Hoyer Out, Weeden Starting for Texans vs. Titans

NFL fans probably thought – or hoped – they had seen the last of Brandon Weeden after his disastrous half-season as Tony Romo’s fill-in in Dallas. But those hopes were extinguished last week, when Weeden entered the game for the Houston Texans in place of an injured T.J. Yates.

With Brian Hoyer still under the NFL’s concussion protocol and ruled out for this week, Weeden will get the start as Houston looks to back its way into the AFC South crown.

Hoyer will travel with his team to Tennessee, but was limited in practice all week and failed to take any first-team reps. Enter Weeden, who did just enough to help the Texans cling onto an historic win against the Colts last week. He was efficient in his 18 pass attempts, only racking up 105 yards but throwing the touchdown that ended up being the difference in the 16-10 victory.

Weeden may not exactly strike fear in the hearts of the bigger bullies of the AFC, but Houston will be hoping he provides just enough damage control to drag the Texans to the conference’s fourth seed, by which point Hoyer should be cleared for a return.

Of course, the Texans have to get into the playoffs before they can start worrying about who their starting quarterback will be. As the 7-7 Texans clash with the Titans in an unappetising battle of the backups, the 6-8 Colts will be doing some scoreboard watching in Miami against the nothing-to-play-for Dolphins.

As it stands, the two AFCS contenders have split their season series, while the Texans hold a slight divisional record advantage, boasting a 3-1 mark to Indy’s 3-2. Texans fans will be hoping the situation doesn’t get so dicey as to bring tiebreakers into the situation, though. In what could be Weeden’s final chance at redemption, he and his offense will need to take care of business in Nashville.