Houston Texans: 2002 NFL Draft in Retrospect

The annual NFL Draft is a great opportunity for fans of a team to second guess its management. Looking back at the results in retrospect is a tradition unlike any other.

This is particularly true when you're a fan of the Houston Texans. The team has yet to make a playoff appearance, and really they haven't even come close.

For years, the NFL Draft was an exercise in showing their ineptitude. Never was it more true than in 2002 when they whiffed on David Carr and only drafted one player that would become a solid starter for the franchise.

As painful as it is, let's take a spin back through the 2002 draft and see what the Texans should have done.

1st Round

Who they took: David Carr

Who they should have taken: Just about anyone else

Of course, there are exceptions to this. They wouldn't have done any better by taking fellow quarterback bust Joey Harrington or defensive tackle Wendell Bryant, who only lasted two seasons in the league.

The team would have done well to select Julius Peppers, who was taken one spot behind Carr. The same goes for Dwight Freeney, who was taken a little further down the draft. The Texans have had problems getting a consistent pass rush and either of those two players would have been a nice fix for that.

Tackle Bryant McKinnie stepped right in for the Vikings along the offensive line and would have done for the same for the Texans. As big an issue as a pass rush has been, the offensive line has been bigger.

He brings some headaches to his team, but Albert Haynesworth would have been a nice pick here. The Texans have never had an above average defensive tackle, and Haynesworth is elite.

2nd Round

Who they took: Jabar Gaffney, WR and Chester Pitts, G

Who they should have taken: Clinton Portis, RB and Pitts

Chester Pitts is the one guy the Texans drafted in 2002 that turned out to be a solid starter for them. He proved to be a durable, versatile lineman that played a number of positions.

Gaffney was a decent receiver for Houston, but I think his respectable numbers had less to do with him and more to do with him being the only young, talented receiver on the roster.

Gaffney has found some success with the Patriots and Broncos recently as a third or fourth receiver, but he didn't fit what the Texans needed. They were asking way too much of him.

Clinton Portis would have stepped right in and given the Texans results. Instead, they struggled along with a subpar group of running backs that included James Allen and Jonathan Wells.

Portis has dealt with injuries over the last few seasons, but when he has been healthy, he has been among the most productive backs in the league.

3rd Round

Who they took: Fred Weary, G and Charles Hill, DT

Who they should have taken: Will Witherspoon, LB and Chris Hope, DB

Neither Weary nor Hill became a regular contributor for the Texans. Weary was part of the porous offensive line that let quarterback David Carr take 76 sacks as a rookie.

Hill played all of one season. He didn't register a single statistic. Not a single tally in any defensive statistic.

The linebacker position was actually a strength of the Texans early on, but Witherspoon would have been nice to have around as players like Jay Foreman, Jamie Sharper and Kailee Wong fell by the wayside. He is a consistent performer who has made a career out of piling up tackles.

Chris Hope has been more productive than any defensive back the Texans have had not named Dunta Robinson. His 512 career tackles and 19 interceptions would have been nice in a Texans uniform.

4th Round

Who they took: Jonathan Wells, RB

Who they should have taken: QB David Garrard

All's well that ends well I guess. The Texans now boast one of the most powerful offenses in the league, led by quarterback Matt Schaub.

To get to that point, though, the Texans and their fans had to deal with years of David Carr and his struggles.

David Garrard, on the other hand, has established himself as a solid quarterback in the league. He isn't all that flashy, but he gets the job done and has made a habit of torching the Texans.

The player they selected, Jonathan Wells, never got it going for the team. In his four years in the league, Wells rushed for 1,167 yards and 3.1 yards per carry.

5th Round

Who they took: Jarrod Baxter, FB and Ramon Walker, S

Who they should have taken: Aaron Kampman, DE and Robert Royal, TE

Neither Baxter nor Walker had much of an impact on those early Texans teams. Walker played a little bit thanks to the secondary being thin, but he only managed 17 tackles over three seasons.

Baxter was a decent fullback, but there were other players to be had at this spot, and decent fullbacks are relatively easy to come by.

You can't really fault the Texans too much for missing on Kampman. Every team in the league passed on him several times over before the Packers picked him up. It certainly would have been nice to plug him right into the defensive line.

Robert Royal isn't a superstar at the tight end position, but he has been a solid contributor over the years. Until the Texans picked Owen Daniels several years later, the tight end position was a revolving door for the franchise.

6th Round

Who they took: DeMarcus Faggins, DB and Howard Green, DT

Who they should have taken: Faggins and Chester Taylor, RB

Faggins became something of a scapegoat for Texans fans for the collective poor play of the secondary. The fact of the matter is that for where he was drafted, he wasn't a bad selection.

Chester Taylor is another player that just about everyone missed on. There's no reason he should have dropped this far.

Taylor was by far the best and now most distinguished player taken in this round.

7th Round

Who they took: Greg White, DE and Ahmad Miller, DT

Who they should have taken: White and Kyle Kosier, G

The Texans had the right guy in White, who is oddly now known as Stylez G after a character from "Teen Wolf." White has 24.5 career sacks, production the Texans would like to get opposite Mario Williams.

For whatever reason, White didn't develop for the Texans, but did in a different uniform later on. White didn't make his NFL debut until 2007, after spending time in the Arena Football League.

Ahmad Miller didn't make the team out of training camp, making the Texans 0-for-3 in drafting defensive tackles in 2002.

Kosier would have been a much-needed contributor right away on the offensive line. The Texans struggles there early on were well documented, and the selection of Kosier might have helped to remedy that.