PHOENIX -- For nearly the entire time Bob McNair has owned the Houston Texans, they've been looking for a long-term solution at quarterback.

"What we have done is we've said we wanted to strengthen ourselves at the quarterback position so we could get consistent play," McNair said. "We're not saying we have to have a star performer at that position, we just want to get consistent performers and I think we are in a position to do that."

"We're not saying we have to have a star performer at that position, we just want to get consistent performers and I think we are in a position to do that," Texans owner Bob McNair said of the quarterback position. Bob Levey/Getty Images

They'll attempt to do that through the competition between Ryan Mallett and Brian Hoyer for the starting quarterback role. McNair believes the winner of that competition will give the Texans consistency they need.

"I think so," McNair said. "We don't know who will come out on top. It's open, they know it. They both have talent. We know more about Hoyer than we do about Mallett because Mallett hasn't had a chance to play. We'll let em compete and we'll be a better team as a result of it."

And with a consistent player at quarterback, McNair believes the Texans can win a Super Bowl.

"Teams have done that," he said. "Look at Baltimore back in 2000. They had an outstanding defense. They could run the ball and they had a quarterback that didn't turn it over that much. I think that is a plan that can bring you great success. Look what we did last year playing four quarterbacks. We didn't have that consistent play at quarterback and yet look how close we came. We've improved our defense this year."

The Ravens' model is one that a lot of teams point to when they don't have a star quarterback. Since Trent Dilfer's Super Bowl triumph, here's the list of Super-Bowl winning quarterbacks: Tom Brady, Brad Johnson, Peyton and Eli Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Joe Flacco and Russell Wilson. They aren't all elite quarterbacks, but most are.

That the Texans have searched for that elusive player so long tells McNair something else.

"It shows you how difficult it is to get a good quarterback," he said. "No. 1, I mean how many good ones have come along in the last 10 years. No. 2, when they came along were you in a position in the draft to draft any of them. Unfortunately when we had a no. 1 draft pick, there wasn't an Andrew Luck out there. A lot of that's pure luck."