Texans signed Tyrod Taylor due to experience with coaches, offensive system

Veteran journeyman quarterback Tyrod Taylor joined the Houston Texans last month at a time when it appeared current starter Deshaun Watson wouldn't play another down for the club due to his trade request. Watson is now facing 22 lawsuits alleging acts of sexual assault and misconduct that have put his playing future very much into doubt and left Taylor as a potential bridge quarterback for at least a portion of the 2021 season. 

As Myles Simmons noted for Pro Football Talk, Taylor worked under Houston passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach Pep Hamilton when both were employed by the Los Angeles Chargers, and general manager Nick Caserio spoke about the 31-year-old signal-caller during Friday's press conference. 

"In his particular case, he has experience with coaches on our staff, or has some experience in this type of offense or system," Caserio said of Taylor. "So regardless, that was a position where quite frankly we didn’t have very many numbers. A.J. [McCarron] was a free agent. Josh [McCown] retired. So when you have one player at any one position on the team, you need more than one person. So I think that’s kind of how we approached it and just went through our process and evaluated it accordingly.

"I’d say generally speaking when you look at the whole roster construction in the offseason program, what we try to do just at all positions with the entire team is try to identify players we thought we liked that may have had some experience with our staff that were looking for the opportunity to compete, to be in a good situation, that wanted to be in Houston. So he certainly fell into that category, like a lot of other players."

Caserio added that he and the Texans intend to be "respectful of the legal process and where that is" regarding the many allegations made against Watson. The Houston Police Department and NFL are investigating the allegations.