The Texans started the 2022 Draft with 10 picks. They bumped it up to 13 at one point, but when it was all said and done, they made 9 selections. Starting in round 4, you're basically looking for quality backups/depth, and special teams players. You can get lucky sometimes and find a diamond in the rough, but that's more of the exception, not the rule, as the draft gets into the later rounds.
The Texans kick off the final day of the draft keeping their pick at #107. And this year the Texans aren't messing around with the smaller schools. In fact, they stay in the SEC with this pick. It's their 6th pick in this draft and it's the 5th from an SEC school. So with the 2nd pick in the 4th round, #107 overall, the Texans select Florida RB Dameon Pierce. Pierce played 4 years at Florida, 48 games, but only started in 13 games. 2020 was the only time Pierce was the full time starter, starting all 12 games that season. He started just once last year.
With the 150th overall pick, 7th in the 5th round, the Texans do get away from the SEC but stay with a power 5 school, which all of their picks so far have been, and select Stanford DE Thomas Booker. Yes, I guess technically the Texans finally address the d-line, but Booker is not expected to make much of an impact. A 4 year player at Stanford, Booker had 7½ sacks his 1st 2 years with the Cardinal. His last 2 seasons, just 2 sacks.
The Texans stay put at #170. This is a pick the Texans received from the Patriots a couple of days before the draft started, giving them picks #183 and #245. As we've come to know the last few years, it's not officially a Texans draft until they take a TE, and here he is. With the 170th overall pick, 27th in the 5th round, and the Texans 8th selection of the draft, Oregon St. TE Teagan Quitoriano is the selection. I already don't like that "quit" is in his name. Playing 4 years at Oregon State, Quitoriano wasn't a full time starter for the Beavers until his final season, last year. He had just 40 catches for 512 yards and 6 TD in that 4 year career. 19 of those 40 catches, 214 of those 512 yards and 3 of those 6 TD, all came last year. Quitoriano struggles as a blocking TE and that will have to improve drastically for him to stick around for very long.
The Texans start their draft selecting a player from LSU and they will end their draft with a player from LSU. With the pick they got from the Packers for trading Randall Cobb to them, the Texans final pick of the 2022 Draft, #205 overall, 26th in the 6th round, their 9th of the draft, and their 6th player from the SEC, the Texans select LSU RT Austin Deculus. The 6'5" 321 lb tackle played his high school ball locally at Cy-Fair HS. A 4 year player for the Tigers, Deculus started 46 of the 61 games he played in, all but 1 at RT. He played 1 game at LT. This is a head scratcher of a pick for the Texans as Deculus wasn't projected to be drafted by some experts. He struggles to keep blocks centered, he won't have the speed to get to backside blocks, and he will struggle trying to secure the edge against NFL speed rushers. Not really sure why this pick was even made, but there it is. It's a 6th rounder and Caserio was probably pissed that he still had that pick because he hates 6th rounders, seeing how easily he gives them away.
Day 3 gets started real early for the Texans, as they had the 2nd pick of the day, 2nd in the 4th round, #107 overall. This is one of the picks they received from the Browns in the Deshaun Watson trade. They would have had 2 picks in a row here, but they traded #108 to the Browns as part of the package to move up to #44 the day before.
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| Dameon Pierce - Florida |
The Texans kick off the final day of the draft keeping their pick at #107. And this year the Texans aren't messing around with the smaller schools. In fact, they stay in the SEC with this pick. It's their 6th pick in this draft and it's the 5th from an SEC school. So with the 2nd pick in the 4th round, #107 overall, the Texans select Florida RB Dameon Pierce. Pierce played 4 years at Florida, 48 games, but only started in 13 games. 2020 was the only time Pierce was the full time starter, starting all 12 games that season. He started just once last year.
Pierce's career high for a season is 574 yards, last year, but he had 13 rushing TDs, and 3 more receiving. Pierce ends his 4 year collegiate career with just 1,806 yards. That's 42 yards less than the nation's leading rusher had just last season. Pierce only has 9 career games with 10+ carries in a game. So one positive there I guess is that Pierce doesn't have a lot of tread on the tires. But then there's the question of why Pierce never took over RB1 for the Gators. Interesting that the LB the Texans drafted at #75 (Harris) has a faster 40 time than the RB Pierce. For context on that though, Arian Foster had an even slower 40.
