Battle Red Blog
Today feels like a lake after a long storm: eerily calm. After yesterday filled headlines with breaking news, trades, cuts, and surprises, recapping the entirety of the Houston Texans 53-man roster cutdown feels necessary.
To start, the shoe finally dropped on Joe Mixon’s health. He will be on Injured Reserve for at least four weeks. This news shook the entire landscape of the offense and resulted in Houston keeping five RBs to fill the void.
Then, another top-tier headliner announced safety Jimmie Ward being placed on the NFL’s Commissioner’s Exempt List. Texans fans will recall this is what Deshaun Watson was on. Essentially, this takes Ward’s ability to practice or play out of the Texans’ hands and into the league’s. Ward’s initial arrest, his violation of parole, and civil suit will sideline him for the foreseeable future.
While that was taking over headlines, Houston’s first announced roster cut came in the form of a surprise. Houston was parting ways with veteran offensive tackle Trent Brown. They were well aware that he was recovering from a patellar injury and subsequent surgery when they signed him in March. He had not practiced or participated in any preseason games, but communicated he would be available early in the season. Twitter media (an oxymoron in today’s climate) believes he’ll be on the practice squad if he clears waivers.
If things weren’t hairy enough, DB Myles Bryant was released. A special teams ace and presumed backup nickel CB behind Jalen Pitre, Bryant was assumed a lock for the roster. The peculiarity was that Bryant didn’t lose out to another player; the Texans only kept a bare-bones eight DBs on the roster.
The next big news story was Jakob Johnson the dual tight end and fullback, was not going to make the roster. Instead, British Brooks surpassed Johnson for the second-straight season. With a thin TE room and murky RB situation, Jakob Johnson was assumed to be a lock for the roster. Given his contribution to the first-team offense in training camp and preseason, this was a major surprise. He is expected to land on the team’s practice squad, but not making the roster for the second season in a row is a huge disappointment.
The finalization of the roster was swept up in the chaos that preceded it. Interestingly, rookie Graham Mertz made the team over Kedon Slovis, who had played ahead of Mertz and looked the better QB for all but the final preseason game. In an era with emergency QBs, having a third on the roster is nonsensical. Another head scratcher is Justin Watson. He barely played in the preseason and was shrouded by the rookies. A seventh WR is a tad excessive… given only two tight ends made the roster.
Speaking of which, Harrison Bryant was cut several days after being traded to Houston from the Eagles for John Metchie III. It is highly doubtful Houston will play 17 games with only two tight ends on the roster. Given that the new...
