Avoiding Turnovers Key to Successful 1st NFL Start for Texans QB Ryan Mallett

This week's matchup between the Houston Texans and Cleveland Browns is a battle of bridesmaids-turned-brides, a pair of former understudies of Tom Brady who are now starting quarterbacks in the NFL in their own right.

However, whereas Brian Hoyer has already walked the aisle a few times, Ryan Mallett will be making the first start of his four-year NFL career. It's a game that could either start Mallett down the path to becoming the Texans quarterback of the future, or it could just as easily lead him to the unemployment line come next spring.

If Mallett is going to join Hoyer at the end of this feel-good story as another tale of the little guy winning out in the end, there's one very big mistake the 26-year-old can't afford to make.

Mallett has to take care of the football.

It's been a huge part of Hoyer's success in Cleveland, both this year and last. Sure, Hoyer hasn't put up passing stats that are gaudy by any stretch of the imagination, but he also isn't making bad decisions with the football. A 15-to-7 touchdown-to-interception ratio is a large part of the reason Hoyer's 9-3 as the starter for the Browns.

He takes what the defense gives him. If that means chucking it out of bounds on 3rd-and-6 and then punting the football, so be it.

However, there's a very fundamental difference between Hoyer and Mallett, one that could wind up being both a blessing and a curse.

To say that Mallett has a slightly stronger arm than Hoyer is like saying that the United States has a slightly larger military than Luxembourg. Mallett could probably flick a ball farther from his knees using only his wrist than Hoyer on a full windup.

I'm not kidding. Ryan Mallett has a gun.

In fact, Hoyer recently told Mary Kay Cabot of The Northeast Ohio Media Group that Mallett's arm is the strongest he's ever encountered:

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Well, talking about Ryan, first and foremost, it's the strongest arm I've ever seen -- by far. In person, I've seen him throw a football up close and personal and he has the strongest arm I've ever seen. I've seen him throw balls off of receivers' helmets 20 yards down the field and they can't even get their hands up in time. It's very impressive.

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It's that arm that led the Patriots to draft Mallett in the third round in 2011. And the Texans to trade for him a few months ago. And the team to move him into the starting lineup over Ryan Fitzpatrick, a known (and wholly uninspiring) commodity.

Of course, having a cannon for an arm has also led more than one strong-armed quarterback down the "gunslinger" path. Just because you can make a throw doesn't mean you should, and the history of the NFL is littered with quarterbacks whose careers were undone by the inability to know the difference.

Sure enough, in Mallett's profile prior to the 2011 NFL draft at NFL.com, one of the biggest knocks on the Arkansas star was his penchant for making ill-advised throws:

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Flashes the ability to run through progressions but has lapses in judgment and can force throws when pressured. Accuracy is solid but needs to become more consistent. Ball will sail when footwork gets sloppy.

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Of course, while those may have been issues for Mallett, they weren't hugely evident in Fayetteville. Mallett's 60.3 completion percentage was neither great nor awful, although it's worth noting that he completed nearly 65 percent of his throws in 2010. Over two years as a starter for the Razorbacks, he threw 62 touchdown passes against only 19 interceptions.

Texans head coach Bill O'Brien, who also coached Mallett in New England, told Cabot that Mallett has been working on improving those perceived flaws in his game since his arrival in the NFL:

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He can throw the ball, he can make every throw and he's worked very hard to improve his short throws. He's worked very, very hard to improve his touch on the ball. He's worked really hard to improve his knowledge of our offense and I think it's a great opportunity for Mal starting here in Cleveland to go out there and prove what he can do.

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O'Brien's spot on in one respect. This is a great opportunity for Mallett, his big chance on the big stage after over three years of holding a clipboard.

And it's those interceptions that Mallett has to avoid. He's actually been given a pretty good set of tools to work with, which is another big factor in a young quarterback's odds of success.

Cue David Carr nodding solemnly, then suddenly screaming as he flashes back to one of the 3,721 sacks he took while quarterback for the expansion Texans.

Mallett has a pair of excellent wide receivers in Andre Johnson and DeAndre Hopkins. One of the league's best running backs in Arian Foster. And a decent (albeit not great) offensive line.

What Mallett doesn't have is the sort of margin for error that allows for a bunch of turnovers. One of the reasons that Hoyer is heading for a contract extension rather than more clipboard duty is that he keeps the Browns in games by not putting the team behind the eight-ball.

After his long wait, Mallett told ESPN's Tania Ganguli that he's more than ready for this most important of auditions. "I'm ready for Sunday to get here," Mallett said. "I'm ready to play."

The Texans had little to lose by making the switch at quarterback. At 4-5, the team was stuck in neutral, in part because of the limitations Fitzpatrick's arm placed on O'Brien's play calls.

If Mallett can show he's up to the task, there won't be any such limitations. He is (in theory, anyway) more than capable of making all of the throws in an offense that (once again, in theory) he should know better than anyone on the team.

For him to take full advantage of both that knowledge and the opportunity before him, however, what he does may not be as important as what he doesn't do.

If Mallett wants to insert his name into the conversation as the long-term answer for the Texans at quarterback, he can't short-circuit drives and cost the team wins with turnovers.

In short, he needs to show that he can be more than just his arm, and in some respects, he needs to show that he can be Hoyer.

Gary Davenport is an NFL Analyst at Bleacher Report and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and the Pro Football Writers of America. You can follow Gary on Twitter @IDPManor.