Category: Texans

Texans WR Jalen Camp honors John Metchie III after touchdown

Jalen Camp of the Texans honors ill teammate John Metchie III

It was just another preseason touchdown until Jalen Camp decided to celebrate teammate John Metchie III.

The Houston Texans’ Camp caught a 4-yard pass from Jeff Driskel in the third quarter Saturday against the New Orleans Saints.

After picking up the 6 points, Camp struck a pose much the way Metchie would after a big play when he was at Alabama.

The thought behind the gesture is that Metchie was diagnosed with a form of leukemia in July.

“Recently I was diagnosed with APL (Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia), the most curable form of Leukemia,” Metchie said in a statement released by the Texans.

“I am currently receiving great medical care, am in good spirits and I expect to make a recovery at a later point in time. As a result of this diagnosis, I will likely not be playing football this season. My main focus will be on my health and recovery. Thank you in advance for your support and well-wishes. I cannot wait to come back stronger than ever. God bless.”

Wonderful job by Camp to honor his teammate with such a simple but moving gesture.

The teams also got together and prayed for Metchie.

Touchdown Wire’s NFL power rankings podcast with Doug Farrar and Mark Schofield

Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar and Mark Schofield get you ready for the 2022 NFL season through the view of Doug’s recent power rankings.

Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar and Mark Schofield get you ready for the 2022 NFL preseason and regular season with a look at every NFL team through the view of Doug’s recent power rankings, and where every team stands as they come into the new campaign. We have separated teams into tiers:

  1. Total rebuilds: Falcons, Bears, Jaguars, Panthers, Seahawks, Giants, Lions.
  2. Feisty, but not there yet: Jets, Texans
  3. WTF? Patriots, Cardinals, Dolphins, Commanders
  4. Possible playoff teams with major concerns: Steelers, Vikings, Colts, Titans, Saints
  5. The Deshaun Watson category: Browns
  6. Great, if everything goes right: Eagles, Raiders, Cowboys
  7. One potentially fatal flaw away: Chargers, Ravens, 49ers, Packers
  8. Have to take them absolutely seriously: Chiefs, Buccaneers, Bengals, Broncos, Rams
  9. Who’s going to stop them? Bills

Check it out in the link below, and enjoy the new season!

On BlogTalk Radio:

Preseason power rankings: Is this finally Buffalo’s season to win a Super Bowl?

Doug Farrar’s preseason power rankings have the Bills headed to (and winning) Super Bowl LVII. Which teams could knock them out of that dream?

Legendary head coach Marv Levy is justifiably in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and one primary reason is that, from 1990 through 1993, he led the Buffalo Bills to four straight Super Bowls. No other coach has ever done that.

The problem, of course, is that the Bills lost all four of those Super Bowls. The Bills capped off the old millennium with a handful of wild-card and divisional round losses under Levy and then Wade Philips, and then entered a postseason drought that started in 2000. and lasted until 2017.

Now, things are different. With perhaps the most stacked roster in the league and a superstar quarterback in Josh Allen, there’s little doubt that the Bills are Super Bowl-ready. They may have been last season were it not for a heartbreaking loss and defensive implosion in the divisional round to the Kansas City Chiefs, but in our preseason power rankings, we have the Bills as the NFL’s best team — and 2022 as the season in which the Bills win their first league championship since 1965, in the old American Football League.

Of course, there are all kinds of teams who could knock them from that dream. On the other side of things, there are NFL teams rebuilding, just trying to tread water, confident but with concerns, and on the precipice of something special.

As the 2022 preseason begins, here are our first power rankings of the new NFL campaign.

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Sports Info Solutions, Pro Football Focus, and Football Outsiders unless otherwise indicated).

One stat that matters for every NFL team

Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar brings forth one stat that matters for every NFL team coming into the 2022 season.

When you ask NFL coaches, executives, and scouts about analytics, you’ll get all kinds of answers which tend to reveal which teams value them — and which teams are paying lip service, because they don’t really consider advanced metrics, but they don’t want to be pilloried on social media as dinosaurs.

The teams that don’t value analytics, or don’t want you to know that they do, will tend to give more generic answers. Teams that are all in will be more specific.

Whether you believe that analytics can help your player evaluation process or not, the simple fact is that they represent a tool that can be helpful in the right hands. In the wrong hands, it’s just statistical noise.

We’re not sure if my hands are the right ones or not, but in this article, I have endeavored to find one specific metric for each NFL team that reveals a larger strength or weakness each team will either benefit from, or must address, in the 2022 season.

So, get your tape-repaired glasses, dust off your pocket protectors, and let’s nerd out with one stat that matters for every NFL team!

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Sports Info Solutions, Pro Football Focus, and Football Outsiders unless otherwise indicated).

2023 NFL Mock draft: How the first round might go after Miami’s forfeited pick

Mock draft alert! Now that the NFL has taken one of the Dolphins’ two first-round picks in 2023, here’s how the first round might look.

