Texans Releasing Mallett Was Good... For Mallett

  Ryan Mallett was released on Tuesday, October 27, by the Houston Texans for missing the teams flight to Miami on Sunday, a game in which the Texans were embarrassed by the Dolphins 44-26. It was reported that Mallett missed his flight due to oversleeping that morning.

  Mallett, 27, was drafted in the third round in 2011 to the New England Patriots. After backing up Tom Brady for three years, Mallet was traded, in 2014, to the Houston Texans for a conditional 2016 sixth or seventh-round draft pick. He got his first chance to start, week 11 of the 2014 season, against the Cleveland Browns. In that game he passed for 211 yard, two touchdowns while completing 66 percent of his passes to defeat the Cleveland Browns 23-7. The next week he had his season ended early due to an injury against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Entering the 2015-16 season it wasn't clear who head coach Bill O'Brien would name the starter, between Mallet and former and  Cleveland Brown quarterback Brian Hoyer.  When the season opener came around, Hoyer would be named the starter against the Kansas City Chiefs week one. At the end of the game Mallet was put in the game to replace Hoyer but the Texans were still on the losing end, coming up short 27-20. Mallet would also get the opportunity to start in the next four games following week one. In those four games, he [Mallett] passed for 672 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions, with a record of 1-3. In week five vs the Indianapolis Colts, on Thursday Night Football, he was pulled in the second quarter for Hoyer who would out-perform Mallet. After being sidelined they continued to show the frustrated Mallett pacing the sidelines. That would be the last opportunity that Mallet would get as a starter in Houston for coach O'Brien.

It was reported Sunday Morning that Mallett did not travel with the team. It would come out later that he was didn't travel because he said that he overslept, resulting in him missing the flight.

Mallett for most of his career, pro and college, has been put in a bad position to succeed and be the long-term answer for a team.

Coming out of high school, Mallett was a five-star recruit and one of the top prospects in the country and would commit to Michigan. After his freshman season, Mallett would then have to deal with the offense changing over as Lloyd Carr retired and the team would name, now Arizona and former West Virginia head coach, Rich Rodriguez as the new head coach. Rodriguez had a much different offensive system than coach Carr, a system that didn't fit well with Mallett's style of play. After Michigan announced the new coaching regime, Mallett transferred to Arkansas where he would have to sit out his first year. He played the 2009 and 2010 season as the starter for the Arkansas Razorbacks - passing for 7,493 yards, 62 touchdowns and 19 touchdowns - declaring for the NFL after his junior season. He was drafted in the third round to the Patriots organization and he would have the benefit of sitting behind Tom Brady and learn more about the quarterback position at the professional level from one of the greatest to ever play the position.

Being traded to the Texans in 2014 seemed to be the gate opening for Mallett to be a starter. However, over the offseason, when the Texans signed Brian Hoyer the more the doubt grew that Mallet was going to be the leader of this offense. After losing out to Hoyer, it was clear that O'Brien didn't have much faith in Mallet as a starter. This Texans team doesn't seem to have much stability and after getting off to an rough start (2-5) it appears that they aren't even sure if Hoyer is the answer.

Mallett, now a free agent, may benefit the most from this situation the more you look at it.

The Texans look bad, I don't think they'll be able to recover from this poor start, they look to be fighting for the no.1 pick more than a playoff spot at this point. Mallett might not be a starter again this season, but I can think of three teams that could use him on their rosters right now - San Francisco, Dallas, and Cleveland would all be good fits for Mallett and he could be one player being injured away from receiving that phone call. You never know, given the right opportunity, Mallett could one day get his chance to prove he could be a starting quarterback in this league.