Should Houston Texans be worried about quarterback depth?

The Houston Texans have an emerging star at starting quarterback, but what about the depth for the rest of the quarterback roster? Should the Texans be worried?

When the Houston Texans selected Deshaun Watson during the 2017 NFL Draft, they knew they had a special player on their hands and a player who had the potential to eventually become a franchise quarterback for a team that has been searching for one in quite a while.

That takes us to the 2018 quarterback depth chart, with Watson back from a season-ending injury a year ago. Once he went down, so did the Texans, leaving the question: should the team be worried about the depth of the quarterback roster?

Following Watson on the depth chart are Brandon Weeden, Joe Webb and they just released Stephen Morris on Wednesday, leaving the Texans with Watson, Weeden and Webb as their most likely quarterback trio to start the 2018 season.

In having Watson, the Texans have possibly one of the top quarterbacks in all of the NFL. Even with this only being Watson’s second season, he showed glimpses of potential greatness in the seven games he played in his rookie season.

In ’17, Watson completed 61.8 percent of his passes for 1,699 yards with 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Even with missing over half the season due to injury, Watson’s 19 touchdown passes tied him for 18th in the NFL with Jay Cutler (Miami Dolphins), Eli Manning (New York Giants) and Jameis Winston (Tampa Bay Buccaneers).

The Texans starter also outproduced such names as Joe Flacco, Aaron Rodgers (who also played in seven games), Tyrod Taylor, Marcus Mariota and even Chicago Bears rookie quarterback Mitchell Trubisky, as the Bears signal caller had seven touchdowns and seven interceptions in 12 games.

Having a player with the talent and abilities of Watson as their starter, if he’s healthy, the Texans shouldn’t have to worry about who their second- and third-string quarterbacks are. But all teams need to be safe, and that leaves the Texans with Weeden and Webb, giving Houston two veterans at the position

In Weeden, the Texans have a player who at times has shown the poise and play to be a productive quarterback in the NFL when he is on his game. At other times, Weeden has struggled in his stops with the Cleveland Browns and the Dallas Cowboys, and he didn’t play a snap with the Tennessee Titans last season.

In his previous stop in Houston, Weeden played in two games during the 2015 season where he completed 61.9 percent of his passes for 305 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. In all, Weeden has played in 34 regular-season games, throwing for 31 touchdowns and 30 interceptions.

In his preseason debut for 2018, Weeden played well against the Kansas City Chiefs, going 9-of-11 for 97 yards and two touchdowns and no interceptions. Weeden averaged 8.8 yards per completion.

Webb is a veteran of the NFL as well, coming into the league in 2010 and playing for the Minnesota Vikings for four seasons, the Carolina Panthers for three seasons and last season he was a member of the Buffalo Bills.

In what has been 86 games in the NFL, Webb has 90 completions for a completion percentage of 56.6 percent. Webb has also thrown for 888 yards with three touchdowns and six interceptions.

The best-case scenario for the Texans is Watson doesn’t leave the field all season long in 2018 because that means he’s most importantly staying healthy. Secondly, even with their veteran experience, I believe the Texans still have issues at the position when it comes to their overall depth. Granted, at least Houston has players who have made starts in games, but if they were to have to depend on Weeden or Webb for a couple of games this year, then they could be in trouble.

Houston was unable to replace Watson after last season’s injury. Although they’ve gone the way of the veteran this year, the Texans could be a lot worse off, though eventually they could have better options at the position available in the free agent market as training camp continues.