Article by bighoss34
Texans Defensive (New) Starters 2020
Give B’OB 6-8 weeks to ease in his rookies to lead roles. These are my mid-season and on projected starters on Defense and then Offense.
CB
2019 year-end CB starters: Bradley Roby, Gareon Conley, Hargreaves
Projected: Roby, Conley and Lonnie Johnson
Slot corner is not technically a starting position, but I think Hargreaves’ slot corner role is the most vulnerable. While the position may not always be on the field to start each game, we are playing with 5 Dbs in the majority of our snaps. Hargreaves was a mid-first round pick so he has talent, but Lonnie Johnson and John Reid will be pushing for that third CB role. I’ll give Johnson the nod to either cover the TE or big slot, or to play the outside and push Roby into the slot on sub packages.
Safety
2019 year-end Safety starters: Justin Reid, Tashaun Gipson
Projected: Justin Reid and Eric Murray
Gipson and O’Brien must have had a huge falling out over him playing and getting injured in week 16 against the Titans. We ate $4.25M of dead money to cut him and then pay Eric Murray what we did. Murray will be the other starting safety and should be able to play the high safety role, help out in nickel, and take a turn getting pushed off by Travis Kelce. Murray’s pay doesn’t look as bad on Overthecap.com as it was originally reported. I’m seeing under $5M of cap hit in 2020, and $6.5M in 2021. He can be cut for $1.5M of dead money in 2022, but until then he has an opportunity to solidify the spot next to star in the making Justin Reid.
ILB
2019 year-end ILB starters: Benardrick McKinney and Zach Cunningham
Projected: Zach Cunningham and Benardrick McKinney
See what I did there? No change, but Zach is the new lead dog.
OLB
2019 year-end OLB starters: Whitney Mercilus and Brennan Scarlett
Projected: Mercilus and Jon Greenard
O’Brien likes to ease in his rookies, but Greenard is exactly what the Dr ordered. He is a strong pass rusher, capable edge setter and even dropped into coverage for the Gators. I see him starting soon, and getting more reps than Scarlett garnered last season. Look for Jacob Martin to be strictly a pass rushing specialist for 2020.
D Line
2019 year-end D-Line starters: Whitney Mercilus, JJ Watt, DJ Reader, Angelo Blackson
Projected: JJ Watt, Brandon Dunn, Ross Blacklock
That’s right I have Mercilus starting last year in two positions. 2/3rds of the time he was in as 4-3 DE, and the rest of his snaps were at 3-4 OLB. Hopefully this year we’ll play more 3-4, and Merc will be given a few reps off to stay fresh. Watt starts as DE in both formations, but again hopefully he sits a few more reps per game to keep him healthy and effective. Blackson was nominally a starter in 2019, as he typically was in on the first series across from DJ Reader at 4-3 DT. I expect Ross Blacklock and Charles Omenihu to take the majority of those snaps this year as both 3-4 ends and at DT with Blackson filling a goal line run-stuffing role.
Texans Offensive (New) Starters 2020
QB
2019: Deshaun Watson
Projected: Watson
N/A
RB
2019: Carlos Hyde
Projected: David Johnson
David Johnson gives us a more dynamic option at RB1, and hopefully less predicable as an explosive pass catcher. Johnson looks to be in the best shape of his life, ready to swing from vines and rescue Jane.
TE
2019: Darren Fells
Projected: Fells
Both Fells and Akins garnered north of 60% of the snaps last season. I expect the team to run less two TE formations with Tytus Howard returning and more talent at WR. I expect Akins to equal or surpass Fells in snaps this season, but I expect Fells to be in on most first series.
WR
2019: Deandre Hopkins, Will Fuller
Projected: Will Fuller, Brandin Cooks, Randall Cobb
The slot corner may not start each game, but I think we’ll run a lot 3 and even 4 wr sets. Look out if our top 4 can stay healthy, and we’re in a much better spot if any one of our receivers misses a few games. A big season from Cooks will go a long way towards cleansing the bad taste from the Hopkins trade.
O-Line
2019: Laremy Tunsil, Max Scharping, Nick Martin, Zach Fulton, Tytus Howard
Projected: Ditto
This is the best news we’ve had for our projected O-Line starters in years.