Today, Gary Kubiak, Rick Smith, and Quinn Gray are dyeing Easter eggs together, and presumably sharing a honey-glazed ham. Jacksonville’s ex-backup QB must know why he’s in town. The Texans stand to pull at least a third-rounder for the best backup quarterback in the NFL, Sage Rosenfels – if they can secure the services of Gray.
There’s been talk about how perhaps the Texans are thinking about carrying a third QB on the active roster this season – a departure from Kubiak’s philosophy the previous two years. Hogwash, I say. If they were looking for a third-stringer, it would be a guy we either haven’t heard of, or a guy whose visit wouldn’t merit front sportspage coverage on the Houston Chronicle – not to mention endless speculation by yours truly and the rest of our fine Texans bloggers.
Quinn Gray is certainly not a guy who should be starting in this league, but even more, he’s not a guy who should be riding the pine behind TWO other quarterbacks. If he signs with Houston – Sage is gone. Carve it in stone. There’s no way Gray would even sign a contract unless he was assured to at LEAST be the backup. If The Smithiak wanted a third QB to compete with or replace Shane Boyd, it would be someone of Craig Nall’s ilk… or Jared Zabransky. I know Jared signed with Pittsburgh, I just mean – a player of his level. I saw a Rotoworld report that if the Texans signed Craig Nall, it would mean they were going to trade Sage because Nall would be the No. 2 quarterback. Sorry Rotoworld, but no.
I’m going to put this as succinctly as my feeble grasp of math will allow:
Sage Rosenfels > Quinn Gray
Sage Rosenfels < Quinn Gray + a 2nd rounder acquired for Sage... or in reality, even a 3rd rounder.
Right now, you have an unproven, but quite promising starting QB, and the best backup in football. If the Texans pick up Gray, then we have the same promising starter, a fine backup, and 2nd or 3rd round draft pick - which judging by The Smithiak's drafting skill is going to be a player that's almost guaranteed to be a sure-fire starter.
So, do you (in effect) "trade" a great backup quarterback for an okay quarterback, plus an almost sure-thing young starter in a position of need? I think you do. In fact, as valuable as Sage is (and he is), I think it’s a no-brainer.
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Mar 23, 2008 at 14:57:34
I think you have to go into each season making assumptions. In general, you assume that your players are going to be healthy. Some times, you make exceptions to this rule and go in the opposite direction. For example, I think you have to assume at this point that Chris Brown will be injured at some point this season. It’s probably a safe bet that Ahman Green will be injured at some point as well. If the Texans went into the season with those two as the only option at RB, it would be worrisome to say the least.
This pertains to QB depending on how you view Schaub. I’m personally of the opinion that he’s not injury prone, and just got unlucky last season. I think he’ll be fine this season, and we don’t need a top-flight backup QB. All we need is someone that can step in if Schaub gets tired, or if we’re leading by a comfortable margin. Add in to this mix the fact that we do have several holes, like you mentioned, and I think that only an idiot would be ranting and raving about how we need to keep Rosenfels if we get Gray.
It’s pretty much a given, based on the solid mathematical formulas above, that if the Texans acquire Gray, they should trade Rosenfels. The better question I think, is should we be trying to acquire Gray? Based on what I think of Schaub, absolutely. If we get Gray, we essentially are getting a third round pick. I wonder how much a team would be willing to pay to get another third round pick? I guess we’ll find out if we give Gray an offer.