Wild weekend so i dont have much today. Here’s a generic Texans preview by Scott Zucker of USA Today. I’ll sum it up for you quickly: he likes our offense, doesn’t believe in our defense, yada yada. Go us.

This article by Paul Kuharsky of ESPN.com goes a little bit more in depth in regards to the keys to our success this year.

Houston was one of just four teams since 2000 that were top five in offense but not top 10 in scoring.

We are definitely going to have to improve our red zone efficiency if we are thinking about the playoffs this year. It does us no good to rack up the yards in between the 20’s only to kick a field goal, or worse, turn the ball over when we get close. Improving our red zone play to 50-55% alone could be worth 2-3 wins for this team. Scoring touchdowns over field goals really puts the squeeze on opposing offenses and should lead to a better pass rush by the Texans defense as opponents are forced to go more pass-happy to keep up. We cannot squander points. Allowing any NFL team to keep the game within reach will always be a recipe for disaster. Good teams, playoff teams win the games they’re supposed to win.

Turnovers make me sick. It’s really a miracle that we finished 8-8 last season despite an abysmal -10 turnover ratio. Losing Sage alone should drop that number down a few notches (shameless bash) but it goes without saying that we need to limit the turnover. For real this time. An improved blocking scheme coupled with a strong running game will be instrumental in achieving this goal. To me, this statistic alone is the one that separates the playoff teams from the draft-position-seeking teams. Take the Miami Dolphins for instance. This team finished 1-15 in 2007 and aside from a pretty significant front office move did little to alter their personnel. Yet, in 2008 they made the playoffs. How did they do this? Well, a miraculous rebound season from Chad Pennington didn’t hurt, nor did a healthy Ronnie Brown. I’m going to go ahead and chalk it up to a league best +17 turnover ratio.

Not much separates the top teams from the bottom feeders in the NFL. The league strives for parody and it shows year in and year out as at least one surprise team rises up every year. It’s hard enough to win games as it is; you can’t beat yourself. Unfortunately, over the past seven years that is exactly what the Texans have done. You can’t win on talent alone. In 2009, the Texans MUST limit the turnovers as well as limit the wasted opportunities in the red zone. As long as we don’t squander opportunities, their are very few teams that can hang with us. Really.

The Houston Chronicle is reporting that the Texans have extended kicker Kris Brown with a 4 year contract worth $10 million of which $2.5 million is guaranteed. Congrats, Kris! Just keep draining those kicks. Please.

-Pull the wagon over, we’ve got to pick up another one. Adam Schein of FoxSports.com predicts that the Texans will win 10 games AND make the playoffs this season.

-Kristie Rieken of the Dallas Morning News has some very nice things to say about Duane Brown, his slimmer look and his prospects for success this season.

According to Yahoo! the Houston Texans have decided to let the one year tender signed by Owen Daniels expire before negotiating a new contract for their Pro Bowl tight end. The article states that O.D. wants to be the highest paid TE in the NFL.

It is unfortunate how these contract negotiations play out in the media. We as fans naturally form an opinion about the players involved with little to no information surrounding the circumstances of the negotiations. All I hope is that Daniels, upset about his contract situation or not, comes out and gives us another Pro Bowl caliber season and earns a huge extension. It goes without saying that having a TE catching first downs in the middle of the field is instrumental to the success of the Texans offense. From the sound of it, Owen is going to have to earn his big pay day the old fashion way. He’s going to have to produce.

Len Pasquarelli of ESPN.com goes into detail about the circumstances surrounding Owen Daniels signing the one year tender from the Texans.

The team is apparently still trying to hammer out an extension for O.D., and it goes without saying that the best case scenario would be to sign him sooner rather than later, but one has to wonder if the team’s reluctance to secure his future with the team by this point will rub Daniels the wrong way moving forward.

While he still holds out hope that the team will sign him to a long-term extension, Owen Daniels decided to sign the one year tender offered to him by the Texans earlier this summer. Presently OD is set to make $2.792 million for the 2009 season but that number could increase significantly in the next few weeks as the team tries to lock up their Pro Bowl tight end.

Although he signed his tender yesterday Daniels remained MIA for the Texans mandatory mini camp Monday morning. Because he is now under contract Daniels will probably be fined. Had he waited until after today to sign Daniels could have avoided a fine. However, the team had an option beginning Monday that would have allowed them to rescind the offer.

Daniels is certainly making a statement with his absence that despite the fact that he signed the team’s tender he still very much desires to get a contract suitable to what he feels he’s worth. OD had a breakout season in 2008 in which he caught 70 balls for 862 yards and 2 touchdowns while converting 46 first downs. Daniels has become a valuable weapon for the Texans’ new high octane offense, one that the team should have every intention of retaining for the long haul.

It appears the Texans find themselves in a precarious situation. Dunta Robinson and Owen Daniels, two of their most high profile players, are the first two holdouts in team history. When the Texans were a 10+ loss per year team they rarely had any player who would give them the type of production that would give them close to the leverage necessary to hold out (successfully). As we’re seeing with Dunta and Owen, as well as Demeco Ryans, the Texans are running into the same problem that the good teams start to run into and that is that the production necessary to win football games reaches a point where it becomes too expensive to retain it.

