Speaking of haircuts, here's a pic of David Anderson's latest, this time with a hairline to match Schaub's:

http://sportsblog.abc13.com/2009/08/a-haircut.html

With a similar hairline myself, I can only wonder if Anderson is taunting the hairline gods.

uh oh.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...t/6558685.html

Attended my first Texans practice today. Didn't stay the whole session but was there long enough to get a quick look-see at some of the players including our top picks. Cushing is even bigger than what I imagined, and tall. Really he's almost rangy and looks more like a DE than a LB to me. And actually I guess he did play DE for a year in college ?
Speaking of DEs, I dunno how Connar Barwin weighs in at 265 which I believe is Kubiaks claim ? He's wiry. Hopefully he's as quick as they claim.
And every year I see Mario again he looks more like a power-forward that a football player. A more and more like former Chiefs great, DE Art Still.
Oh BTW, they definitely got to Cushing and his shoulder-length hair. Whoever did that to him did a real # on him. Welcome to the NFL son.

Well you can see the legs are starting to get tired. Player are starting to fall.

Quin did get iced and did leave for a short time. He was back later without the ice and just watching but still in pads. It appears to be a calf injury, I thought he might of been kicked in the shin by the way the iced him.

The offense must of looked bad to Kubiak because the entire offense had to go run sprints after a hot long practice. I even saw Kubiak running outside the practice facility on the street. BTW Kyle Shanahan lead his troops he was the first to finish the run. Big Bruce Matthews pulled up the rear on his two bad knees.

As for observations, Cushing got a little rookie hazing done last night and he appeared with an ugly mohawk today.

Caldwell has been working at OC with the 2nd team and White has been working at Guard. This might be due to be short handed at OG, due to Chester not practicing yet again. Chester's missed reps have been taken by Casey Studdard, and he has held his own, while working with the 1st team.

Hill finally was able to practice, and he made good impression to me. The man can block, and his routes looked solid also.

Thor can catch, but he finished practice with a bobble that Cushing hauled in 25 yds downfield. Nice drop.

Ferguson made the WR pay when they went over the middle, but he knew to not hit the franchise (#80 to those who could not guess).

I like the attitude I see from the new defense. We will see much more gang tackling, and Mario is on a mission.

A few guys in the crowd got Rick Smith and Gary Kubiak to look over by chanting "Pay 59" .

BTW today's practice might of had more people than yesterday's, I am scared to see what Thursday night will look like.

I know contract shouldn't be negotiated in public, but I thought I heard someone say Demeco was made an offer by team which would have him be the second highest paid Middle Linebacker in the league, but he said no. What more should the team do that would be fair? Raise the guarantee part? And I do think 59 is most underpaid of the three in negotiations for now, but sounds like a nice offer has been made, he should say yes and he'd then be very well paid. And that offer may not be the real offer, I sure don't know. And Demeco does look good out there in practice, for sure. But just because they haven't signed, doesn't mean a fair offer hasn't been given either. And he is in camp, a real plus compared to Dunta who is really hurting only himself right now.

Who do we have here? ItB people?

The thing about the "leaked" contract offers is you never really know. Depending on what agent you asked you could get several different answers for the highest paid, MLB, TE, etc...Even gauranteed isn't always gauranteed. So when hear things like "second highest paid MLB" I always wonder what criteria is that based on? Are they talking about Total possible value of the deal, average annual salary, signing bonus, something else? Even like in Dunta's case where the rumor was 23 million gauranteed, there's too many ways to manipulate the numbers to make it sound like a better offer than it is. Agents do it all the time after the fact as a recruiting tool.

Well, the Dunta doppelgänger would be me (keep hope alive!). Had I not been wearing my hat, you might have been able to see my natural "Schaub" haircut, too.

Not sure the two guys on my left, but they were good fans for sure. The two on the far right might be familiar to ItB.com regulars...

I suspect someone at the Texans is keeping me in the bullseye... :p

I'll be dammned....I'm pretty sure I was sitting just down the row from you on the right in that picture, one row down. I thought I heard somebody mention "In the Bullseye".

Well I got cut in half because the wide angle could not ge tall of me in the shot.

I am the one on the far right.

Oh Thank God!!! For a minute i thought this might be our new secondary!!!

:D

That would be a problem, one dash down the field and I would need a lot of oxygen and golf cart to get back to the huddle.

LOL, ramp. :p

Well, I think the guy next to PK is AJ of the Examiner?

The one guy in the Mario jersey looks a bit like a portly Mike Hampton...

As far as my own haircut, I've been sporting the "Extreme Schaub" for several years.... Not a baldy but getting close... ;)

Yes that is aj. I spent most of the last few days, standing with him and trying to help him with who was on the field. Both he and Keith do a wonderful job of note taking during the practice.

Thanks to both Keith & PK, and whoever else stands out there in the heat to give us a little insight on TC.

Myers carted off the field. Had his leg rolled up on. No details yet.
That really bites if he is hurt bad, looks like he had bulked up after taking some beatings last year for being so light in the ass.

Yeah, doesn't sound too good, but no official word yet. Foot is in a walking boot now, MRI pending. Jacques Reeves also got hurt today too, per McClain's blog today:

http://blogs.chron.com/nfl/2009/08/k...fter_morn.html

Actually some good info in that link, esp. since the fans weren't able to attend this morning.

quote from McClain in Chron today- same article Keith referenced.

