CODY STOOTS: PFF

Pro Football Focus: Texans OL has its moments; Colts tackle struggles

Cody Stoots
Dec 5, 2018, 7:00 am
Greg Mancz graded out well. Bob Levey/Getty Images)

Pro Football Focus grades each individual player's performance and assigns them a grade. All 32 teams use Pro Football Focus. 

Each week we will take a look at some of the key grades as well as some from the Texans upcoming opponent. They also do great fantasy analysis and draft coverage as well. Stats are for the previous game unless otherwise noted. You can join Pro Football Focus here. 

Greg Mancz - 80.0 offense grade

Mancz has been in and out of the lineup due to injuries to the offensive line. He was only in for a handful of snaps, 22, but was well above average in run blocking and pass blocking. He has been a nice player when given the opportunity. With the likelihood, the dings hang around on the offensive line Mancz could be a key player down the road. 

Zach Fulton - 86.8 pass blocking grade

His best of the season in this category. Fulton struggled against the Cleveland defense when run blocking but he crushed it when he had to pass block. This was especially important when he slid out to tackle for a few snaps when his fellow offensive linemen needed a break. Fulton has struggled a time or two but he has been consistent in at least one element in most games. 

Zach Cunningham - 92.6 defensive grade

His best of the season. He was a monster in this game. He deflected an early pass and then scored another one. Most of the success against him came late when the Texans defense was playing less aggressive and basic defense. He has been fantastic since his return from injury with two of his three highest grades. 

Benardrick McKinney - 39.4 defensive grade

His lowest of the season. I wonder how much of this happened late when Cleveland was dumping down pass after pass in an attempt to catch up. McKinney almost never grades out this poor. I am willing to write this off as an anomaly and product of Cleveland's late-game attack. 

Anthony Costanzo - 49.5 pass blocking grade

Uh oh. This fella is not going to like seeing the Texans on Sunday. The Colts offense finally sprung a leak and allowed multiple sacks and the left tackle allowed two of them. He allowed another six pressures as well. The Texans should be attacking him non-stop in an effort to keep the Colts offensive line in disarray. The team just had their worst pass blocking game since week three. The Texans didn't get hardly any pressure against the Browns. that likely won't be the case against the Colts.

As always, you can join Pro Football Focus here. 

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Slow to make big moves hasn't equaled a drop in potential for Texans

Texans are better despite slow free agency

The Texans are better today than when the season ended. It isn't a huge improvement, and there is room for far more improvement, but they're better.

Despite some people's frustration with the Texans not making moves they really haven't missed out on much, the draft is where they will truly improve, and people aren't remembering how good, or bad, they were last season.

Tyrann Mathieu is not $20 million better than Tashaun Gipson. I don't even believe Mathieu was the right type of safety for the Texans. He was a mismatch problem on bigger players, specifically tight ends where Gipson thrives. Mathieu was the third best safety on the team last season not playing as well as Kareem Jackson when he was at safety or the total body of Justin Reid who impressed in his rookie season. While the leadership aspect can't be denied, the Texans praised repeatedly the locker room personality Mathieu brought, the team doesn't lack for leaders.

Gipson has had more success in recent years statistically than Mathieu and plays a different style. You'll notice far less tackles and no sacks to Gipson's stat line. He will be asked to cover more than Mathieu was and his success in recent seasons shows he can do that well. He hasn't had to clean up a lot of messes in the Jaguars secondary, Jalen Ramsey and A.J. Bouye held their own, his experience playing deep will hopefully help handle the lack of top talent at cornerback for the Texans.

Speaking of cornerback, if that is where Kareem Jackson was going to play for the Texans in 2019 then there is no loss whatsoever in seeing him leave. He was not good as a corner last year after a really solid start to the year as a safety. Bradley Roby is more physically gifted and took a prove-it deal to try to hit the market with more buzz than this year. I would have preferred Jackson sticking around as a safety but alas the Texans didn't seem to see his value there.

Wholesale changes on the offensive line did almost nothing to improve it last season so I am not sure why some fans and media have desired that again. Yes, they shouldn't have been outbid on Roger Saffold (Titans) by a division rival who has invested greatly in their offensive line. No, Trent Brown (Raiders) and his bloated contract wasn't the answer at left tackle. Matt Paradis is coming off a broken leg at the center spot though he would have been an upgrade at center.

It is clear help on the line is coming via the draft, a deep one along the line might I add. With three picks in the top two rounds there will be opportunities to find players to push Nick Martin, Senio Kelemete, and Julién Davenport and it isn't out of the question. Seantrell Henderson despite his new contract is pushed by a rookie as well. This is a fine plan as only Nick Martin was a top round pick of any of the Texans current offensive linemen.

Also, this team won 11 games last season. Don't let a disappointing playoff performance skew how this team played. Deshaun Watson is going to improve and that is the most important thing about this team. He won't take as many hits as he did last season with draft investment and improvement of players on the roster. The rookie tight ends have a year of seasoning under their belt. D'Onta Foreman and Keke Coutee should be healthy and eventually Will Fuller will return. The defense returns or has replaced key figures.

Acting like this is a team that had to spend money just because they had cap space isn't a smart way to look at this team. Typically a team sucks when they have this much cap space, the Texans didn't fall into that category. Is there still room for improvement? No doubt. There's also room to find multiple bargains, be a destination for a trade post-draft, and pay Clowney. Relax, this is a long offseason. The Texans are better today than last week.

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