Ranking the former Texans

John Granato: An in-depth look at the players that got away from the Texans

John Granato: An in-depth look at the players that got away from the Texans
Tramon Williams was a big loss for the Texans Packers.com

It’s not exactly like the Falcons trading Brett Favre to the Packers, but with Case Keenum heading to the NFC Championship game a lot of Texans fans have been wondering why the team ever let him go. The addition of Deshaun Watson will ease that pain even if Case goes on to win it all. Trust me, there have been more egregious personnel decisions made by the Texans organization. Let’s rank former Texans and how they’ve done since they left the team:

The Mount Rushmore of former Texans

Tramon Williams: Biggest mistake they have ever made. Everyone passed on him in the draft but the Texans were able to sign him to a free agent deal only to cut him before the season started. The Packers had their eye on him in college and signed him. He played in all but one game in eight years with the Packers, starting all but one in his last five years. He made the Pro Bowl and had three  playoff interceptions in their Super Bowl championship run in 2010.  He played 11 years in all, intercepting 32 passes, defending 140 and during his prime averaged 50-some tackles a year. He would have been the Texans best corner ever.

AJ Bouye: He has the talent to take that title from Tramon Williams. He’s only been gone a year but boy do they miss him. He was an A.P. second teamer despite the fact that he plays opposite Jalen Ramsey. Normally the “other” corner gets the brunt of the action but picking on Bouye is a mistake too. Pro Football Focus gave him a grade of 89.1, which is top ten in the NFL, making this the best corner duo in the league. With the Texans getting older and slower at the position, not giving him the franchise tag last year will haunt the Texans twice a season for years to come.

Glover Quin: This one was a killer. Not only did they lose a guy who would have been their best safety ever for less than $5 million a year, they gave Ed Reed a three-year $15 million deal that lasted seven games. He ended up collecting $5.5 million of it but the damage of that decision is being felt to this day. The Lions extended Quin last offseason, solidifying their secondary for two more years while Texans safeties have come and gone on a never ending roller coaster ride of mediocrity.

Brandon Brooks: Yes Brandon Brooks. Granted, he’s no Xavier Su’a filo. He’s actually a good guard, one that the Texans let go. He’s in a better place now - the NFC Championship game. If there’s one thing the Texans could use right now it’s a guard who can actually block. With the state the Texans offensive line is in now, letting him go is a top five worst move ever.

They may not be great but they help(ed) their teams win

Case Keenum: Case’s 0-8 run as a starter for the Texans in 2013 was not exactly stuff legends are made of. He’s overcome that start. He now has a winning record as a starter and is one win away from a Super Bowl appearance. It’s not easy overcoming all he has. When you’re not drafted, you’re not a blue blood. No matter what you do you always have that stigma yet sitting behind him on the Vikings bench is a No. 1 overall pick and another first rounder. By every standard Case was one of the best quarterbacks in the league this year but he will have to do it again next year to validate it. The Case contingent here is crowing and will get even louder should he go on to win the big game this year.

Owen Daniels: OD only played a couple more seasons after he left the Texans. He owes it all to Gary Kubiak. After playing for Kubes here he joined him in Baltimore then Denver where he helped the Broncos win the Super Bowl. He’s the best tight end in Texans history but there wasn’t much football left in that body so it wasn’t a tough call for the team.

Connor Barwin: Connor is still contributing nine years into his career. After four productive years here the Texans let him walk and he showed them they made a mistake with a pro bowl 14.5 sack season in 2014. He helped the Rams turn things around this year but he’s on the back end of a nice career.

Jason Babin: Hard to say if Babin or Barwin was more productive after he left the Texans. Babin had back-to-back Pro Bowl seasons in 2010 and ‘11 with 12.5 and 18 sacks, respectively. He had 51 ½ sacks over the next eight seasons he played, numbers the Texans could have certainly used.

