Andre Johnson happy Ryan Mallett is starting
Houston Texans franchise icon Andre Johnson was disgruntled before the season started, as he felt that the Texans did not properly address the quarterback position after getting rid of Matt Schaub, who self-destructed last season. That was a good move they made at the quarterback position, but Johnson- and I would agree with him- probably felt that they should have drafted a top rookie quarterback, and I’m sure the last thing he wanted was to play out the rest of his career with a terrible team.
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While the Texans certainly aren’t playoff material, they haven’t been terrible this season. Johnson hoarded targets at the beginning of the season in the team’s run-heavy attack, but he has since given way to the red-hot DeAndre Hopkins, who deserves more recognition as one of the game’s top receivers. Both will no longer be catching passes from Ryan Fitzpatrick following the bye, as Ryan Mallett has been inserted as the starter for today’s game against the Cleveland Browns. They need to see what they have in a player they traded for (though it did come at basically no cost), and they have nothing to lose at this point in the season.
According to the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Johnson is “very happy” that Mallett is the starting quarterback, and I’m sure that has something to do with wanting to see a possible franchise QB. Maybe Johnson knows that Mallett is going to be good, and maybe the plan was to ease in Mallett by using Fitzpatrick as the stopgap, since it would have been unfair to throw him into the fire on a new team. After all, the timing of the move couldn’t be better, since he was named the starter during the bye.