Ryan Mallett: Confirmed at Week 2 Starter

Mallett played backup to teammate Brian Hoyer in the team’s Week 1 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Bryan Hoyer completed 18 of 34 passes for 236 yards, one touchdown against one interception. With 6:10 remaining in regulation and trailing 27-9, O’Brien had seen enough and turned to Mallett, who went 8 for 13 for 98 yards and brought the Texans within an onside kick of a potential game tying possession.

O’Brien said his comments weren’t meant as “an indictment” of Hoyer, the veteran who outdueled Mallett for the job during training camp.

“You’ve got to prepare as the starter regardless of whether you’re the two or the three”, Mallett said.

O’Brien told the media his advice for Mallett was to simply go out and “let it rip”.

The NFL Network first reported that Mallett would start at Carolina. We’re talking about two young quarterbacks that have similar skillsets. This is a hot take probably buried in empirical evidence from the preseason – Hoyer did win the job, after all – but he only has two starts to his name.

“With any quarterback in this league, if you get to them early like that it’s tough sledding”, Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “So we obviously looked at that extensively to try and get an understanding and feel for what he does well”. We’re going to continue to support each other and be in each other’s corner like I was last week, he’ll do the same thing for me.

Now he heads back to the Carolinas for Sunday’s game against the Panthers and his phone hasn’t stopped ringing since Sunday evening. “I’m happy to be back out there so all of them are special”. But it’s unclear when he’ll be ready to play.

Sunday in Carolina, Mallett gets to right that wrong. He lacked confidence on downfield throws, and also was unable to take care of the football.

If I, too, find myself leaning Atlanta’s way it is because of how much better their ground game appears to be.

At the end of the 2013 season, the Texans had the number one overall pick in the 2014 draft.