John McClain and ex-Texans defensive end N.D. Kalu get together with Houston Community College to produce a video every week or so. This week, they went over who the Texans worst and best picks of the Kubiak era were, and betrayed a completely unstunning lack of criticism for anyone who was actually a bust.
First lets go over their best picks. Kalu chose Mario Williams—pretty clearly the best pick of the Kubiak era if you account for the scrutiny they were facing for not taking Vince Young or Reggie Bush. No reach there. McClain chose Duane Brown. While I wouldn’t go around calling someone who hurt his team by getting suspended over the NFL’s PED policy a great pick, there’s a certain logic to it. He’s certainly improved over the last two years, even if he’s not actually a top-tier tackle in protection.
But the busts? Wow, talk about not taking anyone to task. Kalu picked Garrett Graham, and his reasoning was that the Texans didn’t pick Geno Atkins because of Graham and the roster was already full of tight ends. It’s not Graham’s fault that the Texans locked themselves into a long-term commitment to a tight end who can’t stay healthy. The Texans had two shots at Atkins if you use that reasoning, and they used their first one to pick Earl Mitchell instead. Sounds like that’s the guy you should be singling out instead of a rookie who got to run something like eight plays. This isn’t even getting into the fact that drafts shouldn’t be judged until at least three years down the road.
As for McClain, he came up with Antwaun Molden. A third-round pick out of Eastern Kentucky in 2008, Molden has spent the majority of his career on the injured reserve with a number of serious injuries. While technically the pick has been a bust, it’s not like it was for performance reasons. Molden just can’t stay healthy.
Have either of these guys heard of Amobi Okoye or Kareem Jackson? Besides noting that one of them is “good against the run” and the other is “just as good as Pro Bowler DeAngelo Hall”? Instead of two enormous sinkholes (so far) that were high draft picks they’ve declared two guys who nobody cares about busts, one of which hasn’t even played 30 NFL snaps yet after just one year in the league.