With the draft in the books and the first mini-camp of the off-season ready to kick off on Friday, I figured it's as good a time as any to put my very early guess down onto virtual paper as to who's going to be starting when your Houston Texans kick off the regular season in Pittsburgh in approximately four (4) months. With the always-present caveat that injuries could change the equation, here's my prediction as to who'll be starting on the offensive side of the ball when the dust clears and the starters take the field in Week One:
QB: Matt Schaub
RB: Chris Brown (I still foresee Ahman Green falling victim to the reality of the NFL salary cap and more importantly, an overcrowded backfield)
FB: Vonta Leach
WR: Andre Johnson
WR: Kevin Walter
TE: Owen Daniels
LT: Ephraim Salaam (for all our excitement over the prospect of Duane Brown laying claim to LT, it would take a major miracle for it to happen by Week One and, in my opinion, a minor miracle for him to be starting at any point in 2008)
LG: Chester Pitts (though I think that Pitts' status as an automatic starter on the OL is in greater jeopardy than at any other time since the franchise's inception)
C: Chris Myers (on a related note, it's been awfully quiet on the Bring-Back-Steve-McKinney front, hasn't it?)
RG: Mike Brisiel (Fred Weary's return notwithstanding, I'm not sold on the idea of Weary transitioning to a pure zone blocking scheme better than Brisiel will)
RT: Eric Winston
Not a ton of changes from last year, but I don't think many of us expected big changes from what was a reasonably effective offense (despite being ravaged by injuries) throughout much of 2007. What say you? Am I way off on any of these positional predictions?
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