Houston Texans Still Have Holes at Key Positions

Houston needed to come out of this year's draft with help in three key areas. The running game, the secondary and pass rushing.

Slaton was a great contribution to the team last year, but this time faltered many times when it was in the redzone because they never had that big bruiser back that could will his way into short yard gains when it counted.

Rashad Jennings out of Liberty would have been a great pick considering he fell to the 7th round. Jennings was a player many scouts had as a second round talent, instead the Texans opted to roll the dice with undrafted free agents Arian Foster and Jeremiah Johnson.

Foster could be the answer, but he wasn't very productive his senior year at the college level. Tight End James Casey could also prove to be a redzone threat to improve their inconsistencies at getting into the endzone.

The defensive holes are the most glaring though. Starting with the secondary the Texans looked simply outmatched most of the time in coverage. Daunte Robinson came back from injury and looked productive but is still upset about being franchised, still refusing the Texans' contract offers and still not participating in team workouts.

He wants Nnamdi Asomugha money, but he's not the player Asomugha is. The team also used several late round picks on defensive backs, but none of them are expected to make any immediate contributions.

Not long after Free Agency started the Texans made a splash by signing defensive end Antonio Smith from the Arizona Cardinals. This came after cutting ties with former lineman Anthony Weaver. The problem I see here though is this is more of the same. Weaver wasn't an effective pass rusher and Smith hasn't proved he can be either.

While the move is an upgrade at the position it doesn't address adding pressure to the Quarterback the same way that drafting one of the talented defensive ends in this years draft or trying to trade for Julius Peppers could have.

However according to sources around the team, the Texans never really considered bringing in Peppers. There was a lot of buzz about him coming to Houston because of the circumstances that surrounded him and the team.

The Texans had made it known they were looking for a pass rusher, Julius Peppers was demanding a trade and he works out in Houston. The proper pieces were in place for speculation and the fans salivated at the idea of him joining the squad, but owner McNair was never going to give him the money he wanted.

Most of the analysts of this years draft consider this years draft for the team an overall success. It's important to remember though that the draft isn't a science and nobody should pay too much attention to whatever grade Mel Kiper and the like give teams for drafting players who have never stepped on an NFL field.

Their first round draft pick for the Houston Texans this year was Brian Cushing out of USC. While he should provide some help with attacking the Quarterback his questionable coverage is going to be a liability and he hasn't shown to be athletic enough to play all three downs at this level.

In the second round the Texans went for a pass rusher again, by drafting Connor Barwin out of the University of Cincinnati.

If you pop in a tape of his highlights or workouts it's easy to be enticed by Barwin, but there's something all fans need to remember: he has only played defense for one season. I think he will be able to adapt to becoming a situational pass rusher for the team, but don't expect much out of him in his first year.

Coming into the season the Texans might not have fixed these holes but they have been able to at least improve on two of them. There is still a gaping hole in this team's secondary that cannot be ignored.

If Head Coach Gary Kubiak doesn't find a way to do so then the Houston fans can expect more of the same from a team that gave up more points through the air than 26 other teams.