NFL Draft: 3 late round QBs to target for Texans

Kelly Bryant, Missouri

Let’s have a little fun and choose a player who has some experience as a starting quarterback at Missouri, but also at Clemson, and at one time he has already the experience of being the backup quarterback of Deshaun Watson. That player is Kelly Bryant.

Bryant has an interesting story as he was once a backup to Deshaun Watson when he was at Clemson. Next Bryant was a starting quarterback at Clemson, was also 5-0 as the starter and lost the starter’s role to current starter and future first -round pick (2021) Trevor Lawrence.

Bryant played last season with Missouri, where he was the starter for all 10 games, and did what he could to prepare for a tough path to the NFL. In his lone season at Missouri, Bryant was 181-of-292 for 2,215 yards with 15 touchdown passes and six interceptions. He was sacked 21 times, but completed 62 percent of his passes.

The best collegiate season for Bryant could have been 2017 when he passed for 2,802 yards with Clemson, completing 65.8 percent of his passes. In that ’17 season, Bryant also threw for 13 touchdowns and eight interceptions.

At the NFL Combine in February, Bryant ran a 4.69 40-yard dash, and at 6’3, 229 pounds he has shown he’s built to take a hit as he was sacked the aforementioned 21 times last season. Bryant is also another player who could work on a few aspects of his game and become a better player.

For example, Lance Zierlein of NFL.com in the draft profile of Bryant said a couple of weaknesses had by the quarterback prospect were: “lacks patience to wait for downfield development,” and “placement and accuracy below NFL standard.”

The good thing about just two weaknesses are they are not only fixable, but those weaknesses don’t just fall on Bryant because every game you can see quarterbacks throughout the league have those same issues.

For Bryant, if the Texans were to select him, it would be for pure development and hopefully he’d not have to see the field in 2020 because with Deshaun Watson at the helm, he’s the top priority for the Texans.

Drafting a quarterback in the seventh round is al for development of a player who can help the Texans if they get into a bind if something were to happen to Watson in a game, plus giving A.J. McCarron a player to battle in training camp isn’t a bad thing, either.

Bryant could be a player who surprises once he lands on an NFL team, whether it happens by being a late-seventh round selection or even through being signed as an undrafted rookie free agent.