While we’re pretty sure that the rest of the NFL isn’t too happy about the Miami Dolphins barfing all over themselves as a franchise with the embarrassment of an unprecedented tampering scandal, there is the matter of the 2023 first-round pick the Dolphins were forced by the league to forfeit as punishment. That was estimated as the 15th overall pick at this time, and that means that a whole lot of teams get a one-pick bump in the 2023 NFL draft.

The Dolphins still have a first-round pick next year courtesy of the San Francisco 49ers in the trade that allowed Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch to move up and select Trey Lance with the third overall pick in 2021. But Miami obviously has much less leverage to move up next year if the idea was to nab one of the star quarterbacks in the 2023 class, should things not work out with Tua Tagovailoa. Right now, that has the Dolphins sitting with the 23rd pick, and by that time, the highest-profile quarterbacks will obviously be out the door.

How might the 2023 NFL draft look with 31 picks instead of 32, and more than half the first round moving up? Here’s one person’s estimate.

The 101 best players in the NFL today, Nos. 50-1

Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar and Mark Schofield conclude their player lists with the 50 best players in the NFL today.

Midsummer of every year is when we all make lists in this business. We’re not quite at the point of training camps in full bloom, free agency and the draft has eased off from a newsworthiness angle, and there’s still a need for clickable content. Ergo, we’re all ranking the NFL’s players in all possible ways.

Here’s how we’ve done it at Touchdown Wire over the last few seasons. Doug Farrar and Mark Schofield begin by ranking as many players as possible at as many positions at possible. This year, we ranked players at quarterback, running back, slot receiver, outside receiver, tight end, offensive tackle, offensive guard, center, interior defensive line, edge defender, linebacker, slot defender, outside cornerback, and safety.

We’ll get to long snappers next year, we promise.

The NFL’s top 13 safeties

The NFL’s top 12 slot defenders

The NFL’s top 12 outside cornerbacks

The NFL’s top 11 linebackers

The NFL’s top 11 edge defenders

The NFL’s top 12 interior defensive linemen

The NFL’s top 12 centers

The NFL’s top 11 offensive guards

The NFL’s top 11 offensive tackles

The NFL’s top 12 tight ends

The NFL’s top 11 slot receivers

The NFLs top 16 wide receivers

The NFL’s top 11 running backs

The NFL’s top 12 quarterbacks

What this allows us to do when it’s time to rank the NFL’s best players in a year, regardless of position, is to avoid overloading our list with certain positions. Because we’re limited to 12 quarterbacks (or however many Mark decides to list in a given year), we can’t throw 20 quarterbacks in the 101 at the expense of other positions.

All 12 of Mark’s quarterbacks made the top 101 list, because quarterback is the most important position, but we’re not going to throw Jimmy Garoppolo or Jared Goff in here just because. We also have 12 outside receivers, 11 outside cornerbacks, nine safeties, eight edge rushers, eight interior defensive linemen, seven linebackers, seven offensive guards, seven offensive tackles, seven running backs, six tight ends, three centers, three specific slot defenders, and one specific slot receiver. 

Perhaps that tells you which positions we think are most important in the NFL today, if nothing else. 

The methodology for this list (and all our positional lists) was this: We took what we remembered from the 2021 season and what we accentuated with offseason tape study. Then, we pored over the advanced metrics at Sports Info Solutions, Pro Football Focus, and Football Outsiders. From there, we put together our positional lists based on additional tape study, just to make sure the numbers, and our memories, aligned with what the tape told us over the summer.

Sometimes, it did, Other times, not so much. 

There are also all kinds of new players on this Top 101 list that weren’t here last year – a massive influx of young players who are seeing the light come on. Occasionally, that happens in a player’s rookie season. More often, it’s a multi-year process for a player to reach the elite at the highest possible level of football. Either way, it bodes well for the future.

As for the guy up top… well, we’ve seen him quite a bit before.

To avoid your phone blowing up when you’re trying to read this, we’ve split the Top 101 into two parts: From yesterday, our list of the players we ranked from 101 to 51, all their important metrics, and the most compelling tape examples we could find to prove their excellence. 

And now, without further ado, here are Touchdown Wire’s 50 best players in the NFL today. 

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Sports Info Solutions, Pro Football Focus, and Football Outsiders unless otherwise indicated).

The 101 best players in the NFL today, Nos. 101-51

Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar and Mark Schofield list the 101 best players in the NFL today.

Midsummer of every year is when we all make lists in this business. We’re not quite at the point of training camps in full bloom, free agency and the draft has eased off from a newsworthiness angle, and there’s still a need for clickable content. Ergo, we’re all ranking the NFL’s players in all possible ways.

