The Houston Texans are middle of the pack in the conference when it comes to their depth at quarterback.
According to Michael Colange at the Touchdown Wire, starter Deshaun Watson and backup A.J. McCarron comprise the seventh-best quarterback depth chart in the AFC.
If McCarron was the Bengals version of McCarron the Texans would be higher on this list, but he’s lost a lot of shine over the past few seasons. Watson needs offensive line help, but his does have a flaw where he runs into some sacks and holds on to the ball too long to make a great play rather than a good play. He’s still an absolute stud, and it’s worrisome the Texans didn’t try to find a quarterback with a similar skillset for seamless integration if Watson went down.
The good news is quarterbacks aren’t splitting time anywhere as often as running backs or receivers. Therefore, as long as Watson can stay in games for much of the season, who cares where the Texans rank in terms of quarterback depth chart rankings?
However, if McCarron does become a significant player under center for Houston, they will have to find other ways to win ballgames. 2017 was an absolute debacle when Watson went down in practice on Nov. 2 ahead of the club’s Nov. 5 match-up with the Indianapolis Colts. However, the team was missing defensive end J.J. Watt, outside linebacker Whitney Mercilus, tight end C.J. Fiedorowicz, and traded tackle Duane Brown. They were gutted, and it was difficult for coach Bill O’Brien to cobble together a 9-7 amid that failure.
As long as Watson is healthy, the quarterback situation should be fine. If he isn’t, the more leaders and impact players O’Brien has at his disposal, the easier it will be to hide McCarron.
