There doesn’t seem to be a whole of a lot improvement when it comes to the quarterback situation for the Houston Texans over the preseason compared with last year’s disaster. Still, despite trading for Ryan Mallett and selecting Tom Savage in the draft, Ryan Fitzpatrick remains the prime candidate to start in week 1 and stay in that position through 2014.

The Texans cut Case Keenum (who got picked up by the Rams, another team with quarterback trouble) and got Mallett, a talented but troubled quarterback to help with the backup situation. Why Mallett? Bill O’Brien was an offensive coordinator for the Patriots before he left to work for Penn State and now is taking on his first role as a head coach in the NFL.  Familiarity, which might help if Fitzpatrick doesn’t pan out.

Fitzpatrick has his moments and a pretty strong arm, but is as inconsistent as you may get, and something of a turnover machine. He has 106 touchdown throws in his career but also 93 intercepted passes, something that was a huge problem for the Texans last season, as Matt Schaub almost threw his career away by playing disastrous football which the Texans could never recover from.

Tom Savage is a project. Maybe one day, the rookie QB is going to start for the Texans. The 24 year old played for Pitt but got very limited time in training camp and in preseason to show what he can do. Right now, it doesn’t seem like the Texans are providing any sort of hint or indication that they’re planning to start him at some point this season.

The same goes for Mallett. He has a big arm, and is familiar with O’Brien. That’s about it. For the Texans, they need more, which makes the possibility of Mallett or Savage taking over during the season for Fitzpatrick as a planned strategy very unlikely.

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