Here’s how we’ve done it at Touchdown Wire over the last few seasons. Doug Farrar and Mark Schofield begin by ranking as many players as possible at as many positions at possible. This year, we ranked players at quarterback, running back, slot receiver, outside receiver, tight end, offensive tackle, offensive guard, center, interior defensive line, edge defender, linebacker, slot defender, outside cornerback, and safety.

We’ll get to long snappers next year, we promise.

The NFL’s top 13 safeties

The NFL’s top 12 slot defenders

The NFL’s top 12 outside cornerbacks

The NFL’s top 11 linebackers

The NFL’s top 11 edge defenders

The NFL’s top 12 interior defensive linemen

The NFL’s top 12 centers

The NFL’s top 11 offensive guards

The NFL’s top 11 offensive tackles

The NFL’s top 12 tight ends

The NFL’s top 11 slot receivers

The NFLs top 16 wide receivers

The NFL’s top 11 running backs

The NFL’s top 12 quarterbacks

What this allows us to do when it’s time to rank the NFL’s best players in a year, regardless of position, is to avoid overloading our list with certain positions. Because we’re limited to 12 quarterbacks (or however many Mark decides to list in a given year), we can’t throw 20 quarterbacks in the 101 at the expense of other positions.

All 12 of Mark’s quarterbacks made the top 101 list, because quarterback is the most important position, but we’re not going to throw Jimmy Garoppolo or Jared Goff in here just because. We also have 12 outside receivers, 11 outside cornerbacks, nine safeties, eight edge rushers, eight interior defensive linemen, seven linebackers, seven offensive guards, seven offensive tackles, seven running backs, six tight ends, three centers, three specific slot defenders, and one specific slot receiver. 

Perhaps that tells you which positions we think are most important in the NFL today, if nothing else. 

The methodology for this list (and all our positional lists) was this: We took what we remembered from the 2021 season and what we accentuated with offseason tape study. Then, we pored over the advanced metrics at Sports Info Solutions, Pro Football Focus, and Football Outsiders. From there, we put together our positional lists based on additional tape study, just to make sure the numbers, and our memories, aligned with what the tape told us over the summer.

Sometimes, it did, Other times, not so much. 

There are also all kinds of new players on this Top 101 list that weren’t here last year – a massive influx of young players who are seeing the light come on. Occasionally, that happens in a player’s rookie season. More often, it’s a multi-year process for a player to reach the elite at the highest possible level of football. Either way, it bodes well for the future.

As for the guy up top… well, we’ve seen him quite a bit before. But to avoid your phone blowing up when you’re trying to read this, we’ve split the Top 101 into two parts: Here are the players we ranked from 101 to 51, all their important metrics, and the most compelling tape examples we could find to prove their excellence. We’ll put up our top 50 players tomorrow.

So here, without further ado and in two parts, are Touchdown Wire’s 101 best players in the NFL today. 

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Sports Info Solutions, Pro Football Focus, and Football Outsiders unless otherwise indicated).

Houston Texans debut sharp new helmet

Check out the Houston Texans’ Battle Red-y helmets

The Houston Texans haven’t had many wins lately. However, the AFC South team definitely scored with a great-looking helmet it will debut in 2022.

The Texans are going to be Battle Red-y when they don this headgear.

They may not win the games they were them for but they definitely will have the best look on the field.

Every NFL team’s most underrated player heading into 2022

These players don’t get the recognition they deserve in the NFL.

The NFL has no shortage of superstars who are the face of the league. But there are plenty of impact players in the NFL who don’t necessarily get the recognition they deserve.

Whether overlooked or ignored all together, these players are significant contributors for their respective teams. They’ve had proven success but haven’t necessarily gotten the praise they deserve.

Our NFL Wire editors examined the most underrated player for each team heading into the 2022 season, highlighting why they’re deserving of recognition.

The NFL’s worst quarterbacks against every type of coverage

Who failed last season against everything from Cover-0 to Red-2? Doug Farrar reveals the NFL’s worst quarterbacks against every type of coverage.

Complexity of coverage has expanded exponentially throughout the NFL’s history, and specifically in the NFL’s recent history. The days of the Tom Landry “umbrella” base defense are long-gone, though those concepts led the way in pro football for decades. The implementation of the zone defense in the 1960s and 1970s, the acceptance of the slot defender as starter in the early days of the new millennium, spin-offs and iterations of single-high ahd two-deep concepts in recent years, and the addition of match coverage as s staple from the 1990s to now have all expanded the picture regarding what defenses can throw at quarterbacks and their targets.

Just as offenses have never been more diverse and efficiently explosive than they are now, there have never been more different ways to deal with a passing game from a coverage perspective than their are now.

In line with that, we have studied the NFL’s best quarterbacks against every type of coverage…

The NFL’s best quarterbacks against every type of coverage

…and you know how this goes. If there’s a best, there’s got to be a worst. So, here are Touchdown Wire’s worst quarterbacks against every type of pass coverage.

(All metrics courtesy of Sports Info Solutions unless otherwise indicated).