Houston Texans head coach Bill O’Brien has apparently seen enough from both Brian Hoyer and Ryan Mallett after two preseason games to make a decision on the team’s starting quarterback for the 2015 NFL season.
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Hoyer is the man in charge of Houston’s offense this year.
Hoyer has been so-so this preseason, completing 9 of 15 passes for 119 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. He wasn’t exactly blowing us away in Week 2, however, averaging just 4.7 yards per attempt while incurring two sacks along the way. In fact, nobody was sharp in that game, as the offense only managed six first downs in the first half of play.
Less than 24 hours before Rapoport’s report, O’Brien told reporters he wasn’t ready to make a decision but did outline what the team was looking at.
“Again, it’ll come back to consistency, it’ll come back to game management, it’ll come back to situational football, who’s been the most consistent,” O’Brien said (h/t HoustonTexans.com). “It’s something that we’re studying, we’re really evaluating, again really at every position, the awareness of what’s going on in the game, how they handle different situations.”
Mallett hasn’t exactly been atrocious during the two preseason games. In fact, he’s been downright efficient, completing 15 of 18 passes for 113 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. Likely, this decision has more to do with what the coaches have seen in practice than it does to do with what we have all seen in the games.
Houston now at least has some semblance of continuity heading into the pivotal third week of preseason play. We should expect Hoyer and the first-team offense to play at least one full half of play when the Texans take on the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, August 30, at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.