Houston needs to draft a Texan

Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel is chased out of the pocket by Duke Blue Devils defensive end Dezmond Johnson during the second quarter of play in the Chick-fil-A Bowl at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta on Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2013.

By By: Stephen Bourbon

Editor’s note: This column is written as part of a point-counterpoint. The other column, arguing Manziel should not be drafted first overall can be found here.

Quarterbacks win in the NFL.

In the past 11 seasons, there’s only been one team to win the Super Bowl without a consensus franchise quarterback — the Baltimore Ravens in 2013. The Houston Texans had Super Bowl aspirations this past season before the team crumbled around disastrous quarterback play. They can’t afford to miss on the No. 1 pick in Thursday’s draft.

The guy to get the Texans back into contention is Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel.

The concerns around Manziel are more superficial than anything and overblown by people who didn’t approve of his celebrity tour after winning the Heisman in 2013. Critics say Manziel parties too much; he’s immature and not focused on football.

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Johnny Football took advantage of the limelight after winning the Heisman and did what any 20-year-old would do: hang out with celebrities and enjoy the fruits of success. Since fall practice started in 2013, however, there hasn’t been a peep off the field from Manziel, which shows he is able to focus on football and stay out of trouble off the field.

Critics say he’s not a passer, that his feet won’t be able to make magic in the NFL that they did in the SEC. Last season, teams would “mush rush” Manziel, meaning the defensive linemen holds their gaps to contain the quarterback and not let him create outside the pocket. All Johnny Football did was lead BCS Conference players in completion percentage from the pocket at 73.5 percent. That mark was a 4 percent improvement from his redshirt freshman year as well as an increase in yards per attempt from 8.3 to 9.7.

As for the criticisms of his height, Manziel has handled that in college as well. He had just 1.4 percent of his passes batted down at the line, which is 0.5 percent less than the FBS average.

New Texans head coach Bill O’Brien is an offensive-minded coach and is looking for a new face to start off his era as an NFL coach. O’Brien is a quarterback guru who trained Tom Brady in New England and is looking for a new pupil to train in the NFL. There won’t be much buzz around trotting out Ryan Fitzpatrick or T.J. Yates in Week 1. But for Johnny Football? Born and raised in Texas? Now that’s how you make your head coaching debut.

The only other feasible option would be to take the best available player in the draft, South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney. Combining Clowney with J.J. Watt would immediately make Houston one of the best pass rushing teams in the league. However, the fit with Clowney isn’t great. Clowney is a prototypical 4-3 defensive end, while the Texans utilize a 3-4 scheme. I believe Clowney will be a great player regardless, but taking his hand out of the dirt and forcing him to occasionally drop into the flat partially wastes Clowney’s once-in-a-generation talent.

But this is a quarterback-driven league and Houston has a Texas-sized hole under center.

Houston’s opening day starter Matt Schaub was 33rd of 37 NFL quarterbacks who qualified in QB rating last year. His replacement, Case Keenum, was 27th. Six of the top seven signal callers on the list were on playoff teams, and that’s no coincidence.

Houston needs a quarterback to compete in the AFC and there’s a Texan on the board for them to take.

Stephen is a junior in Media. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @steve_bourbon.