Jacoby Jones: Jacoby was responsible for two of the biggest plays in Ravens postseason history. Unfortunately one of them was while he was a Texan. His fumbled punt early in the playoff game was something the Texans never recovered from. Then he caught what was later known as the Mile HIgh Miracle, a 70-yard TD with just 44 seconds left in the game to force overtime and send the Ravens toward their second Super Bowl title. Jacoby was named to the Pro Bowl and first team as a kick returner. You can see him these days at Rockets games every now and then.

Demeco Ryans: Arguably the Texans best ever middle linebacker Demeco still had something left in the tank when he moved on to Philadelphia. He had a 102-tackle season in 2013 but his achilles heel was his achilles heel and he limped out of the league two years later. While he was popular with the fans the team made the right call in letting him go after six years with the club. It’s the kind of tough decision that good teams make all the time but the Texans have struggled with - see Brian Cushing.

Brooks Reed: Has he been great? Nah. He’s been just OK as an edge rusher for the Falcons but he did help them get to the Super Bowl last year and back to the playoffs this year. With JD Clowney and Whitney Mercilus the Texans haven’t missed him. He’ll best be known as another second round failure for the Texans.

Ben Jones: Since he left Ben has started all 32 games for the Titans plus a couple playoff games this year. Drafting Nick Martin has made his exit easier to swallow but Martin has not been able to stay on the field while Jones has been extremely reliable in his career. Martin has to stay healthy or this will be another mistake by the team.

Brian Braman: One of the Texans best ever special teamers, he is still doing his thing in Philadelphia blocking a punt this week for the Eagles on their way to a playoff win over the Falcons. A team that’s been historically bad on special teams could still use a guy who takes pride in his work and that’s what Braman does every year.

Not missing you

Earl Mitchell: Since leaving Houston after the 2013 season Earl has amassed just 2 sacks and 66 tackles in the next four years. He’s always been a little undersized for an inside guy but he’s lasted this long and will probably be around a few more years.

Mario WIlliams: You may be wondering why I have Mario this low on the list. He finished his career with 97.5 sacks which should place him higher.  After signing with the Bills he did make two Pro Bowls and one All-Pro team but they paid him $100 million dollars for it. A No. 1 overall pick and hundreds of millions of dollars in earnings should have led to more winning for his teams. He did accumulate sacks but he never really affected winning and that’s what owners pay for.

DJ Swearinger: Another second round bust for the Texans. They had had enough after just two seasons of DJ. The most famous things he did here was have his dog bite JD Clowney and then have his truck tricked out and run off without paying for it. Both were too much for a tackle-missing safety that got burned time and again. He is on his third team in three years but he does have seven picks the past two seasons so there’s hope that someday Swagger will grow up.

Duane Brown: The team’s best ever lineman could not have left on worse terms. After sitting out most of this year in a contract dispute he went to Seattle where he looked like he hadn’t played all season. He just wasn’t the Pro Bowl tackle from years past. Maybe there’s something left in the tank but he wasn’t worth all the drama he created here. Even though the team is desperate for a tackle he scorched this bridge on the way out and will not be missed.

Ben Tate: After rushing for nearly 2000 yards in three years here Ben went on to Cleveland and declared himself the best running back on the team. Apparently no one agreed with him after he rushed for just 333 yards in eight games and he was shipped to Minnesota where he finished up his brief career in just six more games. Another second round miss for a team that rarely gets it right there.

David Carr: Never mind. I think you know how this ended.

So it’s not like the team has made a huge blunder that defines the organization. There are no Hall of Famers on this list but there may be another reason for that. They’ve made so many mistakes after the first round that they didn’t have anyone worth losing.

Take the 2008 draft. Just five years after the draft, Duane Brown was not only the only guy still on the Texans, he was the only guy in the league. He was really the only guy contributing three years after the draft. That’s terrible. That’s the Texans and that is what needs to change the most for this organization to reach another level.

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The Rockets are in it to win it this year. Composite Getty Image.

