The Houston Texans have lost three straight games and four of their last five. Starting quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick has thrown seven interceptions against just five touchdowns in that span.
While Texans' coach Bill O'Brien said that the team isn't planning a change at quarterback, he did mention that backup Ryan Mallett will continue to see reps in practice.
"I think that Ryan has improved every week," O'Brien said. "He's getting a better grasp of what we're doing here. I think the things that he's trying to work on - accuracy, just consistent accuracy, things like that. I think he's working hard to get those to a level where they need to be to be able to play a lot of football in this league. Fitzy is our quarterback and when you look at our tape, again, you cannot just point to one position and say that's the position that is at fault. There are a lot of positions that need to play better; we need to coach better, all those different things. It all goes into why sometimes we stall offensively. It's not one guy. So we're going to continue to work with both of these guys in practice and we'll see how it improves and hopefully it will get better and better and that will help our offense get better."
Head coaches stick by their starting quarterbacks until they don't. It's a trend we've seen all too many times in the NFL.
Houston traded a conditional draft choice to the New England Patriots for Ryan Mallett earlier this season. You don't make that kind of move unless you have question marks at the quarterback position. O'Brien coached Mallett when both were in New England and has some familiarity with the former third-round pick.
Fitzpatrick is a known commodity in the NFL at this point. While he hasn't played terribly this year, the coaching staff has to be disappointed that Houston is rapidly falling out of contention in the AFC South. If the losses keep coming, there really is no reason not to see what Mallett can offer the team going forward.
