Houston Texans Offseason News: Duane Brown, Brandon Brooks Paired For MMA Training

The offseason rolls on, slowly and quietly for the Houston Texans, as we gear up for the draft, and we'll gobble up any news we can get. Thankfully I found this tweet from a few days ago by Deepi Siddhu to whet our appetites.

#Texans were paired up for some MMA style conditioning this week in offseason workouts. Brown says he was paired up with Brandon Brooks.

— Deepi Sidhu (@DeepSlant) April 10, 2014

Imagine for a moment two 300+ pound behemoths at the peak of their abilities squaring off and training in the deadly arts of hand-to-hand combat.  In reality, it probably wasn't that exciting, but it's fun to think about.

Siddhu also wrote about Duane Brown showing up to the workouts 20 pounds heavier and in the best shape of his life. This is contrast to how he showed up last year.

Last offseason, Brown wanted to go on a "health kick" and dropped to 300 pounds. Always a healthy eater, he adjusted his diet and cut back on carbohydrates. According to Brown, he looked good but just wasn’t as effective at the lighter weight. The veteran tackle has learned that balance between diet and keeping himself in football shape.

We definitely noticed a downtick in the quality of Brown's play at times last year, but we wondered if it was just due to the turf toe injury he suffered early in the season. Now we have an an alternate, or at least an additional, reason for some of his struggles.

Whatever the reasons, hopefully they're long behind D. Brown, because he's likely going to be protecting a brand new quarterback in 2014.