July 20, 2009 by Exsquid | Houston Texans, Off season, Texans

    It's still a couple of weeks, more or less, until training camp starts, and the football news is slower than a snail.  Since there is really no news to talk of, other than a few things I will get into later,  I thought now would be a good time to update everyone on what the so called "experts", a.k.a. Talking Heads, have to say about our Texans and the upcoming season.

    I have perused all of the magazines and websites, that I could find or think of, with the exception of ESPN, and the considered opinion of all of the writers/editors, et. al., is that the Texans will take third place in the AFC South, again, and have their first winning season.  With one exception, one person (other than our own Andy) did have the Texans winning the AFC South, however, I can't remember who or where that was.  Our own Andy gave them a 2nd place finish in the division.

    All of these so called experts (and we all know how accurate they usually are), gave the Texans' record running anywhere from 12-4 to 7-9.

    All of the Talking Heads are in agreement that the keys to the Texans' season are two-fold.  First, and foremost, is the defense; they must step up and get out of the league cellar.  The Texans' defense must rank somewhere, in the middle of the league, in points and yards allowed, and put pressure on opposing QBs.  The better the defense gets, the better the Texans' season should be.

    The second thing that they all agreed on, was that the team, as a whole, must stay healthy.  If the offense can stay healthy, they can put up as many points as anyone in the league.  So it, again, comes down to staying healthy (like last year) and having the defense step up and shut down the opponents.  Of course you can say the same thing about every other team in the league.

    In other news, CB Dunta Robinson still has not signed his tendered offer and has stated that he will hold out during training camp, and possibly the start of the season.  By now, everyone knows that Dunta is not happy about the franchise tag.  That was done after he turned down a $23 million dollar offer, so I don't see where he has much room to complain.

    While I agree that he brings a lot of leadership to the Texans' secondary, and is a better than average corner, he is not an elite corner.  While he did come back from a career threatening injury, and contributed alot to the team, he is not worth the money that he is seeking at this time.  Maybe, if he plays very well this season, he might be worth more to the team, but not right now.

    TE Owens Daniels has signed his offer, but skipped the last of OTA's and mini-camp.  This is one player who is on the bubble as far as a long term contract is concerned.  If he performs better than last year, then a new contract is coming. If not, then the rookies may get a shot at starting sooner then they thought.

    The Texans have signed half of their rookies to contracts, and it looks like the rest will be done before training camp opens at the end of the month.  This is good news, since it looks like three or four of them maybe starting in some formations when the season starts.

    Well, that's all I have for this installment.  Look for more frequent updates, when training camp opens and there is actually some football news to report.  Next week, "How I would Talk To Dunta Robinson About His Contract" or "If I Was Rick Smith".

Originally posted on www.nfltouchdown.com