I am very confused by this given your original comments. Maybe I need the paint by numbers version of this chain.

Steriod rumors as they relate to Cushing are fair game in here (heck, this is an internet message board after all), but let's please move on from any misunderstandings in this thread and rejoin the convo about Cushing.

The silliest thing about Cushing, in my opinion, were those analysts who were knocking him because they thought he watches his diet too closely. Talk about reaching!

I'm actually torn on this. While it's clearly not a bad thing that he works as hard as he does to stay in shape, I think the point some were trying to make is that Cushing may already be tapped out physically with no room for growth. If he has to work this hard to maintain his current form, I can see why some might consider this a question mark.

Actually I think the concerns were more that he is too obsessive about his appearance/diet/physique as compared to the game. In that, his diet/body building would take precedent over, or be a detriment to his film study and/or play on the field.

I think that's a legitimate, yet unlikely concern. I'm more worried about his injury potential (which, coincidentally, could also be a result of his body building) than anything else.

That more closely resembles my impression of the concerns over his prepared meals. It led to an image that he is a pretty boy more concerned with how he looks in the mirror than how he plays on the field. Lifting weights to look good at the beach isn't necessarily the same type of workout that would help you get better as a football player.

What do you mean by that exactly ? We are talking about a young man who is 22 or 23 who at that age is surely at the height of his physical maturity in terms of pure athleticism, we aren't talking about a 17 or an 18 year-old HS athlete. Now he will improve mentally (hopefully), both thru psychological maturation and learning the game and becoming experienced as a pro, as an NFL player which should make him a better football player. But his pure physical prowess will never exceed where he's at now, atleast I don't think it will ?

Well, first off, it wasn't really my point, just one I had heard others make (as well as the body builder point that others have also made). In short, I think some were concerned that it took an incredible amount of dietary efforts (regimented diet/supplements/etc.) and working out for Cushing to be the 245 guy he was at the Combine. Unless he were to keep up what many have viewed as a pretty rigorous routine, he might not maintain his physique. Thus, it may require a tremendous amount of discipline by a freshly made millionaire to maintain the strength and speed you drafted him for. Maybe you get that discipline, maybe you don't.

In all honesty, I really don't have a problem with Cushing or his workout routine and he seems like a guy who is going to go all out to try and be successful. I was just chiming in on one of the concerns raised at the time of the Combine.

You know, in light of the first round project that Amobi Okoye has been, I'm not that opposed to more of finished product athletically in Cushing. Hopefully it helps him to be better able to make a more immediate impact, at least physically, especially since rookies all seem to hit a wall sometime past the midway point of their first seasons.

Also, I would hope that Cushing takes care of his body for the next ten years as he supposedly has since at least high school. That'll keep his body fresher for longer I hope. Just need to also hope that he hasn't been slowing putting too much strain on any joints or ligaments with any premature or overdone muscle growth.

I might be wrong but looks like Okoye is still the youngest guy on Texans, by six months, and second youngest is Cushing.

Looks like Cushing is pretty likely starter at SAM, big, strong, athletic, smart, works hard, keeps learning, and good team player. might be a question on third down, probably not as he learns all of the playbook.

We have DeMeco entrenched in the middle, but have 10 linebackers in camp, perhaps all pretty good. so that puts lots of competition for the WILL position , perhaps flexibility to play multiple defensive sets and contribution on special teams making the difference on how many of the 10 we keep for how long, and of course injuries come into it. I guess in the end Texans will keep between 5 and 7 LB's.

Sounds like Adibi put on 10 pounds of muscle, so up to 240 or so in offseason and looking pretty good, as is Diles, and likely Bently. Tough cuts coming.

And nice to see we have depth finally, hope it turns into a great defense this year.

My reason for posting this was is Cushing going to be able to cover the pass? Is he going to be a 2 down player? He already is not the best cover LB, will the slower speed due to the higher than average playing weight hurt him. IIRC he did not blow me away with his forty time at the lighter weight. Did our team get dooped by a work out?

And yes I was not in favor of our drafting of Cushing at the time of draft.

I guess we'll see, according to a some analysts he might be good at pass coverage, three down LB

http://warroom.sportingnews.com/nfl/...yers/8442.html
Run/pass recognition: Is naturally instinctive. Is not fooled by play-action or misdirection plays. Does not make mental mistakes. Does a good job carrying out his responsibilities and assignments. Grade: 8.5

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players/559359
Pass Defense: As a former defensive back, Cushing gets back in coverage better than most linebackers. He has good vision locating the ball and does a nice job of anticipating the quarterback. He does not get great depth to cover in the deep third of the zone, but in the short area he has the containment skills to make plays in front of him. He does look a little tight in his movement coming out of his backpedal, but does a good job when asked to just cover the tight end or running back. He does a good job of shadowing underneath, but with that slight hips stiffness he might not be as effective in deep man coverage. GRADE: 6.8

He played at 259 at USC and there is some good film on him, so I think I'm ok with the pick. we gotta see in real games though. so far Smith-Kubiak done good at draft, so guess I'll trust it for ow.

