David Carr Joins The New Houston Texans
I’m a very strong believer in nurture over nature and how that particular argument also works in other capacities like organized sports. I firmly believe that most players will be successful if they end up in an environment that supports them, and most players have simply not been lucky enough to have this happen. Not entirely unfairly, as there are so many moving parts to this system that would have to fall into place for a player to end up successful outside his own drive. Tim Tebow is a great example. Tim could have potentially been a good QB with lots of success if he went to a team dedicated to building around him and using him right. It worked in Florida because that is exactly what they did. It did not work anywhere else because it is far more difficult to build teams like that in the NFL. You have old legacy players, the salary cap, coaches who may be at odds with less control, people who didn’t want Tebow around…and of course Tebow’s own limitations. Sometimes it might simply be a good personality match that makes something work.
What I’m saying is that draft busts do not happen in a vacuum and I’ve always felt bad mocking players for that. David Carr wasn’t a great football player and had a pretty sad career overall, but he simply didn’t get dealt a good hand. In his inaugural season, the first season in the existence of the Houston Texans, he was sacked 72 times. That is still the record. It’s impossible to be a good QB if you are getting taken out that much, and nobody gets taken out that much through only their own play. Carr also still owns the #3 slot as well, with 68 sacks in 2005.
Two of Carr’s lineman in 2002 were rookies. Chester Pitts seems like the best one and was the 3rd draft pick ever by the Texans. Fred Weary was the 4th draft pick in Texans history. A former 7th round pick named Ryan Young was the tackle opposite Pitts and his career page doesn’t inspire much. DeMingo Graham and Steve McKinney round out the line. If you remember any of these people I’d be surprised. All Carr had to throw to was 2nd ever Texans draft pick Jabar Gaffney. You might remember Jabar Gaffney as one of the benchwarmers on the 2007 Pats. They were coached by Dom Capers, the defensive guy Packers fans wanted fired for years in recent seasons. The 2002 team had 2 pro-bowlers, both on defense. This was a very uninspiring team and Carr never really had much chance.
I doubt we will ever find out his true feelings, but I wonder how Carr feels about all this stuff. What it was like to be the face of a franchise that didn’t exist before him, to try and replace the franchise stolen away. I never see Carr get talked about these days, and I wonder what Texans fans think of him overall. Do you think he got a raw deal or that it was mostly due to him being garbage?
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I feel the same way about Mike Hass. Best receiver in college at Oregon State won many awards but never got a shot. Sad thing as much as I hate the Patriots I fell Belicheck would have found him very useful do to his dude hands
His career definitely didn’t pan out the way he probably imagined it would, but he got a Super Bowl ring in 2011 without playing a single snap behind Eli.
I’m sure he’d rather have been steering the ship, but not a lot of guys get a Super Bowl ring ever. He’s a pretty good analyst, too.
To be fair, they did pick up Tony Boselli in the expansion draft, who is a fringe Hall of Fame candidate at left tackle. He just got hurt immediately and never played for them. Pitts was much better as a guard than as a tackle, and he was probably the best player on the team in 2002, before they drafted Andre Johnson in 2003.
This. The plan had been to anchor the line around Boselli, and when he never played a snap, they had to shuffle the line and plug in….less than ideal pieces. The one correction is that he didn’t *get* hurt, he was coming off of injury. The Texans thought there was going to be no long term impact from the injury, but….yeah….. Now, were they unlucky or incompetent? I don’t know. I don’t know what information they had to base the decision off of.
Joey Harrington, watched him at Oregon and said to myself…..that guys a future NFL star.
Then the Detroit Lions happened
Hey this guy is getting run off the line damn near every play, perhaps we should invest in the li….DRAFT ANOTHER WR
Harrington was the guy I really wanted the Texans to draft back then, though it probably wouldn’t have been much better. He was phenomenal at Oregon.
Me and some friends wound up a few tables over from David Carr (and Derek too) at a suburban Houston restaurant in the middle of that inaugural 2002 season and one of my friends started loudly talking to our table about how the Texans should have drafted Harrington in a dumb attempt to get Carr to overhear. Jokes on everybody involved in that conversation, I guess.
Better quarterback if they had a better situation: David Carr or Tim Couch?
Tough call
Couch was definitely the superior prospect coming out of college putting up better numbers in a much tougher conference. Part of that, however, was college defensive coordinators not knowing how to handle Hal Mumme’s stripped down sling it and keep slinging it offensive philosophy. The origin of the dreaded ‘system qb’ label.
Their pro numbers are eerily similar. Both essentially got 5 years as a starter and threw for 59% completion percentage with slightly more picks than touchdowns. Tim Couch edges David Carr just barely in every rate stat, and was positive rusher. I feel like the 1999 Browns were a better situation to be in than the 2002 Texans, but honestly that might be splitting hairs.
I’m going to say Tim Couch. If Hal Mumme had done anything to prepare him for the way the pro game was conducted in 1999 or if the Browns leadership had done anything other than try to jam a square peg into a round hole because that’s the way it always been done, Couch might have actually been half decent. At the same time if Carr hadn’t gotten completely shell shocked he might have been able to do something more than just tread water as well.
The only mentions of David Carr I’ve heard in the last few seasons is that he’s Derek’s older brother and usually with the implication that Derek is a much better QB. It always strikes me as a bit sad.
Considering that DeShaun Watson is tied with a few guys at the five spot… Have the Texans added any new players to their O-Line since?
The best was when David Carr owned Dak throwing at targets a couple years ago. Dak missed them all:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1wokslD-Hk
Carr did get dealt a bad hand, but he was also the architect of a lot of his own pain. The year he got replaced by Shaub, the Texans sack numbers dropped by half despite only changing one guy on the line.
This is broadly where I fall into. I think most draft busts are at least partially responsible for their busting, if not fully (e.g., Manziel, Leaf, Russell)
Sweeps McGee is getting my vote for the pro bowl this year.
David Carr didn’t have anything around him, especially on O-line, but he was also a spoiled brat when he got to the Texans. His dad was a prototypical helicopter parent, showing up to every practice and yelling at coaches because he thought his ideas were better. David and Derek never stood a chance because of the way they were raised.
You mentioned Tebow. I think had he been willing, he could’ve been what Taysom Hill is now for the Saints in the right system. The guy had limitations, yeah. But he would play with everything he had. As long as it was as a QB.
The same face Couch had when he got to the Browns locker room.
He was supposed to have Tony Boselli, but Boselli’s knees were so screwed by 2002 he was forced to retire. Probably tied with Joe Thomas as the best OT of the last 30 years.