Immediately following the draft last April, I was tasked with assembling a slideshow on all the undrafted free agents signed by teams in the AFC South.
The Houston Texans proved the most onerous as they signed 22 players.
I could have saved myself the effort, because none of them made the final 53-man roster for the Texans.
Houston's roster is deep and talented, and it was a bad year to sign with the defending champions of the South.
While Houston may still make additional roster moves and will certainly assemble their practice squad from some of the players they cut, here is the initial list of cuts as provided via press release from the club.
Tyler Clutts, a fullback, was picked up via trade. Houston sent Sherrick McManis to Chicago. Clutts caught eight balls last year for Chicago and played special teams. He excelled as a blocker for the Bears, and fits what Houston wants to do with the fullback position (tip to Mike Potash of the Chicago Sun-Times).
Gary Kubiak said of him,
I’ve studied him the last week or so. He’s a young player. He’s a conversion player too from a few years back, started in Cleveland, went to Chicago and kind of running a portion of our scheme. I know some guys that have coached him and just like to try, I don’t think anything is every etched in stone, but we’d like to try right here. We think he’s got a lot of ability and he’s a young, ascending player. So we got a lot of catching up to do. We’ll get him in here tomorrow and get him started, but we think he can help this team.
Houston released Logan Brock, Keith Browner, D.J. Bryant, Hebron Fangupo, Johnathan Grimes, David Hunter, Juaquin Iglesias, Delano Johnson, Delano Johnson, Case Keenum, Mitch King, Shawn Loiseau, Jeff Maehl, Nathan Menkin, Rennie Moore, Troy Nolan, Moran Norris, Eddie Pleasant, Phillip Supernaw, Cody Wallace and Cody White.
The Texans also put Rashad Butler on IR after he suffered a triceps injury in the final preseason game.
Jerrell Jackson was placed on the waived/injured list with a quad injury.
In total, the Texans kept seven players from the 2012 draft, waiving tackle Nick Mondek and also placing kicker Randy Bullock on injured reserve.
There were no surprises at all for Houston. John Beck made the roster as the third quarterback. Kubiak indicated Keenum had a good chance to be picked up for the practice squad saying:
I think John (Beck) had an excellent camp. After what we went through last year, obviously it’s a concern of mine going with two. It is a conversation because when you’re putting your team together there’s always a conversation, but I think John had a good camp. I thought last night he played exceptional. He gives us some security there. He knows our system moving forward.
Obviously we think a lot of Case (Keenum) and what he’s gone and we’ve got to put a practice squad together. He’s getting great consideration from that standpoint so we’re going to make sure we got enough guys knowing our system moving forward so we don’t get caught like we did last year and having to scramble in such a tough time.
Keenum may still wear a Texans jersey again.
Kubiak had intoned in recent weeks that Trindon Holliday could have a tough time making the team as a pure returner despite his spectacular run of returns. In the end, he proved he had done more than enough to survive cut day. Kubiak remarked:
Well first off we know he’s been exceptional. Trindon’s a lot better football player than he was the last two years. Trindon can go play on the offensive side of the ball. He does know what we’re doing from that standpoint. I did not play him at receiver much because of the young guys I have. Trindon can play gunner for us. I think he’s a much more complete player as far as us finding ways to use him as a player. But what he did throughout the course of this preseason was exceptional and his spot on this team was well earned.
The Texans are stacked with talented players are nearly every position. They'll still be looking to add offensive line help in the coming days, but overall, the number of young players cut is more a reflection of prior good work by the front office rather than negligence in the undrafted free agent market this year.
Note: I'll be updating this article with practice squad and other signings throughout the weekend.
All quotes provided to the reporter directly by the Houston Texans PR department.
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