THURSDAY, 1:30pm: The Texans officially announced that Mallett will be the team’s starting quarterback on Sunday against the Panthers.
WEDNESDAY, 1:34pm: Just one game into the 2015 season, the Texans are gearing up to make a change under center. This Sunday against the Panthers, the Texans are planning to start Ryan Mallett over free agent addition Brian Hoyer, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter).
Both Hoyer and Mallett signed two-year contracts with the Texans this past March, with Mallett getting a $7MM deal from the team, while Hoyer received a $10.5MM pact. While Mallett had the advantage of having spent the 2014 season in Houston, Hoyer has the more extensive résumé as a starter, having started 17 career games, including 13 last season for the Browns. Mallett has just two career starts.
Hoyer, who had a 7-6 record last season being replaced by Johnny Manziel in Cleveland, signed a two-year contract with $4.75MM guaranteed. Despite far less in-game seasoning in two career starts (both coming last season), Mallett re-signed on a two-year, $7MM deal shortly after to create a strange scenario where a team signs both of its potential starting signal-callers in free agency. The 29-year-old Hoyer was set to be in the lower third of compensation for starting QBs while Mallett, 27, was to be one of the league’s best-compensated backups.
Despite neither completing passes at a rate higher than 55 percent last year, Hoyer and Mallett were two of the most coveted QBs in a barren veteran class. After Hoyer’s rough start to the 2015 season, the Texans are probably glad that they doubled up on competent signal callers.