Patrick Mahomes injury should make Houston Texans think about QB depth
Are the Houston Texans prepared at quarterback if Deshaun Watson were to be injured again?
After the Kansas City Chiefs saw their starting quarterback and reigning NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes injured on Thursday night, that scenario should make the Houston Texans ensure their second option at QB is the right choice.
Mahomes might not be injured as bad as once thought, but he’s still likely to miss a considerable amount of time with the knee injury suffered against the Denver Broncos. That injury should make not only the Chiefs or the Texans, but the entire NFL worried that they’ve made the correct decision at reserve quarterback if the starter would be injured.
Chris Bumbaca of the USA Today wrote the following about the Mahomes injury on Friday following his MRI:
"“Mahomes nearly had to be carted off during Thursday night’s game against the Denver Broncos with a right knee injury. He suffered a kneecap dislocation, an MRI confirmed Friday, according to multiple reports.”"
Though he is injured, the Chiefs are lucky their elite quarterback will be able to return later this season, meaning they will be using a reserve signal caller for the next few weeks. Now, Texans fans, remember when Watson was injured in ’17 as he tore his ACL near mid-season?
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When Watson — who was a rookie at the time — was injured for the season with the ACL tear, the Texans were 3-3 at the time. From that point on, the Texans finished 1-9, ending the year in fourth place in the AFC South and 4-12 overall.
Some of the reasoning for the losses came back to the quarterbacks on the roster as Tom Savage, T.J. Yates and Taylor Heinicke all played quarterback in place of Watson.
Before he was injured in ’17, Watson totaled 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions with 1,699 passing yards, though he was sacked 19 times. Listed below are the stats for the quarterbacks in place of Watson:
• SAVAGE: 125-233 for 1,412 yards with five touchdowns and six interceptions, completing 56.1 percent of his passes.
• YATES: 47-of-97 for 523 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions, completing 48.5 percent of his passes.
• HEINICKE: 1-of-1 for 10 yards and was sacked once in his lone appearance for the Texans.
Those type of performances can’t happen again if something were to happen to Watson, and in ’17, the Texans were not really prepared with their depth at quarterback. That said, right now the Texans have A.J. McCarron as the top reserve quarterback on the roster, and compared to past seasons, McCarron is a better choice than others who have sat in the backup role.
Even with that said, the Texans need to really think about developing another quarterback just in case something were to happen with Watson, as he has been prone to taking many hits and sacks thus far in his career.
Also with this situation, not just the Texans, but all NFL teams need to start thinking about how players might not play as long as they did in the past, and one to need to look no further than the sudden retirement of Andrew Luck this summer from the Indianapolis Colts. Luckily for the Colts, they were prepared at reserve quarterback with Jacoby Brissett.
With Watson though, in a recent article by Tyler Dunne of Bleacher Report, Watson was quoted saying he wants to play for quite sometime wen asked how long he will play in reference to the Luck situation:
"“Until I can’t,” he says. “Until I can’t walk. As long as the NFL wants me in it, and I can play and I’m healthy to go, that’s how long I’m going to play.”"
For this season, at least having McCarron on the roster is big for the Texans because although McCarron doesn’t have a lot of NFL experience, he does have experience in the playoffs, playing in ’14 and ’15 in the playoffs with the Cincinnati Bengals.
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Hopefully the Texans won’t need to even think about a backup plan at quarterback anytime soon, but it is a topic which should be on the minds of the Texans and the rest of the NFL, because one bad moment could ruin an entire season — as the Texans know from experience.