NFL teams are extremely busy in the offseason, but a lot of that of the action takes place behind closed doors. This lack of transparency doesn't stop people from writing about the team, and with nothing tangible a lot of speculation takes place. Speculation over the draft and free agency fuels NFL news from January or February (depending on the success level of your team) to late April. The hard part is sifting through the speculation and determining what might be valid, and what are people talking just to fill the time. Let's get started, after the jump.
The biggest speculation is usually about the draft, especially this season with an uncertain time frame for free agency. John McClain thinks the Texans need to do a good job with the 11th pick. Seriously.
Daniel Charles finished his look back at the Texans draft history with its most recent effort, the 2010 draft. Rick Gosselin, who is a hell of a draft writer, also went back and re-assigned draft grades to all 32 teams based on rookie play this season. I'll save you the suspense...the Texans retained the same grade, a C.
According to almost all Texans fans, the 2006 draft was the most successful in franchise history. One member of that class, Charles Spencer, gave a great interview to Patrick from the Texans Tribune. Spencer had a great start to his career as a Texan until it was cut short by a devastating injury.
You want speculation? Kyle, a guest writer at HDH, has got you covered. He wrote an entire blueprint to the Texans offseason, including coaching changes, free agency and the draft.
Yesterday had a couple of substantial Texans news items. First of all, the Texans hired Vance Joseph as their next secondary coach. Alan Burge has the most extensive write-up on the new hire that I have seen thus far. Jerome Solomon also did a piece on Joseph and took it a step further by saying that Bob McNair needs to give Joseph an expensive free agent signee to base the new secondary around.
John Hallam discussed the Joseph hiring, but also broke down Rick Dennison not getting the head coaching gig in Denver, which he considers good news. He also states that a source told him Bob McNair is upset with the performance the defense last year and told Rick Smith to sign Nnamdi Asomugha. That's a tidbit that's sure to insprire some debate.