Got a question about the Texans? Life in general? Drew Dougherty's your guy. He's been with the Texans since 2009 and is chock full of meaningful, as well as generally useless, information. Fire away by clicking HERE!
Sara Carlton from Spring: Dear Drew, I'm actually optimistic about Tyrod Taylor at QB. I'm not weird for being so, am I?
DD: No, Sara. If you're weird, it's probably for other reasons.
As for Taylor, he's been a good player and he's got a lot of experience. Coaches and teammates alike have praised him for his leadership and as OL Max Scharping said Friday, Taylor's a guy who's "in charge" when he's in the huddle in a very smooth way. Beginning in 2015, Taylor's been the Week 1 starter every year except for 2019. He's gone 3-2-1 in those games and he took Buffalo to the playoffs in 2017. Taylor can play and it'll be interesting to see what he does.
Putnam Ruggovich from Concord, Massachusetts: Dear Drew, Is Danny Amendola expected to actually contribute this year or naw?
DD: Yes, he'll contribute.
Since 2010, he's had 600 or more receiving yards in seven different seasons. He's had 575 or more in each of the last four campaigns and he averaged 13.1-yards per catch last season with Detroit. He's a smart player who's entering year 13 in the NFL and he's played in many different offenses. On Friday, when he met with the media, he said he liked Houston's offense and explained how it was very similar to the one the Patriots ran during his days in New England. Plus, he's thrown three passes in the regular season and two were touchdowns. One of those scores came against the Texans in 2018. He's also been an above-average punt and kickoff returner and if needed, he can hold on to extra points and field goal tries if something happens to Cam Johnston.
Further, he's someone who has a lot of connections with the franchise in a variety of ways. He's from The Woodlands and his father Willie won a state title as the DeKaney High School head coach in 2011. Texans Head Coach David Culley was Amendola's position coach with the Eagles in 2009. The two remained friends after Amendola was cut by Philadelphia that September and then signed with the Rams. Amendola played with OL Marcus Cannon and WR Brandin Cooks in New England and obviously knew Texans GM Nick Caserio well from his time there. The last two seasons, Amendola was coached by current Texans WR Coach Robert Prince in Detroit.
James Broderick: Dear Drew, Do you know if the Texans are sending scouts to scout college prospects right now, especially since we have our first and second-round picks? And how are OL Laremy Tunsil and K Ka'imi Fairbairn doing?
DD: Fairbairn was placed on injured reserve earlier this week. He won't play this Sunday. The team signed K Joey Slye to the practice squad earlier this week, so he's likely the guy at kicker this weekend. In two seasons with the Panthers, he made 79.4 percent of his field-goal tries and boomed 90.7 percent of his kickoffs for touchbacks.
Tunsil has practiced this week and hasn't been listed on the daily injury report, so he should be good to go.
As far as scouts go, yes, the Texans and every other NFL team have a network of scouts evaluating players at colleges across the country. This is a busy time of year for them. First-round pick or not, those scouts would still be out and about studying up on players. Just about every college football game played in this country has one NFL scout or more in attendance.
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