Houston Texans Bullpen Bulletin

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Now that being said with Wade Phillips coming in and bringing in his patented 3-4 read & react defense you can expect that 2nd round pick Brooks Reed to come in and make an imediate impact at strongside outside linebacker.

 Paul Kuharsky of ESPN’s AFC South Blog  talks mentions Reed and the other starting linebackers on the Houston Texans staff in his Scouts Inc. rates and reviews linebackers. Kuharsky goes on to get some of insight from Matt Williamson of Scouts Inc. on Texans Linebacker Brian Cushing.

Matt Williamson says of Cushing, “To me, Cushing is the prototypical strongside linebacker in a 4-3. He will be asked to play inside next to Ryans in the 3-4, but he is an inside/outside ‘tweener in this odd front. He isn’t the dynamic edge pass-rusher for the outside and he is cut a little high to take on blocks from the interior. You could certainly do worse than Cushing — especially if he regains his 2010 form — but he isn’t a natural fit. Cushing does have a very good feel for coverage for such a young linebacker. Expect Wade Phillips to move him around quite a bit.”

The Houston Texans have slowly built a nice linebacker core over the past few years. The return of Connor Barwin will provide a nice boost as well. This core seems to be one of the better linebacking cores in the AFC South. If  Mario Williams’ transition to outside linebacker is a success then without question this linebacking core should wreck havoc in the AFC south for years to come.

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