We see it every offseason, teams needing to lower payrolls are forced to release veterans, in many cases quite valuable vets. The Texans are beginning to see the cost of having multiple players perform amongst the best in the league at various positions. Unless a player was a first round pick their second contract will almost certainly dwarf their first contract. That is why you hear that successful teams build through the draft and not through free agency. Luckily the Texans have had successful drafts recently, illustrated by the fact that so many players are starting to command lucrative sums of money to retain. We’re not quite their yet, but as the success of the team grows so will the turnover. We are going to have to get used to seeing the faces we have come to love wearing other uniforms in the future. You just can’t sign em all. Hopefully this years draft class will prove to be as fruitful as the past couple have been and we can cultivate more Pro Bowl caliber players. Although the team has every intention of extending their top free agents the harsh reality is that we are probably not going to see all three back in Steel Blue next year. As long as we can continue to develop our young and upcoming talent, the Brian Cushings and Duane Browns and Antwan Moldens and James Caseys of the team, we should be able to surround Schaub, Mario and company with enough talent to push this team into the realm we all desire: perennial playoff contender.

It appears that the Houston Texans have reportedly come to terms on a one year contract for soon-to-be-washed-up quarterback Rex Grossman. Incredibly, this will be Grossman’s seventh year in the NFL. As you may remember, he spent the past six seasons with the Chicago Bears and led them (or rode the coattails, depending on your point of view) to Super Bowl XLI where they lost to Indianapolis Colts. Grossman will compete with fellow questionable signal caller Dan Orlovsky for the right to back up Matt Schaub (which could translate into a significant amount of playing time given Schaub’s injury history). Orlovsky signed with the team earlier this offseason.

If you have picked up on my tone at all then you will realize that this Texans fan is less than excited for his team’s newest offseason acquisition. In reality this is a pretty tense time in the Texans fan-osphere. We are entering our eight year of existence with immense expectations, both Dunta Robinson and Owen Daniels are holdouts with contract disputes and now the front office has brought in the second quarterback they hope they never have to play of the offseason.

I never thought I would say this but I am going to miss Sage Rosenfels. Although we were all pretty convinced he was going to blow any game he entered in biblical fashion we also had that small part of us that new he could lead us to a victory every now and then (in fact, he was 6-5 as a starter in three years for the Texans). Can anyone stand up with a straight face and say that they think Rex Grossman can become a successful NFL quarterback this late in the game? His career touchdown to interception ratio is slightly worse than 1:1. He has an injury history which includes torn knee ligaments and a broken ankle which has led him to miss a significant amount of playing time throughout his career. He has also been benched on multiple occasions in favor of Kyle Orton and Brian Griese, not exactly stalwarts of the quarterback position. Whatever the upside is to this move, I’m having a very hard time understanding.

I STILL love this team and, health permitting, I STILL think this team makes the playoffs. I love the offseason acquisitions of Antoine Smith and Shaun Cody and I can’t speak highly enough about our draft class. I STILL believe in Rick Smith and Gary Kubiak and I hope to see Dunta and Owen on the field by the time the preseason kicks off. I STILL like our chances every bit as much as I did an hour/day/week/month ago.

Alls I am saying is this: we are being set up for heartache by bringing in a volatile player like Rex Grossman. Throughout his career, Grossman has made a name for himself with his inconsistancy and questionable decision making. Like Sage, Grossman has had some cataclysmic meltdowns of his own (just check his career game log) not to mention that he is notorious for missing the occasional wide open receiver. He has not handled criticism from the media very well in the past despite the fact that he has given them plenty of bullets to use. The real question is, what can we expect him to contribute to this team? Can we trust this guy to come into a game where we have the lead and expect him to hold onto it?

A lot of questions such as these rush through my head as I begin to come to terms with the signing. In the end I think Orlovsky will secure the backup gig and I truly believe that he will come into his own and prove to be a valuable piece of this team albeit in a backup role. On the other hand I can’t envision a scenario where Grossman makes this team out of camp, I really don’t. At this point Alex Brink looks like the odd man out but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him hold onto the 3rd string job when the season rolls around. There will be plenty of time for Grossman to piss off the coaching staff.

Although my pessimism in not unfounded, I do apologize for it. I will go ahead and resort to my favorite cop-out and say that I have full faith in the GM and the head coach and believe in any direction they steer this team. At least for now…

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John Clayton of ESPN.com list your Houston Texans as one of his surprise teams for the 2009 season. Wow, really going out on a limb there, John.

The truth is those of us who follow the Texans on a week to week basis know exactly what this team has to offer. I think Texans nation is in agreement that this could and should be the year our team breaks through with its first playoff birth. While Clayton

I agree that we need to play better versus our AFC South rivals, although I anticipate that this team will improve on its 1-5 and 2-4 division records the past two seasons, respectively. Remember that Jacksonville (who we have historically faired best against in the division) needed to convert a fourth down just to send the first meeting to overtime. We all know what happened in the rematch, our first ever Monday Night Football game. Does anyone else agree that the Titans are not as scary without face stomper on their team? Now that we are safe from Sage whirly-birding away a win or two I would rather expect us to finish at least .500 or better in the South.

