Weeden takes another swing at backup quarterback job
Baseball fell through, but 34-year-old has found an NFL niche
of the season, and we’re only one game into the Texans’ preseason, courtesy of Brandon Weeden:
“We’ve got that baseball connection, that old man connection,” he said Thursday night in Kansas City, having earlier capped the first two drives of his second chapter as a Texan with crisp, well-targeted touchdown passes to Jordan Akins, providing the impetus for a 17-10 victory over the Chiefs. As games of pitch and catch go, Weeden to Akins was impressive stuff. A little history …
The former, after being taken in the second round of the 2002 major league draft by the YanQuote kees, pitched five seasons in the minor leagues, never advancing above Class A. He made 65 starts and went 19-26 with an ERA of 5.02. He quit baseball and went to college, becoming enough of a star for Oklahoma State that, although he would soon turn 30, the Cleveland Browns made him a first-round draft pick in the 2012 NFL draft.
As for the latter, after being taken in the third round of the 2010 draft by the Texas Rangers, he spent four seasons bouncing around on the Rangers’ farm, also failing to escape Class A. In
321 games, Akins hit .218. Following a football do-over of his own at the University of Central Florida, the now 26-year-old rookie went to the Texans in the third round last spring.
But what did their football “pass” de deux in K.C. mean in the Texans’ grand scheme? If things go well come September, Akins’ grabs loom as the far more consequential given the Texans’ deficiencies at tight end. Although he doesn’t need to be an instant star, he must carry some water and consistently contribute to their greater good this fall.
Weeden, in turn, needs only to follow Bill O’Brien’s favorite mantra and “be a good teammate,” staying prepared while offering an extra set of eyeballs and a backup brain in the meeting room and on the sideline. If he’s asked to step on any field before it’s late in the fourth quarter and a knee needs to be taken, something has gone terribly wrong.
This is Deshaun Watson’s team. However, considering what Weeden has previously shown, at least as a Texan in 2015 when he last took a regular-season snap for them or anybody else, he merits some trust.
Experienced voice
“Weed is a good voice in the room,” quarterbacks coach Sean Ryan said. “He has experience. He’s very helpful with Deshaun. He’s gone out; he’s done what we asked him. He can throw the ball well, he has natural arm talent, and he knows the offense, which helps to kind of get plugged in and really function with the offense.”
In hindsight, the Texans might have been better off playing Weeden over Brock Osweiler as their starter in 2016, when Weeden, then the third quarterback behind Osweiler and Tom Savage, languished unused. In retrospect a year later, they couldn’t have been worse off with Weeden as opposed to Savage following Watson’s unfortunate midseason torn anterior cruciate ligament. But Weeden was long gone by then, having been cut by O’Brien and signed by Tennessee at the end of the preseason.
Fortunately, he didn’t hold a grudge.
“I’m really happy to be back in Houston, playing for (O’Brien),” Weeden said when OTAs began in May, having been re-signed in March. “I’ve enjoyed the city and the organization.”
On appearances, Watson and Weeden are an odd couple. In a less politically charged environment, they would probably be a non-couple. Colin Kaepernick is better suited to be Watson’s understudy because, as quarterbacks, they possess similar playing styles and skill sets. But Kaepernick, the foremost national anthem kneeler, is radioactive, which makes him a non-starter (or backup) in a Bob McNair business.
Has answered bell before
Watson and Weeden got to know each other during a fourmonth stretch in 2017, and they appear to get on well. Weeden, for his part, couldn’t be more easygoing, and he gets the big picture. He knows he’s playing with house money given his age — 34 — and the fact he last rifled a pass in a game that counted on Dec. 20, 2015.
That afternoon he was looking for DeAndre Hopkins at the Titans’ goal line, and the ball fell incomplete. But it hardly mattered because the Texans were leading 34-6 and heading to the playoffs (where Brian Hoyer, having reclaimed the job from Weeden, would horrifically unravel in a 30-0 beating by the Chiefs). The week before the Tennessee game, Weeden had replaced T.J. Yates, who had replaced the concussed Hoyer. Weeden then went on to defeat the Colts, becoming the first Texans quarterback to do it in Indianapolis.
While his body of work is limited, the Texans were never in the weeds when “Weed” was under center. In those two victories, he passed for 302 yards and three touchdowns without a pick. That translates into a 107.7 rating. He was learning O’Brien’s system from scratch, too, having fortuitously become available after the Cowboys released him with Tony Romo returning from an injury.
“I’ve been in a few systems in my four years, but I’ve never been in this one,” Weeden said at the time. “It’s completely different than everything I’ve ever known. I got it last night, and I laid there in bed like, ‘Oh, my God, what am I looking at?’ But it’s a good system. I know a lot of guys that have played in it, and when you’ve got good players and a good staff, that’s a good recipe.”
Now, three years later — one of them removed from the Texans’ mix — Weeden insists he’s “extremely comfortable in the core offense.” It showed against the Chiefs in how seamlessly he performed with the first- and second-team offensive lines.
“But it has been a year since I’ve been on the field,” he said. “The first few throws, you’ve got some juice, and you feel like you need to settle down a little bit. As far as efficiency and as far as the unit going up and down the field, the two drives were something to be excited about. The guys around me made a bunch of plays. The offensive line played extremely well with the first unit on the first drive and the second unit on the second drive. That second unit came in, and I feel comfortable with those guys just as much.
“We preach operation as far as getting everybody lined up and being in good formations. I feel like we did a pretty good job of that. There are some things I need to clean up communications-wise, but everyone around me played really good, and that’s always fun when you’re a quarterback.”
Kinship with Akins
Akins? Weeden would love a full diet of him.
“He is a big target that can run,” Weeden said. “He is a good matchup on some of those safeties. He creates a lot of separation. He did that for me twice (against the Chiefs). The option route on the goal line was a really good route. He had 2 yards on the guy.
“On the crossing route, the second one, (it) was another really good route versus man coverage. He had a big game, kind of what we have been seeing in camp.”
Funny. Their shared field of dreams became a gridiron.