What I Saw: Week 1, Saturday Night

I was unable to do a "What I'm Watching For" before Saturday night's four games, so in contrast, I will recompense with a "What I Saw" article.

Saturday's Games:
Cleveland @ Detroit
Pittsburgh @ New York Giants
Green Bay @ Tennessee
Houston @ Arizona

What I Saw:

1. Cleveland quarterbacks treading water

In the long-awaited debut of Johnny Manziel (who, as anticipated, ran with the second team), neither Manziel nor his competitor Brian Hoyer gained or lost any ground in the highly publicized QB battle. Hoyer led the way in yardage with 92 to Manziel's 63, but Manziel had the better completion rate (though both quarterbacks had to deal with butterfingered receivers). Manziel also demonstrated his superior scrambling ability, leading the Brown in rushing for the night. In addition to reflecting poorly on the Cleveland backfield, this showed us that Manziel suffers from "happy feet," and would rather take off than progress through his reads. That will work--for a while--until he gets his clock cleaned, thus discovering that the world is, in fact, safer inside the pocket. Neither quarterback led the team to the end zone.

If I had to choose between the two performances, I would have to say that Manziel looked like the better quarterback, but he didn't look like a winning quarterback. I don't think he did enough to supplant Hoyer, who was OK on Saturday night.

Eventually, I like Manziel to win this job, but as we have heard over and over again from Mike Pettine, it won't be handed to him. I expect Hoyer to eventually make a fatal mistake in preseason or later that will result in the starting reins being passed to Johnny Football.

2. Houston's offense is in trouble

I know Andre Johnson didn't play. I know Arian Foster didn't play. Here's the problem: Ryan Fitzpatrick did play. Or at least he was at the game, on the field, running around with the ball.

With Ryan Fitzpatrick at the helm, Texans fans could be in for another long season (photo credit: Matt Kartozian, USA Today Sports)

Ryan Fitzpatrick was a pitiful sight to see Saturday night, as he led the first team to a three-and-out, an  interception, a punt, another punt, and a second interception. Fitzpatrick had a whole half to do something right, and could not capitalize--even when most of Arizona's starters on defense became spectators. This team cannot depend on Arian Foster who is an injury waiting to happen. It cannot count on Andre Johnson who is well past his prime, disgruntled, and can't help much without a decent quarterback throwing to him.  Worst of all, this team cannot--absolutely cannot--count on Ryan Fitzpatrick. This has become all the more evident after Saturday night's disaster.

And it doesn't stop there. When (not if) Arian Foster gets hurt, who will take his place. Longtime backup Ben Tate departed for Cleveland via free agency. The initial thought was that former Giant Andre Brown would be the new backup, but Brown received ZERO reps on Saturday night, and was surprisingly cut on Monday, along with Dennis Johnson and Tim Cornett, leaving only rookie Alfred Blue and waiver-claim Jonathan Grimes behind Foster on the depth chart. Shortly thereafter, the Texans added dinosaur Ronnie Brown to the mix along with William Powell.

With no quarterback, potentially no running back (at some point), and only one proven wideout, Houston looks poised to be a prime landing spot for Jameis Winston in the 2015 NFL Draft.