Houston Texans: The New Cardinals?

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

How many years were the Arizona Cardinals picked to finally have their breakout year? It seems like they were the dark horse pick to have a playoff run every offseason. But since they went to the Super Bowl last year, they can't be that sneaky hot team any more.

Maybe the Texans take over that spot. Their franchise has never had a winning season, and the last two 8-8 seasons have only resulted in higher expectations. Houston's offense ranks about the same as the Cardinal offense, their special teams is better and their defense worse. The Texans are trying to fix that bad defense by replacing a number of coaches on that side of the ball.

Coach Gary Kubiak was able to make big improvements on offense right away when he was hired after a disastrous 2005 season, but the defense -- among the worst in the league over the last four years (and they still ended up 8-8 for two of those years???!) -- has been more of a challenge. Schemes and coaching aside, at some point they just need more playmakers on that side of the ball.

The Texans want to build through the draft, but part of the issue with the defense is all the experiments with personnel and the youth of most of the unit's players. They need more leadership, identity, and smart play on defense, and that is hard to fix quickly with the draft.

It probably doesn't help that their most vocal leader Dunta Robinson wants a really high-dollar long-term contract, isn't happy with the team right now, and is coming off serious leg injuries. They want to keep such leadership but the price might be something that ends up hurting the team.

Free Agents of Note: David Anderson (RFA), Rashad Butler (RFA), Earl Cochran (RFA), Owen Daniels (RFA), Stanley McGlover (RFA), CC Brown (UFA), Nick Ferguson (UFA), man of size Scott Jackson (UFA), Bryan Pittman (UFA), Cecil Sapp (UFA), Chris White (UFA), Eugene Wilson (UFA), Dunta Robinson (UFA -- franchised). Entire Texans free agent list here.

Draft Picks: 1 (15), 2 (14), 3 (13), 4 (12), 5 (16), 6 (15), 7 (14).

Needs

1. A Pass Rush. The Texans need a bookend pass-rusher across from Mario Williams. Williams gets his sacks, but the pass rush is him and Mr. Nobody. They actually need run-stopping defensive tackles but may need to hope on further development of Amobi Okoye and Frank Okam.

2. Linebacker. Middle linebacker DeMeco Ryans needs some help. It has been a revolving door at linebacker other than him, and the Texans have finally rid themselves of the financial and on-field liability that was Morlon Greenwood. Kubiak said recently that he values Ryans being in the middle but that would not stop the Texans from picking an athletic linebacker from the draft who is projected for the middle.

3. BPA Defense. Actually, the Texans could take best player available at just about any defensive position and get an upgrade. Some key quality free agents would help with the youth of the defense and help develop the young players they have. The best players on defense are young and have had few experienced, quality mentors to show them how it is done. Ultimately, part of the difficulty of evaluating needs is figuring out how much of what was seen on the field was player-related and how much was the musical chairs of players and defensive game planning.

4. Running Back. The Texans were extremely fortunate that rookie Steve Slaton was able to hold up down the stretch because the Ahman Green-less depth chart by that time of the season was very thin. I think the Texans will want to get a number of running backs to replenish the roster. I see Kubiak looking at a number of experienced backs through free agency and also drafting a back. The Texans offense had a taste of what their running game could be with a quality back and an offensive line that stayed together for a season, and I think they want to add to that.