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Best Backup QBs | Daily Brew

Good backup quarterbacks are like insurance policies; you absolutely need them but hate to have to utilize them.

It's a question that came up during Texans All Access (Weekdays 6-7pm, Sports Radio 610) Tuesday – Who was the better Texans backup quarterback, Sage Rosenfels or T.J. Yates?

Yates is adored by the fans for the playoff run in 2011 and the 2015 resurrection that helped lift the Texans out of a 2-5 abyss on their way to a division title.

Rosenfels put up some big numbers and has a 6-4 record as a starter in 2007 and '08, including beginning a run that would help lift the Texans out of a 3-7 abyss on their way to 8-8 in the Hurricane Ike stained year of 2008.

Another entry in this competition could be original Texan Tony Banks. Banks didn't play at all in the inaugural season but looked good in relief of David Carr in '03 with an off-the-bench win in Buffalo and a starting victory over Super Bowl bound Carolina on the very first Battle Red Day.

I know a lot of you are pointing to Case Keenum right now as a candidate and that's fair. Unfortunately, although he brought some excitement to the derailment season that was the 2-14 2013 campaign, he didn't win any of his starts, going 0-8.

But he did have one of the great just-got-back-here performances in 2014 when he literally got the call to start for the Texans in week 16 as he was in a deer blind as a Rams practice squader. He went 2-0 to close out a winning season, including a rousing victory over a hot Ravens team.

But the winner here is clearly Yates. And it's not about numbers, it's about achievement and lore. Yates' performances in the first division clincher at Cincinnati and the playoff win will never be forgotten. And he followed that up by coming off the bench to help Houston beat an 8-0 Bengals team on the road on Monday Night Football in 2015.

The current QB, A.J. McCarron is a good one. But, he's an insurance policy you hope you'll never need, having one of the best QBs in the league at the helm.

All of the quarterbacks the Texans could face in 2020.

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