The Carousel Turns Again

One day after relieving Ryan Mallett during the Houston Texans, 27-20 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, Texans head coach Bill O’Brien has named Brian Hoyer the starting quarterback for the October 18th game at Jacksonville.

“We are moving on to Jacksonville. Brian Hoyer will start the game and we will go from there,” O’Brien said.

Hoyer had his ups and downs on Thursday night, as he completed 24 of 31 passes, for 312 yards, with two touchdown passes to Jaelen Strong (one coming on a Hail Mary) and one egregiously horrific interception to basically seal the Texans fate.

Of course Hoyer was named the starting quarterback for the 2015 season at the end of training camp, and that lasted all of three quarters as the Texans were in the midst of being blown out by the Kansas City Chiefs, the only victory Kansas City has registered to date.

This has a more permanent feel to it, as Ryan Mallett has more of an upside, but he’s shown no real capability of being a legitimate NFL starting quarterback.  Mallett was spotted on the sidelines pouting about being taken out of the game, and didn’t even celebrate the team’s Hail Mary.

“Ryan is a competitor,” O’Brien said. “He wants to play, but again, we’ve got to do what’s best for the team.”

We’re not sure if O’Brien has lost the locker room at 1-4, but Hoyer seems to be the better leader of the pair.  If the Texans second-year head coach were to switch back to Mallett in place of a healthy Hoyer, it would be a tough sell to the rest of the roster.

Who Has Butter Fingers?

There’s no defense against the perfect route and the perfect pass.  Except when the receiver running said perfect route lifts his eyes for a moment and drops the football.

Pro Football Focus ranked the Top 5 teams in terms of air yardage lost and the results weren’t overly surprising.

The top team, losing 139 yards in the air was the Carolina Panthers.  Without Kelvin Benjamin, who tore his ACL in training camp, the Panthers have Ted Ginn masquerading as a No. 1 receiver, along with an injured Jericho Cotchery and Philly Brown.

The fact that Cam Newton has this team at 4-0 speaks volumes about his legitimacy as an NFL quarterback and should be on everyone’s MVP ballot.

Chip Kelly’s Philadelphia Eagles squad comes in at No. 2.  Since Kelly has taken over, the Eagles have jettisoned both DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin, and it doesn’t seem like rookie Nelson Agholor and veteran Riley Cooper are picking up the slack.  Quarterback Sam Bradford has lost 133 yards in the air due to the drops of his weapons.

The Jacksonville Jaguars come in at No. 3, with quarterback Blake Bortles losing 118 yards in air due to drops.  The Jags don’t have a legitimate No. 1 receiver and their biggest offseason acquisition, tight end Julius Thomas is yet to suit up as he’s trying to recover from a broken hand.  Bortles has still taken big steps forward in Year 2, but there’s no telling how good he would be if they had weapons that just made the simple catches consistently.

Coming in at No. 4 are the Houston Texans.  Prior to Thursday’s loss to Indianapolis, the Texans lost 112 yards in the air due to drops.  It’s a little more understandable in Houston’s case as they’ve bounced back and forth between two different quarterbacks who throw the ball with much different velocity.

Rounding out the Top 5 are the Arizona Cardinals, who have lost 92 yards in the air from drops.  It’s a bit of a surprise as the Cards have Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd and John Brown, all of which seem to be pretty sure-handed.  Even taking the drops into consideration, Carson Palmer has still completed 63.4 percent of his throws and is second in the NFL with 10 passing touchdowns.

Big Named RB’s Sitting Out Sunday

If Marshawn Lynch, LeSean McCoy or Karlos Williams are on your fantasy teams, you had better hit the waiver wire.

None of the three are expected to play on Sunday as the 2-2 Seattle Seahawks travel to Cincinnati to play the 4-0 Bengals.  The prospect of beating the Bengals on their home field without “Beast Mode” seems a little tough to digest.

As for Buffalo, they have an easier task ahead of them as they travel to Nashville to take on the Tennessee Titans.  It appears that Boobie Dixon will be the man for the Bills as they attempt to hand rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota and the Titans their third loss in four games.