Houston Texans Information
The city of Houston welcomed their new franchise to Reliant Stadium in 2002, and the Texans immediately showed they could play by upsetting the Dallas Cowboys in their first game as a team. Although the team finished with a 4-12 record, they showed people that they could stay close in big games, even if they had trouble putting those teams away. They weren’t afraid of the big name squads like the Cowboys, Colts, and Titans, and they weren’t going to back down and run. The Texans followed up their inaugural 2002 season by going 5-11 in 2003, including wins over the Dolphins and Jets and close games against numerous others.
Dom Capers has been the only coach in the team’s two year franchise, and the organization seems to approve of the way he’s running the team. Capers has experience working with expansion teams, and football fans will remember when he took over the Carolina Panthers in their inaugural 1995 season. He took that team to a division championship in only their second season, and remained on the staff for another two years following the success. Capers will be entering his third year in Houston, and he’s managed to build a potentially dangerous team.
The face of the franchise definitely belongs to quarterback David Carr, the Texans’ first ever pick in the draft. Carr played his college ball at Fresno State and posted some unbelievable numbers during his four years there. During his senior season, his name was tossed around in Heisman Trophy discussions, and he was one of the finalists invited to the ceremony, but didn’t win the award. Carr’s biggest problem in his first season (2002) wasn’t as much the speed of the game or the adjustment period as it was a lacking of a decent offensive line. The line allowed Carr to be sacked more than 70 times, taking its toll on Carr’s body and providing him with little time to make decisions, usually leading to bad decisions like interceptions or missing open receivers. In 2003, he only played in 12 games due to injury, but he was only sacked 15 times, a remarkable improvement from the year before. He also had the services of rookie running back Domanick Davis to help ease the rush of the defense. Davis played his college ball at LSU and rushed for over 1,000 yards last year while sharing carries with Stacey Mack. Mack is gone this year, so Davis is expected to come close to the 1,500 yard mark in 2004. Andre Johnson, Corey Bradford, and Jabar Gaffney make up one of the best young receiving corps in the league and will give Carr plenty of opportunities to throw the ball down the field.
Jamie Sharper led the team in 2003 with 166 tackles while Jay Foreman was the only other player with more than 100 tackles (136). Sharper also led the team with 4 sacks and 7 tackles for loss, and tied for the team lead with 3 forced fumbles. Marcus Coleman led the team with 7 interceptions, and Marlon McCree recorded the only interception return for a touchdown, taking the ball from his own 5 and running 95 yards to score. J.J. Moses, a return specialist, ran for more than 1,500 yards through kickoff and punt returns. He had a 70 yard kickoff return and a 40 yard punt return during the season, both team highs.
The Texans only had two picks on the first day of the 2004 draft, and they elected to go with two players who work on the defensive side of the ball. Dunta Robinson, a corner back from South Carolina, was taken with the 10th pick, and defensive end Jason Babin was taken out of Western Michigan with the 27th pick. Other notable picks for the Texans included Vontez Duff out of Notre Dame in the 6th round and Sloan Thomas out of the University of Texas in the 7th round.