The Texans take Pierce over some prospects who at least had a lot better collegiate numbers. Pierce did have 13 rushing TD last year, but only 547 rushing yards. Michigan RB Hassan Haskins, whom the Texans passed on to take Pierce, had 1,327 yards and 20 rushing TD last season. Georgia RB Zamir White had 856 yards and 11 TD. Interested in why Caserio passed on those guys and went with the seldom used Pierce. So I don't know where Pierce lands on the Texans RB depth chart, but it's hard to imagine he'd be near the top. Then again, it wouldn't take a lot to pass Marlon Mack and Rex Burkhead.
That would be it for the Texans in the 4th round. With the two 5ths and two 6ths they had remaining, it either wasn't enough to get back into the 4th round, or they just didn't try. In the 5th round though, Caserio decides he's not going to wait around for pick #166, so he trades that pick along with their last pick in the draft (#207), to the Bears to move up to #150. It's the 3rd move up by Caserio in this draft.
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| Booker-Stanford |
With the 150th overall pick, 7th in the 5th round, the Texans do get away from the SEC but stay with a power 5 school, which all of their picks so far have been, and select Stanford DE Thomas Booker. Yes, I guess technically the Texans finally address the d-line, but Booker is not expected to make much of an impact. A 4 year player at Stanford, Booker had 7½ sacks his 1st 2 years with the Cardinal. His last 2 seasons, just 2 sacks.
Booker will be a rotational guy at best with the Texans, probably playing quite a bit of special teams, should he even make the cut, that is. So I don't think the Texans have solved their pass rushing deficiencies with this selection.
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| Quitoriano-Oregon St |
The Texans stay put at #170. This is a pick the Texans received from the Patriots a couple of days before the draft started, giving them picks #183 and #245. As we've come to know the last few years, it's not officially a Texans draft until they take a TE, and here he is. With the 170th overall pick, 27th in the 5th round, and the Texans 8th selection of the draft, Oregon St. TE Teagan Quitoriano is the selection. I already don't like that "quit" is in his name. Playing 4 years at Oregon State, Quitoriano wasn't a full time starter for the Beavers until his final season, last year. He had just 40 catches for 512 yards and 6 TD in that 4 year career. 19 of those 40 catches, 214 of those 512 yards and 3 of those 6 TD, all came last year. Quitoriano struggles as a blocking TE and that will have to improve drastically for him to stick around for very long.
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| Austin Deculus - LSU |
The Texans start their draft selecting a player from LSU and they will end their draft with a player from LSU. With the pick they got from the Packers for trading Randall Cobb to them, the Texans final pick of the 2022 Draft, #205 overall, 26th in the 6th round, their 9th of the draft, and their 6th player from the SEC, the Texans select LSU RT Austin Deculus. The 6'5" 321 lb tackle played his high school ball locally at Cy-Fair HS. A 4 year player for the Tigers, Deculus started 46 of the 61 games he played in, all but 1 at RT. He played 1 game at LT. This is a head scratcher of a pick for the Texans as Deculus wasn't projected to be drafted by some experts. He struggles to keep blocks centered, he won't have the speed to get to backside blocks, and he will struggle trying to secure the edge against NFL speed rushers. Not really sure why this pick was even made, but there it is. It's a 6th rounder and Caserio was probably pissed that he still had that pick because he hates 6th rounders, seeing how easily he gives them away.
So that will do it for the Texans in the 2022 NFL Draft. They started with 10 picks. They make 9 selections. 4 defensive players, 5 offensive players. They had 5 of the first 75 picks, which is 5 picks through the first third of the 3rd round. They made 4 trades, moving back once and moving up 3 times. All 9 players came from power 5 schools, 6 from the SEC, including 2 each from Alabama and LSU. 3 players played high school ball in the local Houston area.
Now comes the UnDrafted Free Agent (UDFA) signing frenzy that will get the rosters up to near the 90 that they go to camp with. Soon rookie camps, OTA's, and mini camps will get underway, before training camp gets rolling in late July.
So how did the Texans do? I will have my Texans draft grade in my next article Monday morning.
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