Me neither. I think McClin would have been a better value at 15 and I would have favored taking him even though WR was already a stronger position for the Texans than LB. But I preferred Cushing over either of the other 2 USC backers. Still, I think we could have gotten a solid 2-down SAM in later rounds and not be left in the postion to be concerned about "making" Cushing a 3-down LB since we used such a high pick for him.
But he's now our first-round pick, out top pick in the '09 Draft so I'm gonna try to keep a positive attitude about him.

Saw a quote from Kubiak that they usually plan to keep six LB's. Demeco, Cushing, and Adibi are the locks IMO. Diles as long as he's fully healed should be as well because he can play all three positions. June and Bentley would be the other two. Things can change once they get to camp...I just hope it's not because of injuries.

Did anyone ever think he was going to be on the field in pass coverage on 3rd down? No SLBs play coverage on 3rd down. I said all along that 4-3 SLB is not a big impact position.

The only way he was ever going to be a 3 down player is if he could drop down to DE on passing downs and being 262 definitely doesn't hurt that.

Bill Romanowski was a workout warrior and nutrition junkie. Id say that worked out pretty well for him. Do not think I am comparing the two physically or on the field, just their dietary and workout habbits.

Alot of players have personal chef's to regiment their diets, probably half the team does if not more. I watched the videos of his workouts and judging by the success he had at USC, you could definatly say that he isnt working out just to "look good at the beach".

This just seems like nit picking to me. It is easy to find something in every player that could be misconstrued any way you wish in able to project them as something they arent. All the commercials and TV appearances by Peyton Manning show me he isnt really interested in football and would rather be in holywood..

This seems like a timely comment from the official team site under "Quotes from OTA's Day 9".


Head coach Gary Kubiak

(on who besides LB DeMeco Ryans he’ll put in on third down situations) “Well, obviously (LB Brian) Cushing has the ability to do that. All we did with him, initially he’s worked with the first group in base and we start him with the second group at nickel just to kind of not throw too much at him too quick, but he’s caught up. No doubt in my mind (LBs) Zac (Diles), Xavier (Adibi) can do it, Kevin (Bentley) can do it. In that situation, on third downs, you want your two best athletes out there being able to cover and possibly do some rushing of the passer, so we’ll see what happens. Right now, we’ll be working with DeMeco and Cushing, and Zac and X (Adibi) are doing it.”

Cushing/Linebacker video from HT.com:

http://www.houstontexans.com/tv/inde...03&play_clip=Y

I know I'm jumping in real late on the steroid thing, and it's a pretty annoying topic to begin with, but I personally couldn't care less whether you did them or not, as long as you're not caught. Commedian Daniel Tosh said it best: "I think steroids should be mandatory. As fans, I think we deserve the finest athletes science can create. So what if your body breaks down and you die at fifty? You hate life after football anyway. I'm doing you a favor."

Back on topic. I think Cushing's going to be fantastic. I've not seen anything from OTA's to make me think anything less. As others have said, he played at 259 at USC and was nothing if not productive. Granted, SLB is not the biggest impact position on the field, but he's definitely an upgrade over Greenwood. That's not even debatable, IMO. While we definitely have some question marks there, it looks like we have a solid if not really good front 7. Our young corners have a lot of potential, and we're 1 really good safety away from a really terrifying defense, provided we allow our D-line to play to their strengths, IE penetrate. A big, sure-tackling SLB definitely should open things up for Bush to be more aggresive with the front 4, especially with demeco already there. We've got 3 pretty impressive athletes competing for WLB, so we've definitely got some depth. This is probably the best linebacking corps we've ever had, to go along with the best D-line we've ever had (assuming we can get some maturation from Amobi, and Connor can do what we ask of him. We know what we're going to get out of Mario.)

One thing that gets overlooked in our never ending obsession with getting to the QB, is how absolutely atrocious we were at stopping the run last year. I'm not saying that rushing the passer isn't a critical area that this team needs to improve, but if your consistently getting gutted on the ground like we were last year than your not going to get many opportunities in third and long to really let dogs loose up front. That's one reason I was OK with going for a SLB in the first round. Most of the time that's not a position I would want to use a 1st round pick on. If Cush can help improve our run defense than I'm fine with him being a two down LB. I would have hoped that a 1st round LB might be able to drop down as a rush end on third down, but Barwin should be the one filling that role.

No matter how pass happy this league, and this division, gets you will always have to be able to stop the run...and we were terrible at it last year.