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Patric Schneider/Associated Press

Remember Jeff Francoeur, the former Braves player? He was one of the top prospects in baseball about 10 years ago before making his MLB debut in 2005. Francoeur hit everything he saw during his rookie season and finished with a .300 average over 70 games.

Opponents adjusted and realized that he had trouble with plate discipline and handling the breaking stuff, and his batting average dropped to .260 during his second season. His opponents made the adjustment, he did not.

Except for not being a top prospect, I think there are some similarities between Francoeur and Case Keenum.

The former Houston Cougar started off hot over his first three starts with an average of 274 yards per game, seven touchdowns, no interceptions and a 105.1 QB rating. Over his final five starts his yards per game average dropped to 188, he threw only two touchdowns to six interceptions and had a 60 QB rating.

Keenum had difficulty identifying and picking up the blitz, and to make matters worse, went through his reads too slowly and held on to the ball too long. Opponents recognized those issues and exploited them.

Keenum also struggled with his accuracy. According to Pro Football Focus, Keenum ranked near the bottom of the league in accuracy percentage, which takes into account dropped passes, throwaways, batted passes and passes attempted while being hit. The only quarterbacks who ranked lower were Geno Smith, Eli Manning and Matt McGloin.

The Texans opponents adjusted while Keenum did not. The question going into this season is which version of Keenum will show up?

While his overall accuracy was poor, one thing Keenum did do well is throw the deep ball, as the earlier Pro Football Focus article pointed out. In fact, Keenum ranked first in that stat. Jayson Braddock of Sportstalk 790 noticed how well Keenum was throwing the deep ball during OTAs:

Keenum w 2 more great "go" throws. 1 barely misses Martin who was blanketed by Dre Hal. Other goes thru Hopkins hands who had step on Harris — Jayson Braddock (@JaysonBraddock) May 28, 2014

I like the potential and upside of Keenum, but I would be surprised if he was named the starter for the beginning of the season. Bill O'Brien can get the most out of whatever he has, but Keenum doesn't fit the profile of what he looks for in a quarterback compared to the other quarterbacks, Tom Savage and Christian Hackenberg, Houston has picked.

Either he or T.J. Yates will be cut or traded before the season starts. The question that remains besides which one it will be is how long Bill O'Brien decides to let competition play out. My guess is both quarterbacks will make it to training camp.

My preference would be for Keenum to get the early starts instead of Fitzpatrick, but my guess is the coaching staff doesn't agree. Keenum could be the odd man out.

If he makes the team, he'll likely spend the season as Fitzpatrick's backup. If Fitzpatrick stumbles early, Keenum could get a few starts. But if the coaches think Savage is ready, he'll likely get passed over like T.J. Yates did last season.