It goes without saying that the Texans will need to get off to a better start than last year especially given the fact that two of our first three games are against division rivals (again). As Clayton points out, we have faired pretty well against the rest of the league the past two seasons and given our opponents 2009 should be no different. I know this is the NFL and things change from year to year so I apologize in advance to the Niners, Seahawks, Raiders, Rams, et al. Let me just put it this way, if we can’t beat the teams we’re supposed to beat than we’re not a playoff team anyways.

Hold on one sec, I just looked over Andre Johnson’s gamelog from last season for the 20 millionth time and I started to get giddy. Anyways…

As always our success this season will completely depend on health. If we can keep Schaub on his feet and he plays (dare I say) a full season, the offense will flourish and we will be in the playoffs. If not…let’s just say I fear what will happen when Orlovsky takes the field. Raise your hand if you thought Slaton would make it through the whole season, let alone be the most productive back in the AFC last season. I sure didn’t. I have to be honest, I am a little concerned with the team’s apathy towards addressing the RB depth this offseason so at this point I will chalk it up to pure faith in good ‘ol Kubiak and Smith. Let’s hope they know what they’re doing.

At the end of the day, I like our chances in 2009 (understatement). We had one of the most prolific offenses in the NFL last season and I don’t see a reason why that should not repeat itself. The defense was addressed heavily in the draft, and when you pair that with the fact that Mario, Demeco, Dunta and Co. have another year of seasoning under their belts we could be in store for a pleasant surprise on the other side of the ball. The fans are ready, the city is ready, and most importantly it appears that this team is ready. 2009 will surely be an adventure, hopefully with a happy ending for the Texans. In the words of the great Samuel L. Jackson: “Hold on to yo butts.”

Pete Prisco of CBSSports.com has the Houston Texans ranked #12 in his post draft power rankings.

It appears that NFL fans are universally agreeing that 2009 should be the year that the Texans make their first trip to the post season. Thank you for joining the party!

Dunta Robinson has let it be known that he was not too happy with the team’s decision to franchise him this offseason as opposed to signing him to a long term extension. He has already skipped voluntary workouts with the team and remains vocal through the media to voice his displeasure. The plot thickens as the talented Texans DB has publicly stated that he might sit out regular season games unless the team agrees not to franchise him again next season.

Like all the other professional sports, football is a business where labor disputes between millionaires and billionaires often results work stoppages and hold-outs where the only true victims in the whole situation are the fans. Truth be told, contract disputes are a common occurrence in this highly lucrative industry with the general fan base most commonly siding with the team against the “greedy” players who rob their team of their talents. Before we condemn Dunta for his actions, we must take several thoughts into consideration.

Unlike Major League Baseball where the Players Union, the most powerful union in America, essentially call all the shots, the NFL owners have historically had a stranglehold over the players when it comes to their collective bargaining agreements. Also unlike baseball, football contracts are NOT guaranteed. The only guaranteed money a player receives is tied to his signing bonus. It is for this reason that many, if not all, players resent the franchise tag. It is easy for the common fan to look at the one year tender a player receives during his franchised year (the average of the top 5 salaries at that position) and be shocked that a player would resent that sort of a pay day. However, the franchise tag prevents a player (usually a quite productive player in his prime) from signing a long term extension that comes with a big signing bonus. In the case of Dunta Robinson, he would be guaranteed about $10 million to play football this season. Indeed this is a large sum of money, but it pails in comparison to the amount he would be entitled to on the open market. For example, Deangelo Hall (taken two spots ahead of Dunta in the 2004 Draft) signed a 6 year $55 million contract with $23 million guaranteed.

Many will argue that Dunta will have another opportunity at the end of the season sign a long term deal. It is unfair to take this stance because the players have to look out for their own well being in a job where no one else will. NFL players have the shortest average career length of all the major sports and also have the highest incidence of injury. A team can cut a player at any time any only owe them the unpaid prorated portion of their signing bonus. In Dunta’s case coming off a career threatening injury, how can we blame him for wanting to secure his financial future to the maximum of his ability?

We tend to side with the team in contract disputes between players and management because its the team that suffers when a player misses time. However, this is no different that any other labor dispute between employee and employer. Just because we’re talking about larger sums of money than any of us deal with doesn’t take away a player’s right to demand what he feels he is entitled to given the market, especially in a system that is so heavily skewed in favor of the owners. The bottom line is that I hope this situation gets resolved sooner rather than later and we see Dunta on the field in time for minicamps. With any luck we can extend him and assure that a vital cog of our defense is a Houston Texan for a long time. We should all start preparing ourselves for life without Dunta, but until that time comes I don’t expect to see anything else from the man besides the same hard work and dedication that he has displayed from the moment he stepped foot on the field at Reliant Stadium.