There are two very separate news feeds for the NFL right now. There's the build up to the Super Bowl, and the coverage of the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama. I personally have no interest in the constant scrutiny that the two weeks of down time before the Super Bowl provides, and the Senior Bowl is one of my favorite events of the year. Furthermore, there's not a whole lot of Texans happenings outside of the draft right now, so the daily links for at least the week will probably center on the events in Mobile. If you're not a huge fan of the draft, consider yourself warned. For everyone else, follow the jump.
Before we get into the draft stuff, there were a few Texans specific notes from yesterday. First of all, congratulations to Arian Foster and Vonta Leach who were named to the AP All-Pro Team. It's one thing to make it to the Pro Bowl, but it speaks volumes that the people that get paid to cover football for a living thought that Leach was the best in the business.
I know sometimes bloggers go for shock value just to spike traffic and I am playing into that, but how does Scott Robinson get to blog for the Chronicle with crap like this? There are so many talented Texans bloggers that would kill for that position. What a waste.
Also, Bruce Matthews signed an extension to stay with the Texans for the next two seasons. I linked Mark Berman because to my knowledge he was the first to break the story, which is not uncommon. What is it going to take to get Berman on Twitter?
On to the Senior Bowl notes...for the last two years I wrote a practice report for each day, but this year I'm taking a different approach. So many people are writing reports that I'm going to watch the practices every day, but use what I see to filter through other people's notes and link what I agree with. Also, Mocking the Draft has a comprehensive link list of their own that encompasses most of the stuff I've been looking at.
Lance Zierlein is in Mobile this week, and is the only Texans specific writer that I know of in Mobile. Here is his Day 1 report. One thing that Lance touches on that I heard a lot yesterday was positive feedback about Baylor NT Phil Taylor. As I wrote yesterday, Taylor may have to be selected in the second to be had by the Texans, and as Lance notes, the Texans scouts spent some time talking to the Baylor product yesterday. I can only imagine John McClain's joy if the Texans select him.
Patrick from the Texans Tribune also wrote a practice report from yesterday, complete with possible targets for the Texans in mind. I think Patrick used the height and weight for what they were listed by their schools, which is worth noting because yesterday's weigh-ins yielded some surprising results.
Diehard Chris produced a great summation of what the Texans' needs are that may or may not need to be filled in the first round. He also asks for your opinion of what position you would prefer.
One prospect that was beginning to intrigue me at OLB was Ryan Kerrigan. He slimmed down to 255 for this week, which I took as a sign that he was headed towards standing up. This isn't substantiated, but apparently he told Shane Hallam that he won't be working out at linebacker this week.