OTA Link & News Round-Up II: The Search for Curly's Gold

Last week's post went over pretty well so I decided to do it again for those that need the catch-up on information from the second week of Organized Team Activities. Most of this is via the mothership, but here's your links so you can feed your OTA addiction. Join me after the jump where I'll bring out the bigger points from this week.

Day 5: Report and Quotes
Day 6: Report and Quotes
Day 7: Report and Quotes
Day 8: Report and Quotes

Jeffrey Martin on Orlovsky
Steph Stradley and KC Joyner on the Texans CBs
A Chron blog on OTAs.
Solomon thinks that Fred Bennett is the odd man out so far in OTAs. 
Bernard Pollard - Defensive Leader (AP Article)
Owen Daniels and Anthony Hill will not participate in training camp.
With news that OD won't participate in training camp, this Joel Dreessen story has more meaning.
ESPN.com AFC South Blogger Paul Kuharsky looks at interior line moves. Yup, Myers gets another ringing endorsement.  

Bigger points of interest?

Injury Updates
RB Ben Tate was still unable to practice all week while MLB DeMeco Ryans and LB Kevin Bentley got to work on Monday. CB Mark Parsons and DE Mario Williams had some minor issues on Thursday that caused them to sit out some drills to be on the safe side. TE James Casey missed two days this week for personal issues that'll be revealed later in the post. CB Sherrick McManis finally joined the team on Tuesday (upon finishing school), but he was unable to practice due to lingering injuries.

Pterodactyl Ptakeoff?
We also see (both in the reports above and this feature/article here) that Arian Foster is working with the first-team offense through OTAs. Whether it's by default or not, Arian Foster is in the lead for that starting gig. Steve Slaton needs to be medically cleared and show something on the field while Tate needs to play some catch-up once his hamstring is better. Do I expect Arian Foster to be starting? I don't think he will. However, I'm not counting him out right now.

Slim Down with Duane Brown
We have news of another Texans who lost weight: LT Duane Brown. Why is this newsworthy? Well, Duane Brown did show improvement last season (I know Rivers is saying that it's hard not to show improvement when you were so bad in your rookie year), but his main weakness continues to be was Indianapolis and their speed rushers. He gave up 3 of his 7 sacks to Indy along with 9 of his 36 pressures allowed so it's the biggest area where he needs to improve.

Will the weight loss help improve his lateral quickness and movement to deal with the speed rush? That's what we'll see, but this is a big year for Duane Brown to show he was worthy of his first-round pick. If he doesn't do his job, then Schaub goes down which would be the classic "Chicken Little" scenario for Texan fans.

Speaking of sacks...
Amobi Okoye, who corrected reporters on Wednesday and said he lost 15 pounds, not 32, has made it his goal to get more sacks. He wants to get back to his rookie level of high production and be one of the team's best sack artists. Antonio Smith said that Bill Kollar showed him a video where he had "a legitmate 11 more times" where he could've gotten a sack but the QB evaded him with a move. Smith talked about how he wanted to improve his focus so he got the QB down. All basic info but important to know that the DLine is hungry for sacks.

Gimpy's Last Stand?
Antwaun Molden has had a tough time staying on the field, but he's been one of the bigger talking points among OTA reports from the mothership and even the Comicle. He's apparently looked good and in the day 6 quotes link, you'll see that Kubes continues to talk about his upside and how good he's looked. The CB position is crowded, so anyone (Kareem Jackson aside) could be cut, but can Molden finally make good on all of the people who continue to talk him up?

Follow Jakespeare the Leader
In the day 8 quotes report, and other OTA read-ups, Jacoby has stepped up as a leader. He's helped Holliday, there's word that he was helping Ice Kareem, and that he's really taken to being a mentor to a lot of the young rooks as they transition into the league. It's really quite remarkable to see the growth and maturity of Jacoby so far. The season hasn't started yet, but it's looking more and more that Jacoby is about to have a breakout year.  He's working hard, in great shape, and taken more of a leadership role on the team. Heck, he may even be challenging for Kevin Walter's starting gig with the way he has improved. Way to go, Jacoby. I never would've guessed he was training so hard after reading those tweets.

Dan-O the Man-O?
A hotter topic this week among the Texans news was the progress and work of back-up QB Dan Orlovsky. Yes, that's only one link, but I had my choice of three or four. Why is Dan-O getting a lot of news? We all know that the Schaub has only played 16 games once in his career, so it'll be important to have someone decent back there. The news is that Orlovsky is more comfortable and confident during the OTA season, but the question remains if he can play. Personally, I hope he shows progress in the preseason, but I don't want to see him on the field after that.

FINISH HIM!
This lovely article from our friends at the Associated Press has Schaub's goal for the team: Finish games better. What a concept. I never would've guessed that this team could be better at finishing off an opponent. The article makes mention of Kubiak wanting Schaub to scramble more. Don't run more, Matt. You get hurt on dirty hits. I can see someone hitting you as you run out of bounds or slide, which would cause a mass of people to hit the ol' bleach bottle. Kubiak shouldn't encourage more running, but he should allow Matt to call some damn audibles, amirite guys?

Brand New Texan Fans
Teh Schaub just had a little girl a bit before OTAs, and joining him in the parenthood front this week was Mr. and Mrs. James Casey a/k/a THOR. The baby's name? Cannon Casey. I'll let that speak for itself. Congrats to the proud new parents.

Quote to Get You FIRED THE F$#! UP!
"You have to be a nasty player on defense. You have to hit people and love to hit people. That's our motto. We're going to knock them down and keep knocking them down. We're going to be relentless and run to the ball. That's our attitude." - LB DeMeco Ryans, on the mentality of the Texans' defense

And because Jordann asked for it last week....the lovely Andrea of our #1 cheerleading squad (according to Bleacher Report). Joe, I believe the command you're looking for is right-click, save as:

 via assets.houstontexans.com