Combine Day Two: News and Notes

I have to start out by apologizing for my lack of traffic.  I had planned on giving a daily update on the Combine, but trying to re-adjust from being nocturnal to a regular schedule has been getting the best of me.  I should be through it though, so I will be posting a daily blurb on most of the bigger stories that affect the Texans' draft in some way.  This can be anything that influences teams' decisions that pick before us, to positional issues that may allow us to trade down if we so choose.

Yesterday's news was mostly media related.  The only workouts to take place were the kickers and the OL bench press.  Saturday will showcase the OL drills such as the 40 yard dash, the shuttle drill and the three cone drill.  Today Texans fans should be hoping that Jason Smith, Eugene Monroe and especially Michael Oher have good workouts today so as many OTs as possible can be selected, thus pushing down more defensive players to us as fifteen.  Unfortunately, Andre Smith who some deem to be the top lineman in the draft, is making waves by announcing yesterday that he is not going to work out, and today he was late for workouts.  Not good.

Several coaches answered questions pertaining to their future at QB.  Mike Singletary spoke about an open competition between Shaun Hill and Alex Smith, whose contract is in the process of being restructured.  The Jets realize that Brett Favre left them with a QB vacuum, and spoke to the media about replacing him with one of the young QBs already on the team (it didn't sound too convincing).  Brad Childress also announced an open competition at QB involving Tarvaris Jackson, and then asked why all the reporters in the room were laughing at him.  Meanwhile, new Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo is claiming confidence in veteran QB Marc Bulger.

The Browns are shopping QB Derek Anderson as a possible draft day trade to replace one of the QB vacancies around the league.  As another possible option, Mark Sanchez impressed a lot of people with his comfort in dealing with the media.

Texans coach Gary Kubiak spent most of his time addressing CB Dunta Robinson, who was publicly unhappy after being designated the Texans' franchise player.  We've all been following the story, but I was impressed how Kubes handled it, especially when he said "I expect him to be a leader on this football team"  which sounded like a subtle way of saying "It's over, let's get back to football."  Also, the Texans aparently spent some time interviewing Herman Johnson, the huge G from LSU.  Johnson currently has a fourth round projection, but could drop because of lingering weight issues.