Kubiak rips players after morning practice

I've seen Gary Kubiak chew out players on the field. I've seen him jump on them off the field. He does it when he believes they deserve it.

I hadn't seen Kubiak go ballistic about his players until after today's morning practice. He was fuming becaue he considered it a terrible practice. He thought the players were sloppy and that center Chris Myers' foot injury in which a teammate rolled on his leg could be attributed to sloppy play.
--------------------------------------------end quote---------------

That is interesting, things seemed so organized and fast paced when I was there Sunday. Wonder if it was about one guy so all get yelled at or in general guys were dogging it. it was hotter today and likely a few have sore muscles now. wonder if they went into the dome this afternoon. And good for Kubes to show some emotion and keep after the guys.

Myers with high ankle sprain. Sounds like it could have been much, much worse.

Reeves with broken leg. That is really bad news. Hopefully we can get Molden up and running and #23 gets into camp.

Yeah, the radio is saying Reeves out 6-8 weeks - no surgery needed for the break. He should still make most (14?) of the real games this year....

Damn....as if our secondary wasn't weak enough.

We have like 10 CB and 6 S on the squad, so we ought to have some guys for practice and preseason. Molden and Glover Quin ought to return soon. I thought Matteral Richardson and Glover Quin both did pretty good at the practice I saw. If Reeves out 6 weeks he returns before our second game against the Titans. Can we trade Dunta for someone who wants to play?

Here is a nice story about one of our UDFA CB's who might get a chance now http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...t/6559583.html

He does not have a chance, IMO.

As for the sloppy play. It started on Monday, It appeared the legs where getting tired on some of the players and they started going to the ground more often.

Also the defense has been much more aggressive than in past years during practice . Have seen a few plays where I cringed at the thought someone might get hurt with that hit.

Almost time for Mr. Moulds to get healthy.

PK, how do the secondary guys, that are still out there, look to you? Are there any diamonds-in-the-rough types? Other than Parsons, of course. How does Brice McCain look?

Texans invited a couple CBs to Houston.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...t/6561454.html

NBT - FWIW I just heard Texans safety Nick Ferguson on radio-1650 here in Houston say that he thinks Brice McCain is somebody we need to keep an
eye, kinda a sleeper (my term not his but that's what he was suggesting).
What an extraordinary piece of good fortune if we were to get a corner in the 6th round of this years Draft who could make a real contribution to the team in 2009 given how desperate we are at that position.

The other day in team drills, McCain got position on his receiver and caused his receiver to break off the route, the WR was Andre Johnson.

On another day McCain tried to stuff Jacoby Jones at the line and he bounced off Jones, who immediately had 3 steps on the rookie. He did close the distance, but Jones was open had he caught the ball.

So I see promise but he is a rookie and he will make mistakes. But he has speed and the position coach likes to work with young guys.

I was watching NFL Live on ESPN last night and while talking about free agents still available, they mentioned that Ty Law is still out there. While I know his play with the Jets last year was less than impressive, maybe he should be considered as a stop-gap measure if Reeves does end up being out for 8 weeks or if (heaven forbid) this ridiculousness with Dunta lasts into the regular season...

At least it is not Dexter Wynn again. That would cause spinal fluid to leak from my ears.

The chron has an interesting article of shorts about today's practice.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...t/6561550.html

Highlights: Chris Brown and Fred Bennett are looking good so far, James Casey got what appears to be a minor injury, and Cushing got (what would have been if they could hit QBs) a sack...

We really need Fred to step up to the plate this season. Sometimes it takes a young player a year or so to really come to grips with the mental and physical stamina the NFL demands. Hopefully this will be the year for Fred.

Please don't anyone get excited about Deltha O'neal and start quoting stats like on Bull Pen. Those clowns actually used the phrase "shutdown corner" and O'neal in the same sentence.

If we do sign him, and he plays, get ready to watch him get burnt as bad as Faggins at times.

Id rather watch one of the rookies get burnt, at least the that way they are getting playing time.

Three more names to add to the tryout list: CB Mike McKenzie and RBs Brad Lester and Andre Hall.

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/spor...ns_cornerbacks

I bet if you had decent cover 2 skillz or could de-cleat a college LB from the fullback position then the Texans might ask you to try out later today, too.

I was wondering why McKenzie was being considered? Well maybe one of them can find the fountain of youth and avtually contribute in a opsitive way for us until we get over these injuries.

Might be to be a mentor to all the young CBs. 3yrs experience is still learning in the NFL and that is our top CB right now.

I think this may be most of the reason they are looking at some vet corners. Some stability at the position and some teaching for the young guys. I really don't think we are in that bad of straights at CB, but some vet stability and knowledge would be a good thing. Probably would truly only need them for the first 2-4 games until Reeves is ready.

Nice, long, insightful read from BigRon at the FanBlogTexans blog at chron.com. A snippet from the article:
http://blogs.chron.com/fanblogtexans...ans_train.html

Keith, PK, etc., is McCain playing ahead of Quin based on merit or is Quin playing second team to catch up due to lost reps forced by injury?

That meshes perfectly with what I thought of him from the practices I went too. Definitely fast with the skillset to be a solid corner....but he had serious issues trying to bump/jamp WR at the line. He also got abused as a gunner on punt coverage teams several times. He was just repeatedly thrown to the grown on rep.

Since we're supposedly going to do some bump and run stuff and want our CB's on the line jamming WR's that could be a problem for him....but he's definitely got potential.