Texans vs. Ravens: Why Rookie QB TJ Yates Has a Bright Future in the NFL

Watching Houston rookie quarterback T.J. Yates throw an early interception Sunday against Baltimore, then come back and drive the Texans back into the game says much more than did the scouting report on Yates coming out of North Carolina.

He was supposed to be able to do the little things well, to play with confidence, to make good reads and have good accuracy in the short passing game.

All that made him a fifth-round draft pick.

The question now is whether this is another Tom Brady situation. Brady was taken in the sixth round in 2000, the 199^th pick in the draft, when the New England Patriots weren’t expecting much.

Yates wasn’t supposed to be in the playoffs as a rookie. But he was at the helm of an 11-5 team that won the AFC South, then won his first playoff game against the Cincinnati Bengals and another rookie quarterback, Andy Dalton.

And, the interception notwithstanding, he had a decent first half on the road against a vaunted Ravens defense—123 yards through the air and directing a 12-play, 86-yard drive for a second-quarter score that got the Texans within four points at the half, hitting on a couple of key first down throws along the way.

What gets supporters of Yates going is the way he has become the frontman for the Texans, a true leader on a team that had trouble finding an identity before he took over taking snaps. It’s the kind of thing that playoff teams need, whether it’s in a lower draft pick like Yates or Brady, or in first-round picks like Eli Manning, Alex Smith and Drew Brees.

He’s played hurt, including putting aside a separated left shoulder to guide a 13-play, 90-yard touchdown drive in the regular season finale against Tennessee.

And when he needed to be cool, he was, throwing for 300 yards and the winning TD to Kevin Walter with two seconds left against Cincinnati.

Critics say Yates doesn’t have the pure arm strength of some quarterbacks. But he is cerebral enough to understand the game, know his strengths and his weakness and to be willing to take what the defense gives him.

And really, isn’t that what a team wants from a quarterback, no matter what his lineage?