Trindon Holiday

[GridironGangsta]

Why in the world did the Houston Texans cut Trindon Holiday? He had 3 kick returns for TDs in the preseason, now he's owning it up with the Broncos, 2 already for touchdowns and a few more big returns. That guy was a steal for Denver, could come back to haunt the Texans in the playoffs...

[EliteTexan80]

[treece300e]

[Apollo Stallion]

This "debate" continues to befuddle me as people see 2 highlights on Sportscenter and think that's what wins football games instead of recognizing that the real difference between the Texans and say the Chiefs is about 50 yards per game on offense and 30 yards per game on defense in addition to turnovers, conversions, and red zone play. The difference between the middle 2/3s of teams when it comes to returns is about 10 yards of field position per game which is completely nullified with even 1 penalty per game on a return and I cannot remember a game going by where their wasn't at least one. There is ZERO, NONE, ZIP correlation between kick returns and ANYTHING in team records unless you are a Bills, Browns, Eagles, Jets fan this year and excited by the one area of the game where you don't suck. You might as well examine average hang time on kicks or coin flip wins and try to predict a teams record. Sure on a game by game basis a key return can make a difference as it almost did for us in getting a bad Jets teams closer than they should have been, but ultimately it's the hundreds of plays per game or THOUSANDS of plays over the course of a season that make a difference, not 2 fluky kick returns per season that are almost always counter balanced by several more disasterous decisions and fumbles by returners who put their glory over the team because they only get a few shots at it. Kyle Williams and Jacoby Jones both COST their teams Super Bowl shots last year which is one more player than I can name in the past decade who played any role in getting their team to a Super Bowl with kick returns. Remind me how many playoff games the all-time leader in kickoff return tds has played in (Josh Cribbs = 0)?

As for Holliday, the kickoff return against the Bengals was impressive and probably helped them win the game but the punt return TD against the Panthers impacted nothing but an extra TD to a blowout 36-14 win against a 3 win team. Of course, if you actually watched that play it says everything about why that guy will ultimately be a liability as he started celebrating before he crossed the end zone and lost the ball for what should have been a touchback. Holliday also lost a fumble in his first game as a Bronco and almost lost the game for them. Take away the 1 punt return and he's only at 9 yards per punt return while Martin is at 14 and aside from the 105 yard kickoff return, Holliday is at 24 yards per kickoff return as a Bronco (up from 19 as a Texan) while Martin is at 24 yards since taking behind an ever further diminished special teams blocking group that Holliday could only manage 19 yards behind. Remember, that 19 yard average on kickoffs is from where he caught the ball which with his penchant for taking balls out from 5-7 yards deep means way too many times where we started drives inside our own 15.

Keeping a 6th receiver for a few yards of possession that is usually countered by the inevitable penalties on returns is simply a poor allocation of resources and our LBs and corners dropping like flies show why (especially when we lost multiples in single games). I was much more concerned about Chris Johnson beating us last week or Welker this week than counting on some fluke return to win it for us and having that roster spot active for a Barrett Ruud or Brandon Harris to impact dozens of plays per game far outweighs the return game, especially considering it has been vastly improved with Martin back there and I'm much less concerned about him pulling a Jacoby-esque move to LOSE a game for us.

The other fact is that in a close playoff game, you will likely see Daniel Manning back there returning kickoffs anyway.
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Ten Year Texans Season Ticket Holder
Adopt a Texan 2012
Derek Newton - RT - #75 - Arkansas State
Antoine Caldwell - RG - #62 - Alabama

[Texansfan713]

A stat Adam Wexler tweeted this morning:

Martin vs Holliday

[amazingandre]