Brian Hoyer named the starter over Ryan Mallett
By Randy Gurzi
It only took two preseason games for the Houston Texans to decide on who will be the starter between quarterbacks Ryan Mallett and Brian Hoyer as the team is reportedly going with the more experienced Hoyer. Head coach Bill O’Brien is expected to address the media sometime Monday and make the announcement official.
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While Mallett has been more of the fan favorite, it has seemed since the start of camp that the coaching staff wanted Hoyer to land the job. The former Michigan State quarterback has bounced around the league since leaving the New England Patriots where he, Mallett and O’Brien all were together there at one point.
After short stints with Pittsburgh and Arizona, Hoyer became the starter in Cleveland and was off to a 3-0 start in 2013 before an ACL tear ended his season. His return in 2014 saw the team struggle at points, but they still were in the playoff race up until Hoyer was benched.
It will be interesting to see if Hoyer is able to have more success in Houston than he did in Cleveland where his supporting cast was, to be honest, less than impressive.
Hoyer showed more poise, and seemed to have a better control of the huddle and offense in general than his challenger Mallett. The second episode of “Hard Knocks” really seemed to show the difference between how the two approached the game.
Mallett then struggled to move the ball downfield with the starting team when he had his turn Saturday against the Broncos. As for Hoyer, he needed only four passes to get the team a touchdown against San Francisco the week before.