For the real draft fan, fun is just beginning
And with the 22nd pick in the 2016 NFL draft, the Houston Texans take...
You know the answer by now. The first round is behind us, having occurred Thursday night in Chicago.
Now you’re settling in for Friday night’s second and third rounds.
By 11 a.m. Saturday, when choices for the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh rounds commence, you might be suffering from draft fatigue. Roger Goodell doesn’t even show up on stage to call out the names for those rounds and receive his obligatory hugs.
But if you’re a hardcore football fan interested in the Texans’ future, pay attention to those later rounds. They often are the tiebreakers in whether teams had good or bad drafts.
Of the 40 drafted by one team or another on the Texans’ roster this offseason, 20 were drafted in the first three rounds. That’s the same number as were drafted in rounds four through seven.
Among those the Texans took on the draft’s final days were three sixth rounders ( running back Alfred Blue, tight end Ryan Griffin and fullback Jay Prosch). They took offensive tackle Derek Newton and safety Andre Hal in the seventh round.
The Texans don’t have a seventh-round pick this season, having traded it to New England. But they have the 21st pick in the fourth round (119th overall), the 22nd (159th) and 29th (166th) picks in the fifth round and the 20th pick in the sixth round (195th).
Players chosen in those spots last year didn’t overwhelm the league as rookies. Offensive tackle Andrew Donnal (119th) played in five games for then-St. Louis; wide receiver J.J. Nelson (159th) played in three games for Arizona; Joe Cardona (166th) was a long snapper for New England; Fullback Malcolm Johnson (195th) played in nine games for Cleveland but didn’t have any carries.
Two of the most productive players historically chosen in any of those positions were New York Jets wide receiver Brandon Marshall (119th in 2006) and Pittsburgh wide receiver Antonio Brown (195th in 2010).
The Texans have had immediate success with fourth-rounders, although only linebacker wide receiver/kickoff returner Jerome Mathis (114th in 2005) and Xavier Adibi (118th in 2008) were within the range in which the Texans will choose when they reach that round Saturday. Others besides Mathis and Adibi chosen for allrookie teams were running back Domanick Williams (104th in 2003) and tight end Owen Daniels (98th in 2006).
Other at least somewhat productive players the Texans have chosen after the 110th picks in the fourth round include safety Glover Quinn (112th in 2009), tight end Garrett Graham (118th in 2010), wide receiver Keshawn Martin (121st in 2012) and defensive end Jared Crick (126th in 2012).
Fifth rounders include tight end James Casey (152nd in 2009), safety Shiloh Keo (144th in 2011), quarterback T.J. Yates (152nd in 2011), kicker Randy Bullock (161st in 2012) and wide receiver Keith Mumphery (17th in 2015).
A useful sixth rounder was linebacker Brice McCain (188th in 2009).
Unless you’re Nostradamus, Carnac the Magnificent or Nate Silver, it’s impossible to predict the Texans’ draft choices this season for rounds four, five and six. But based on the past — Daniels, Casey and Graham — it very well might be a tight end.
The Texans could use a tight end. Arkansas’ Hunter Henry, considered the best tight end prospect in the draft, won’t be available in those rounds. But the Texans might consider South Carolina’s Jerell Adams, Ohio State’s Nick Vannett, UCLA’s Thomas Duarte, Arkansas State’s Darion Griswold or UTSA’s David Morgan II.