FanHouse

With the start of Texans minicamp, fans get a sense of themes and storylines for the year, and more information about the rookies just drafted. Here's a few minicamp links, with a few thoughts of mine next to them.

Rookie Duane Brown Gets LT Minicamp Start over Ephraim Salaam: Coach Gary Kubiak knows what Salaam can give him and wants to give Brown as many practice reps against good competition as he can. It wouldn't be too surprising if Brown got the season start over Salaam given that third round pick Charles Spencer got the start two years ago over Salaam.

Texans 2008 Story is All About The Turnover Battle: Fashion and football collide with the message on the bottom of the team's practice shorts. Offensive players' shorts read "Protect the ball" and defensive players' shorts read "Take it away." It is stunning that the Texans finished 8-8 given that they gave up 38 turnovers, second most in the league, and that they took the ball away only 25 times, with only 11 interceptions, tied for last in the league.

Status of Injured Players: Yet another reason to be shocked with the 8-8 result of the Texans last season were the number of top Texans players who missed significant time to injury. The link contains a status report of the injuries, though given some of the puffy discussions of injuries in the past, you always have to look at Texans injury updates with a view that they might be overly optimistic.

The Texans Are REALLY Going to Run the Ball This Year. No seriously. The last two preseasons, fans have heard about the commitment that Kubiak has to the running game, but it has been just awful and inconsistent. Here are my thoughts from last year about why the running game wasn't working, and hopefully offensive line guru Alex Gibbs truly will be the difference.

All About Rookie CB Antwaun Molden: I'm first in line to criticize the local paper when they whiff, but this Steve Campbell article about Molden's journey to the NFL is worth a read. Any time they can help give you information to tell you more about the guys behind the helmet, the better it is for fans. The Texans love try hard, motivated guys, and Molden sounds like a Texans kind of player.

HoustonTexans.com: Expect to see a ton of offseason content on their website as I've been told they are trying to increase it. Above is an embed of Kubiak talking about minicamp (transcript here). The increasing content found on NFL team websites really is a great benefit to fans, and once again, I would like to commend the Texans for providing embeddable video to help spread the word about their team.

Sigh, it is only May, and it has already been over 90 degrees in Houston. Who's ready for some football?