Tirico Suave

When the Houston Texans decided to take Mario Williams over Reggie Bush, they were universally panned. Here’s Sports Illustrated expert Dr. Z, giving the Texans a D for their 2006 draft (just for the record, the Texan’s selected Bama linebacker DeMeco Ryans in the second round, he should be a star too. They also drafted productive TE Owen Daniels late). Dan Pompei of the Sporting News thought the Texans should have drafted Matt Leinart or Reggie Bush. He also gave the Texans a D.

Last year, Williams was pretty average. He had 5 sacks while Bush and Young emerged as excellent players. Bush caught 90 balls, and was a big part of the Saints NFC Championship game team. Young did not put up huge statistics, but put a bad Titans team on his back and won games by himself.

This year, things are a little different. After an early season injury to Deuce McAllister, Bush had the starting HB all to himself. He responded with 0 100 games and a 3.7 ypc. He caught 73 balls, but the only went for 417 yards. As a starter, Bush only averaged 83 total ypg. He is now out for the rest of the season with a knee injury, but will try to return before the season’s end.

Vince Young’s awesome performance last year led to a Madden cover in ’07. Young’s numbers don’t tell his whole story, because he is a strong intangible guy, but this year they are particularly awful. Young has thrown for 2,032 yards with 7 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. He has rushed for 343 yards and 3 touchdowns. That’s fringe NFL starter numbers. That’s Tarvaris Jackson (who has actually been pretty good lately).

Then there’s Mario Williams. The Texan’s drafted him some help on the line this year in Amobi Okoye and his stats are eye-popping. Williams dominated the Bronco’s last night for 3.5 sacks. He is now second in the league with 13 sacks over 14 games. Over the last 5, he has 30 total tackles along with 9 sacks. He may be the best defensive end in the league.

So if not for anything else, here’s to Charley Casserly. Charley, the former Texan’s GM, took endless shit for drafting Williams over Bush. At this point, with Ryans and Daniels both emerging, Casserly had an outstanding 2006 draft. Over the 4 years of his tenure, Casserly also drafted 2 rookies of the year (Domanick Williams (Davis and Dunta Robinson) and two Pro-Bowl starters (Andre Johnson and Jerome Mathis). Now that Charley works in the Media (for CBS sports), maybe the idiots who panned him so ferociously can now apologize with the same vigor.