Houston Texans Quarterback Battle

Bob Levey/Associated Press

Week 2 of the preseason is getting underway in the NFL. There are interesting quarterback battles going around in the league in Cleveland, Buffalo, and Philadelphia. One battle that has not received  a lot of attention this offseason is the starting quarterback battle in Houston between Ryan Mallett and Brian Hoyer. Here is my opinion on who is going to win this battle and start week 1.

In 3 games played last season for the Houston Texans, before going down with an season ending injury, Mallet threw for 400 yards, 2 touchdowns, 2 interceptions, with a passer rating of 67.6. Going into last season, Mallett had a lot of expectations on him due to the hype of being a franchise quarterback. In the 3 games that he started, he showed flashes that he can be a franchise quarterback. He also showed signs that he is just an average quarterback, who makes a lot of mistakes, but he has shown more potential that he can good quarterback.

Mallett has a lot of good tools and potential to become a good starting quarterback. He has good arm strength, his arm accuracy is pretty good, and he can stay in the pocket and make good throws. It might take Mallet some time to grow. Seeing that Mallet spent some time in New England, being the backup to Tom Brady, he learned a lot from Brady being his mentor. But we will see what happens.

Last season for the Cleveland Browns in 14 games played, Hoyer passed for 3,326 yards, 12 touchdowns 13 interceptions, and a passer rating of 76.5. Hoyer played good for an average quarterback because there were not a lot of expectations on him.

Even though, Hoyer is most likely a backup at best, he is still a good quarterback. He has a good arm, he can throw the ball down the field, he knows what it takes to win games, when he is pressured he will run for a good couple of yards. He is not the franchise quarterback that most teams look for. If you are looking for an average starting quarterback or backup, which can come in and win a game, Hoyer is a guy that you can count on.

In the offseason, the team lost last year backup quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick to the New York Jets. So the team signed Brian Hoyer after an average stint with the Browns. The team signed him to be the veteran quarterback on the depth chart. Hoyer will get all of the chances Mallet is going to be getting during training camp to be named week 1 starter.

In the first preseason game vs. the San Francisco 49ers Mallet and Hoyer both took some snaps. Mallett went 10 for 11, for 90 yards. Hoyer went for 2 for 4, for 67 yards, with a touchdown pass. Mallett played better than Hoyer in that game. Even though Hoyer had a touchdown pass, Mallett was almost perfect throwing the football. Making good decisions and throwing for more yards than Hoyer. Only thing Hoyer had an advantage with in that game is that he threw a touchdown pass and Mallett did not throw one.

The team already announced that Mallett will be starting week two of the preseason vs. the Denver Broncos. It is a smart decision for the Texans to go with the quarterback with the hot hand right now. If Mallett can produce the same numbers vs the Broncos, this quarterback battle might be over before week 4 of the preseason and Mallett will be named starting quarterback.

Right now the advantage will have to go to Ryan Mallett seeing as he has produced so far in the preseason. According to reports, he has been doing well in training camp. Hoyer would most likely have the advantage in this Quarterback battle, but he does not. Hoyer still has a slim chance to start for the team, but in order to do that he has to hope that Mallett does not have a good game and struggles and that he comes in putting on an impressive showing.

Preseason is a time to find out who is the best fit, to become the starting quarterback for the team. As of right now, that choice is Ryan Mallett. At the end of the day Mallett is going to be the one that is going to be starting week 1 for Houston, while Hoyer is the backup. In my eyes this quarterback battle is going to be coming to an end soon, with the way that Mallett has been preforming .