All QB projections   •  Current QB rankings   •   All HOU projections   •  HOU team report   •  HOU Stats

QB Sage Rosenfels, Houston Texans

HT: 6-4, WT: 216, Born: 3-6-1978, College: Iowa State, Drafted: Round 4

2008 Projections

Best Case

Matt Schaub gets injured early on or is very ineffective, and Sage Rosenfels continues his hot play from a season ago. If the offensive line can continue to improve and Andre Johnson stays healthy, the Texans offense is capable of putting up a lot of fantasy points this season, and Rosenfels would obviously benefit with playing time.

Worst Case

Schaub begins the season well and avoids the injury bug, relegating Rosenfels back to the backup quarterback position for the entire season. Rosenfels sees little to no action throughout the season and has zero fantasy value.

Outlook

Schaub will get every opportunity to lead the Texans into the playoffs this season. He is the starting quarterback and it will take either injury or poor play over a few games for Rosenfels to get another opportunity to take the reins. However he did show last season that he is capable of making things happen if given the opportunity and he has the potential to put up fantasy points if called upon. He'll likely only play in a couple of games this season making his fantasy worth minimal. If you do take Schaub for your fantasy team however it wouldn't be a poor play to slot Rosenfels away on your roster.

Relevant Articles

2008 Schedule

2007 Game Summaries

Week 6 - Rosenfels entered the game with Houston trailing 37--9 and 5:41 left in the game. To his credit, he led the Texans down the field for their only touchdown.

Week 7 - Rosenfels came in after QB Matt Schaub was shaken up the first time, and promptly threw an interception. He would play one more series before Schaub returned to the game. Schaub would get knocked out the game again late in the first half, and Rosenfels would come in and fumble the ball on his first play back. Schaub would not return to the game, and Rosenfels would play the rest of the game for Houston. He threw his second interception of the game on the first drive of the second half.

The offense did nothing until late in the third quarter. He did lead the Texans on a 70 touchdown drive early in the fourth quarter. He hit WR David Anderson on a seven yard touchdown pass and converted the two point conversion by throwing a short pass to WR Andre Davis. He had a big 53 yard pass completion negated after a penalty in the fourth quarter but, he did come back a couple of plays later and hooked up with WR Kevin Walter for 40 yards. He would come back to Walters four more times in that drive, including a six yard touchdown pass to cap it off. Rosenfels hit Walters five times for 77 yards on that drive. Rosenfels' big fourth quarter continued as he drove his team down the field on a 75 yard drive and hit TE Jeb Putzier on a seven yard touchdown pass. It was Rosenfels third touchdown pass of the quarter. The Texans got a huge break late in the game as the special teams unit recovered an on-side kick with a minute and half left in the game. This set up another big pass play as Rosenfels threw up a prayer of more then fifty yards into the end zone and Davis came up with the ball for a 53 yard touchdown with 57 seconds left in the game. This was the fourth touchdown for Rosenfels in the fourth quarter as he led them to 29 points in the fourth quarter.

Week 8 - Rosenfels fared little better than Schaub after replacing the injured starter. He did lead the team on a touchdown drive, but that was with San Diego already leading 35-3 and the game well out of hand. If anything, Rosenfels' stat line should have looked far better. He had a wide open Kevin Walter streaking down the right sideline for what could have been a 67 yard touchdown, but the pass from Rosenfels was woefully underthrown. The lack of distance on the pass allowed CB Quentin Jammer to close on the play and knock the ball away at the last moment. Like Schaub, Rosenfels was also intercepted twice in the game and never really came close to leading the team on any kind of sustained drive. His favorite target by far was Kevin Walter, as Walter saw eleven of Rosenfels' 27 pass attempts. No other player saw more than four.

Week 9 - Sage Rosenfels opened the first Texans' drive of the game with a play action bootleg run for 14 yards. He ran by rookie DL Jay Richardson on the play, who was playing for the injured DL Tommy Kelly. Overall, Rosenfels did not play particularly well and Matt Schaub's job should be safe. Rosenfels managed to make fewer mistakes than his counterpart Josh McCown and the Texans were able to hold on for the win. The deep touchdown pass to Andre Davis was slightly overthrown but Davis made a beautiful dive to feel it in for the score.

Week 13 - Rosenfels finished with a passer rating of 61.1 by completing 57% of his passes for an average gain of 6.2 yards per attempt, but failed to hold onto the lead he was given about Matt Schaub's departure. Rosenfels consistently faced heavy pressure from the Titans defense and was unable to develop a rhythm with any receiver other than Andre Johnson in this game. The Texans starting quarterback in Week 14 will likely be unknown until later in the week, with Schaub dealing with a dislocation of his non-throwing shoulder.

Week 14 - Rosenfels did not put up huge yardage numbers, throwing 27 of 36 for 209 yards, but made plays when he needed to, connecting with his receivers on three passing scores. The first came on a four yard toss to WR Andre Johnson that put Houston up 7-0. Rosenfels later connected with WR Kevin Walter from eight yards out and TE Owen Daniels from four yards out for his second and third scores of the game. He did lose two fumbles, one of which led to a Tampa Bay touchdown, but continued to make plays on third downs to keep the chains moving.

Week 15 - With Matt Schaub on the sideline with an injury, Sage Rosenfels took the snaps for the Texans. Rosenfels started the game hot but finished the first half only completing two of his final eleven passes. He scored the first touchdown of the game on a bootleg which he finished off by diving into the end zone.

Rosenfels warmed back up in the final period, throwing a touchdown to Andre Johnson and then setting up the final score of the game with a 28 yard play action pass to Johnson which landed them on the one yard line. Rosenfels has played well in the place of Matt Schaub and has helped to keep the Texans' meager playoff hopes alive.

Week 16 - Rosenfels opened the game well enough, going 4-5 for 51 yards and a touchdown on the game's opening possession. And his final stat line, while not pretty, certainly isn't the worst of his career. But contrary to what the fantasy point total may tell you, Rosenfels was not very good in this game. For the first 58 minutes, Rosenfels had thrown for 210 yards, 1 touchdown, and three interceptions. Then he engineered a garbage time drive of 23 yards that culminated in a six yard touchdown pass to Andre Johnson, a play on which there was virtually no defense being played. So his stat line was made much healthier by that late game score. Rosenfels also could have been intercepted a fourth time, but S Bob Sanders dropped one that was thrown almost right to him. It was the second time in the game that Rosenfels attempted a pass to WR Andre Johnson and the pass was on a better route for Sanders than Johnson, suggesting that there may have been a communication issue going on between quarterback and receiver. Only one of the interceptions wasn't entirely Rosenfels' fault, as WR Andre Davis had a ball go off his hands and right into the waiting arms of Matt Giordano for the pick.

Week 17 - Rosenfels was asked to manage the game and not attempt any risky passes. He did a good job of that, as he was accurate on the short and intermediate passes he was asked to attempt. Thanks to their effective running game, Rosenfels only threw the ball five times in the second half, with four of those passes going to Andre Johnson. The coaches showed confidence in him by asking him to execute a passing play on a fourth and goal play in the first half that he converted for a touchdown.