While the rolling Astros have a week of possible World Series preview matchups against the Phillies and Cubs, it’s the Rockets who made the biggest local sports headline with their acquisition of Kevin Durant. What a move! Of course there is risk involved in trading for a guy soon to turn 37 years old and who carries an injury history, but balancing risk vs. reward is a part of the game. This is a fabulous move for the Rockets. It’s understood that there are dissenters to this view. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, including people with the wrong opinion! Let’s dig in.

The Rockets had a wonderful season in winning 52 games before their disappointing first-round playoff loss to the Warriors, but like everyone else in the Western Conference, they were nowhere close to Oklahoma City’s caliber. While they finished second in the West, the Rockets only finished four games ahead of the play-in. That letting the stew simmer with further growth among their young players would yield true championship contention was no given for 2025-26 or beyond.

Kevin Durant is one of the 10 greatest offensive players the NBA has ever seen. Among his current contemporaries only Stephen Curry and Nikola Jokic make that list. For instance, Durant offensively has clearly been better than the late and legendary Kobe Bryant. To view it from a Houston perspective, Durant has been an indisputably greater offensive force than the amazing Hakeem Olajuwon. But this is not a nostalgia trip in which the Rockets are trading for a guy based on what he used to be. While Durant could hit the wall at any point, living in fear that it’s about to happen is no way to live because KD, approaching his 18th NBA season, is still an elite offensive player.

As to the durability concern, Durant played more games (62) this past season than did Fred VanVleet, Jabari Smith, and Tari Eason. The season before he played more games (75) than did VanVleet, Dillon Brooks, and Alperen Sengun. In each of the last two seasons Durant averaged more minutes per game (36.9) than any Rocket. That was stupid and/or desperate of the Suns, the Rockets will be smarter. Not that the workload eroded Durant’s production or efficiency. Over the two seasons he averaged almost 27 points per game while shooting 52 percent from the floor, 42 percent from behind the three-point line, and 85 percent from the free throw line. Awesomeness. The Rockets made the leap to being a very good team despite a frankly crummy half-court offense. The Rockets ranked 21st among the 30 NBA teams in three-point percentage, and dead last in free throw percentage. Amen Thompson has an array of skills and looks poised to be a unique star. Alas, Thompson has no credible jump shot. VanVleet is not a creator, Smith has limited handle. Adding Durant directly addresses the Rockets’ most glaring weakness.

The price the Rockets paid was in the big picture, minimal, unless you think Jalen Green is going to become a bonafide star. Green is still just 23 years old and spectacular athletically, but nothing he has done over four pro seasons suggests he’s on the cusp of greatness. In no season has Green even shot the league average from the floor or from three. His defense has never been as good as it should be given his athleticism. Compared to some other two-guards who made the NBA move one year removed from high school, four seasons into his career Green is waaaaaay behind where Shae Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Edwards, and Devin Booker were four seasons in, and now well behind his draft classmate Cade Cunningham. Dillon Brooks was a solid pro in two seasons here and shot a career-best from three in 2024-2025, but he’s being replaced by Kevin Durant! In terms of the draft pick capital sent to Phoenix, five second round picks are essentially meaningless. The Rockets have multiple extra first round picks in the coming years. As for the sole first-rounder dealt away, whichever player the Rockets would have taken 10th Wednesday night would have been rather unlikely to crack the playing rotation.

VanVleet signs extension

Re-signing Fred VanVleet to a two-year, 50 million dollar guarantee is sensible. In a vacuum, VanVleet was substantially overpaid at the over 40 mil he made per season the last two. He’s a middle-of-the-pack starting point guard. But his professionalism and headiness brought major value to the Rockets’ kiddie corps while their payroll was otherwise very low. Ideally, Reed Sheppard makes a leap to look like an NBA lead guard in his second season, after a pretty much zippo of a rookie campaign. Sheppard is supposed to be a lights-out shooter. For the Rockets to max out, they need two sharpshooters on the court to balance Thompson’s presence.

For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!

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