every: 5 players who will be keys to the Texans' success in 2018
Jul 10, 2018, 7:49 am
Kevin Johnson will need to play better. Photo by John Grieshop/Getty Images
I know what you’re thinking. “Jermaine, isn’t it a bit early to look at what five Texan players could be key to the team’s success this season?” To you I would reply: It’s NEVER too early to look into ANYTHING regarding football! Football has long been a year round sport. From the time the Super Bowl champ is crowned, most teams it begins as soon as their regular season is over, teams begin strategizing on what they can do to improve their chances at winning the next season.
This offseason saw some changes at the helm of the franchise. Former (?) general manager Rick Smith took an indefinite leave of absence to care for his wife as she battles breast cancer. The team brought in Brian Gaine to run things and gave him a five-year contract. His contract also matches the extension given to head coach Bill O’Brien (O’Brien got a four-year extension since he he had a year left on his original five-year deal). This essentially joined them at the hip.
The duo got to work remaking and remodeling the roster through a myriad of minor moves. They didn’t make a huge splash in free agency, even though they had the cap space, and were prohibited from doing so in the draft thanks to being without a first or second round pick. What they did manage to do was to make wise free agency acquisitions and smart mid to late-round draft picks. It’s not easy working without your top two draft picks, but those moves were made to create the cap space they have, and to draft Deshaun Watson, the team’s first true franchise quarterback.
Sure, it’s easy to name Watson, Jadeveon Clowney, JJ Watt, DeAndre Hopkins, and Whitney Mercilus or Lamar Miller as the top five Texans as keys to success next season. But that’s not what I’m about. If you know me and have followed my work, I’m not the type to follow the herd. Without further ado, here’s my list (in no particular order):
Kevin Johnson, CB
With Kareem Jackson moving to safety, Johnson will be relied upon just as much, if not more so, than he has before. Sure the team signed Aaron Colvin to provide depth at the position, but Johnson needs to prove he’s worth the first round pick and fifth year option the team picked up.
D’Onta Foreman, RB
Foreman showed some flashes of talent as a rookie. On the very run he tore his Achilles, he flashed his speed and power that made him a third round pick. He was considered the future at running back by many until his injury. If Foreman can come back mid to late season and show any amount of potential, he could help carry the load so Miller won’t be as burdened.
Julie’n Davenport, OT
At 6’7 and 318 pounds, Davenport is a physically imposing guy. However, coming in to play left tackle from Bucknell in his second year, he’s going to be relied upon in a starting role protecting Watson’s blindside. Tough task for a second year guy charged with protecting the franchise QB.
Justin Reid, S
Reid isn’t listed as a starter on the Texans’ depth chart, but he’s as important as anybody to their success. Jackson being moved to safety isn’t a permanent fix. Mathieu may leave after this year for greener pastures. Reid was widely considered a first round talent they got at the top of the third round. That alone places him as a potential building block considering his potential.
Zach Cunningham, LB
I don’t care if Benardrick McKinney got a contract extension this offseason. Cunningham is the future. His sideline-to-sideline speed and coverage ability is what teams are looking for nowadays. McKinney isn’t the cover linebacker Cunningham is. When teams go three and four wide and the Texans play nickel or dime packages, Cunningham should be the linebacker on the field.
It’s way too early to consider this as a definitive list of five surefire guys to be key contributors to Texans’ success this season. But I’d be willing to bet that some of these guys are going to play a major key in the team’s success this season. Give me praise or kill me later, but I’m standing by this way too early look.
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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.”