Texans Down 'N Dirty: Peninsula Edition

Camp is in full swing, and so is the media covering the Texans.  A lot of different people are going above and beyond to cover the opening days of camp when it is open to the public.  Keith Weiland of In the Bulls Eye gave a minute by minute breakdown of Sunday's practice.  With a more bulletized format, Alan Burge breaks down what he saw.  Burge also had a pretty funny crack at everyone's favorite Chronicle personality Richard Justice at the end.  Lance Zierlein gave another great breakdown as well, in which he determined that there is no further squable between Antonio Smith and Bill Kollar.

There are a couple of themes developing at camp so far.  I call them themes because it is way too early to bring any kind of correlation between what we are seeing now and what the finished product will be:

- Frank Okam is a beast some of the time and a non-factor the rest of the time.  If he is not motivated to be consistent now when the incumbent starter is currently injured and in the dog house, I don't have much hope for him. 

- Rex Grossman has looked better than Dan Orlovsky.  This doesn't surprise me at all because Grossman's Achilles heel has always been being able to produce when it counts, not in practice.

- Connor Barwin is doing very well.  Again, not shocking because of his amazing athletic ability but also because the practice are not full contact yet.  A speed rush is always going to be more effective when you're in shoulder pads and shorts.  I'm not saying that it's not encouraging, I'm just tempering my optimism. 

- Arian Foster is the talk of the running back group other than Steve Slaton.  Vic Carucci said that he reminds him of what Chris Brown was like right after coming into the league (I could have killed him for jinxing him like that).  Rick Smith and Gary Kubiak were also very high on the UFA out of Tennessee.

For anyone that's a little more visual, the official site has video highlights of every day thus far of camp.  Here's Day One, Day Two and Day Three.

Gil Brandt and Vic Carucci were in attendance for yesterday's practice as part of Sirius NFL Radio's training camp tour.  I was going to do a full break down, but the official site stated that they would be putting up podcast of all the interviews they conducted some time this week (I'll link them when they're up).  They interview 17 different people yesterday, incuding Matt Schaub, DeMeco Ryans, Eric Winston, Andre Johnson, Andre Davis, Mario Williams, Jacoby Jones, Brian Cushing, Nick Ferguson, Amobi Okoye, David Anderson (hysterical), Gary Kubiak, Rick Smith and Bob McNair.

Brandt and Carucci are both very gracious who hardly ever criticize anyone and when they do it's hidden under layers of kindness, so it's not surprising that they were both very praising of the team yesterday.  Brandt, however, obviously feels strongly about the Texans' chances for success.  He repeated several times that he expect the Texans to win the AFC South this year, and coming from an individual that has been involved in professional football for so long that's exciting.  Brandt is also very high on our draft class, especially Glover Quin whom he expects to make an immediate impact.

David Anderson is the funniest Texan player by far in my opinion.  In his interview with Brandt and Carucci, he had both of them laughing the entire time.  Apparently in an effort to top the mohawk/mullet hybrid hair style that he had last year, Anderson shaved his head in what is being described as "The Peninsula".  The peninsula is an attempt to mimic Matt Schaub's reseeding hair line.  If that wasn't enough, apparently the team got Brian Cushing to adopt the same hair style.  If it's true that Cushing has lost the locks, Tim has one less reason to scream obscenities every time his name is mentioned.