Offseason moves, thought they were done with for the Houston Texans? You thought wrong! And why stop now? After all, plenty of analysts are crediting the Texans with having some of the league’s best moves this offseason.
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They came in fourth place of all teams regarding how good their offseason was. NFL.com expert Gil Brandt had this to say about the Texans moves:
"Bill O’Brien‘s squad — which won nine games with three starting quarterbacks in 2014 — has talent. Signing Hoyer, who I expect to beat out Ryan Mallett for the top job, will go a long way toward stabilizing the position and should help Houston reach double digits in wins this season. O’Brien coached Hoyer in New England and knows how to get the most out of him, especially with a promising rookie (Strong) joining rising youngster DeAndre Hopkins on the receiving corps. Re-signing Derek Newton, one of the more underrated right tackles in the NFL, was key, as Newton is a good run-blocker and pass protector."
Now, they’ve added a player with five years of NFL experience. According to AL.com and the RotoWorld‘s transaction report, Brandon Deaderick has signed with the team. So what do you need to know about this 6-foot-four, 300 pound tackle?
Statistics
Although Deaderick has several years under his belt with the league, he hasn’t compiled a large amount of stats for us to evaluate. With only 5.5 sacks and 47 career tackles, it’s obvious he’s not going to be a starter.
In fact, over the last three years, out of 40 games that he played in, he only started for eight of them. So statistically there’s not a whole lot to get familiar with.
Troublemaker?
Know that he doesn’t have the best track record, although it could be much worse. While in college, Deaderick was a victim in a robbery attempt. This is interesting to the Texans specifically because they are known for not having a whole lot of players get into much trouble at all, on either side of the coin.
He was back on the practice field shortly after getting shot in this robbery instance, so at least we can see that he is dedicated. Luckily, Deaderick was not the bad guy in this instance. He refused to comply with the assailant’s robbery requests, and the suspect fired the weapon, striking Deaderick in the arm.
Although this instance didn’t tag Deaderick as a troublemaker, he has seen trouble with being inconsistent with former teams.
He reportedly missed several team meetings one year for the Patriots, and it is assumed that that is why he was, at one point, suspended.
Experience
That’s a lot of negatives about this new player. Let’s shed some positive light on him. He does have experience, even if he didn’t play a whole lot. He was drafted into a winning organization and learned under one of the best coaching systems that exists in the modern day NFL, with Bill Belichick.
Deaderick did even get a chance to play in Super Bowl XLVI with the Patriots, one of the two that they lost to the New York Giants.
Possibly, this is why the Texans decided he was a good player to bring in. The experience is something that can help. They also brought in Vince Wilfork (former Deaderick teammate) of the New England Patriots, who has immense playoff and Super Bowl experience.
Overall, he hasn’t statistically proven himself to be anything other than a supporting role, but his veteran-like presence and his postseason and Super Bowl experience could be very valuable to the Texans down the stretch. It’s clear the next step is to contend in the playoffs, and Deaderick can help in that aspect.