Solving the NFL Kickoff Problem

I am tired of all this talk about the new NFL kickoff rule, and I have decided to solve all of the NFL's problems.  I agree that the old rule didn't work because players built up too much speed, and this resulted in too many injuries.  There are two ways to cut down on injuries.  The first is to decrease the number of hits by increasing the number of touchbacks.  That's boring, though.  I say you cut down on injuries by giving the players less distance to run and pick up speed.  Instead of letting players start running 5 or 10 yards before the ball is kicked, just make them stand at the 30 until the ball is kicked.  It's the only play in football where the offense is allowed to move forward before a play starts.  Why should one team's players get a running start at another team's players.  That seems destined to cause injuries.  So there you go NFL, keep the ball and the players at the 30 yard line.  Problem solved.

Texans Switching to 3-4 Defense

I am confused by what Wade Phillips is trying to do with the Texans' defense.  Clearly the defense needs a complete overhaul because of how bad it was last year.  I just don’t know if the change to the 3-4 is the answer.  The problem is that the successful teams actually have the personnel to run the 3-4 whereas the Texans do not.  It seems to me as though our defense has 4 starting defensive linemen and 3 starting linebackers, so why don’t we run the 4-3?  Maybe Wade Phillips sees things differently, but I think he has decided to fit his players to his scheme instead of his scheme fitting his players. 

I understand the basic principle behind the 3-4, which is that there is an ability for more complex pass rush schemes as a result of basically 2 outside linebackers that could rush at any given time as opposed to a 4th defensive lineman that will rush all the time.  However, this complex scheme is nullified by the fact that teams know Mario Williams is going to rush every single time.  If teams know that Mario is going to rush they will throw quick slants all day to the receiver on his side.  Phillips is trying to move Mario around so that the defense has to adjust to him on every play.  The last time we tried to use this same strategy was his rookie season, and it failed miserably.  It turned out that Mario could only handle rushing from the same side every time.  He got too confused by the multiple positions.  Now we are asking him to change positions entirely to OLB and then also move throughout the linebackers.  How could this possibly turn out well?  Here’s a good rule to live by.  Don’t mess with the best thing about your defense: Mario rushing from DE. 

Now for the second biggest problem with the Texans’ new defense: Nose Tackles.  I would argue that NT is the most important position in a 3-4 defense.  Great NTs like Kris Jenkins, Shaun Rogers, and BJ Raji, are massive human beings between 325 and 360 pounds.  They clog up the middle and stop the run by taking up multiple blockers.  The Texans’ Shaun Cody and Earl Mitchell weight 304 and 291 pounds, respectively.  They are much better suited to play DT in a 4-3 defense.  Not only are they underweight, but Cody and Mitchell have done nothing in their careers so far to show that they can be anything other than an average DTs.  I worry that teams will run up the middle on us all day.

The final problem is that the Texans have too many question marks in the front 7.  We are moving Mario Williams outside and pushing Brian Cushing inside even though Cushing was horrible last year on the inside.  It makes no sense why we would move our best DE and OLB to other positions where they may not be as good.  Demeco Ryans is coming off a bad Achilles’ heel injury, and it will be hard for him to immediately come back and be the Demeco of old.  Connor Barwin is also coming off injury and has never proven he can be a starter.  J.J. Watt is a rookie that we expect to immediately plug into the starting lineup and play all 16 games.  Outside of the front 7 we also have question marks with Kareem Jackson being horrible and Glover Quinn learning a new position in Strong Safety. 

I count 8 question marks (DE, NT, 2 OLB, 2 MLB, DB, SS) out of 11 positions on our defense.  If we stayed in the 4-3 we would be down to 4 question marks (OLB, MLB, DB, SS).  Doesn’t it seem like we should minimize our risk and stay with the 4-3?  Not to mention we could have drafted Nick Fairley over J.J. Watt to shore up our shaky DTs.