More wins preferable to better draft position
HOUSTON — There’s no substitute for winning.
The Texans proved that Sunday after their 22-13 victory over the Tennessee Titans.
Listening to the players and coaches celebrate in the visiting locker room at Nissan Stadium showed they want to get as far away as possible from the first overall pick in the 2022 draft.
“You always want to win,” coach David Culley said Monday. “That’s all we’re thinking about.
“It’s (about) winning in this league. That’s our job. That’s what we play for.”
In their upset in Nashville, the Texans forced five turnovers for a second consecutive game and ended their eight-game losing streak and Tennessee’s six-game winning streak.
The Texans’ first victory since the opening game against Jacksonville left them as one of three 2-8 teams along with the Jets and Jaguars. They’re 1½ games behind the winless Lions.
The Texans have games against the Jets and Jaguars. With the Jets coming to NRG Stadium on Sunday, the Texans have another winnable game that could put more distance between them and the right to select any player in the country on April 28, the first day of the draft.
The Texans are focused on the Jets. Not because they’re a team with a threegame
losing streak but because the Jets are the next game. The Texans are determined to be 3-8.
“When we came off the bye week, the only opponent we were concerned about was Tennessee,” Culley said. “The next game is the most important one. (Now) it’s on to the Jets. We’ve got seven more to go, and the only one that matters is the Jets.”
It’s interesting to note quarterback Tyrod Taylor, who ran for two touchdowns against the Titans, will be playing at NRG Stadium for the first time since engineering that victory over the Jaguars.
Taylor suffered a hamstring injury in the first
road game at Cleveland and was placed on injured reserve. He didn’t return until the loss at Miami. With the Tennessee game out of the way, the Texans play five of their last seven at home, including the next three against the Jets, Colts and Seahawks.
With Taylor engineering victories over Jacksonville and Tennessee, the Texans are 2-1 in the AFC South and 0-7 against everyone else.
As Taylor pointed out, “When you win, team morale is up. I think it’s an opportunity for us to build (on).”
Taylor has to throw the ball better than the last two games. He also must keep making clutch plays with
his legs and hope the defense continues to get takeaways at a record-breaking pace. It’s the first time in team history the Texans have recorded five takeaways in back-to-back games.
“It’s a 1-0 mindset,” Taylor said. “As a player, you’ve got to put it (the last game) behind you and continue to keep pressing forward.
“The routine stays the same. We continue to find ways to get better, challenging each person in the locker room every day to bring the best attitude and their best game and see where that takes us.”
The Texans would like for it to take them to a third
victory that might lead to more.
When the Texans began their first season under Culley, fans got their hopes up with a decisive victory over the Jaguars and new coach Urban Meyer. Then reality set in, but people are left to wonder if they could have pulled out another couple of victories if Taylor had stayed healthy.
Weighing winning vs. a high draft choice is not debatable to the Texans. If they defeat the Jets and sweep the Jaguars, they’ll finish 4-13. If they pull another upset — against the struggling Seahawks, for instance — it’ll be a remarkable turnaround and a credit to Culley, his coaches and veteran players who would have helped the team rally from the 1-8 abyss.
Because there’s no can’tmiss quarterback prospect in the draft — at least not at this point in the scouting process — having the top pick isn’t as important as it was this year when quarterback Trevor Lawrence was projected as a generational talent and selected by Jacksonville.
The Texans will have so many needs on both sides of the ball, general manager Nick Caserio may not target one particular player who would have been available had the Texans inished 1-16.
The draft is expected to be rich in offensive tackles, defensive linemen and receivers.
It would be stunning if Caserio used his first No. 1 pick as a general manager on a receiver. That’s not a need position.
Meanwhile, Caserio and his scouting staff evaluate prospects while Culley and his coaching staff try to defeat the Jets and win back-to-back games for the first time since November of last season when they beat the Patriots and Lions in consecutive games.