The Jacksonville Jaguars will be taking on their first divisional opponents of the season, the Houston Texans, this Sunday at NRG Stadium. Just like the Jags, they will be fighting to avoid and 0-2 record after coming off a nail-biter against the New Orleans Saints that went down to the wire. That said, we reached out to Texans Wire managing editor Mark Lane to get a little intel on the enemy, and here are five burning questions he was kind enough to answer:
Jaguars Wire: Deshaun Watson will always be a player Jags fans feel was a guy that got away from them because the front office had the opportunity to snag him and 2017 and needed a quarterback. What are the expectations for him in 2019?
Texans Wire: The expectations for Watson are to continue to find ways to win games, move the offense and avoid getting sacked 62 times. Good luck with that. He took six sacks on opening day, tied for the most in franchise history. David Carr in 2002 and Tom Savage in 2017 are the only other Texans quarterbacks to be sacked six times in Week 1. Jags fans shouldn’t feel too bad, because he got away from a lot of teams in 2017.
JW: The Texans recently gave up a lot for offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil and receiver Kenny Stills. Do you think they will be worth the price in the end?
TW: Stills is kind of an insurance policy in case anything happens with either Will Fuller V or Keke Coutee’s availability. As was seen in Week 1 at New Orleans, Stills can be an adequate fill-in. He is ahead of most guys who get traded in the preseason or midseason due to the fact much of the terminology is the same as it was in Miami. I don’t know that Tunsil is worth two first-round picks. I think the Texans paid retail for Tunsil, but that is the price when you clearly didn’t have any organizational alignment between front office and coaching during free agency. Otherwise, maybe Houston does more than just sign Matt Kalil during the second wave of free agency.
JW: Even with Tunsil, is it still fair to say the offensive line is still an issue for the Texans? They seemed to struggle around him Week 1 against the Saints, though there is time to improve.
TW: Offensive line will continue to be an issue so long as OL coach Mike Devlin and coach Bill O’Brien think it’s a viable plan to roll out the five best guys and emphasize versatility. Yes, offensive linemen have to be versatile, and there’s always the story of guys switching sides or kicking inside or outside compared to where they were coming out of college. Houston seems to take it to the next level. However, in the coming years, there should be more stability because they locked up Nick Martin at center. First-rounder Tytus Howard will kick outside to tackle someday, and so will rookie right guard Max Scharping. A lot of the Texans’ offensive line troubles have been due to inconsistency with personnel.
JW: How do you feel about the loss of Jadeveon Clowney? While the Texans are still loaded with talent on defense, one would have to think it’s still a tough loss.
TW: I don’t know why Clowney had to be unreasonable with his expectations. Even Von Miller was tagged, and Terrell Suggs played two straight seasons under the tag. The game is centered around quarterbacks; everyone else is subject to being tagged because front offices have to determine what pieces they need around that quarterback.
The Texans messed it up by not having organizational harmony when it came to what to do with Clowney. By waiting until after July 15 to trade him, they made it to where anyone who traded for him would have to accept he could be there for just one season, because they couldn’t sign him to a long-term deal until season’s end, same as the Texans.
If Houston wanted to deal Clowney, they should have done it back in March. Schematically, he will be missed, but defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel has been operating all offseason without him, so he got a head start on a Clowney-less defense a long time ago. Now, it is OLB Whitney Mercilus’ time to shine in a contract year.
JW: What are your predictions for Week 2’s game against the Jags?
TW: I don’t like that Gardner Minshew II is starting on the road, nor that DE Yannick Ngakoue is missing his first career game. Houston is getting back Coutee, and Watson seems dominant. Texans 26, Jaguars 17
