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.

A number of you aren't going read this because as Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen says, the public prefers to follow news of celebs and sports figures who are "[expletived] up." The rise of the sports blog generally hasn't be driven by fans' desire to read do-gooder stories. (Though I have to say, I think that would be an interesting niche sports blog).

In any event, I want to highlight a few stories in the news this week that talk about NFL players doing good in the world.

The New York Times had a great article yesterday about four NFL players with ties to Nigeria visiting the country in March. They must have been an impressive display of defensive linemen big people: NY Giants' Osi Umenyiora, Houston Texans' Amobi Okoye, and Chicago Bears' Adewale Ogunleye and Israel Idonije.

It was Okoye's idea for them to all go to Nigeria as a group, figuring they could do more good works together than separately. They also could get scared together as the bus they were traveling in got broadsided by a truck on the first day of their trip. The article is certainly worth a read.

Another article worth checking out is the continuing help that Tampa Bay running back Warrick Dunn gives to single parents looking to purchase their first homes. He does this to honor his police officer mother who never owned a house. She was shot while working her off-duty security job, and a 17-year-old Dunn along with his grandmother found themselves taking care of his five siblings. To date, his foundation has helped 77 single parents buy their first homes by providing a down payment and home furnishings. (Here's the donation link).

The next time you feel like ragging on athletes for being a bunch of "turds", ask yourself what you are doing to make this world a better place. Athletes are like the rest of us imperfect people. Some do good, some do bad, and some get busted for being a smiling black guy who loves his mom on a boat full of white women in bikinis boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest.

(Photo of Dunn as the first winner of the Home Depot Neighborhood MVP award in January. Photo Credit: Scott Halleran, Getty Images).

Recently, I wrote a photo essay about my experiences as a Texans cheerleading judge. Now it is your turn to be a judge. Like last year, the Texans are allowing fans to pick the final spot on the team. The three finalists are Jennifer, Kelli and Krista (pictures here). You can see Kelli and Krista at the end of the above video.

If you are interested in seeing how they dance, their blogs and to vote, go to the ABC Channel 13 cheerleading voting site. Voting ends on Friday. Last year, the Texans claim 60,000 fans voted, and the winner was Amanda (her short message to you is below).

One of the reasons why I started blogging is that I couldn't find enough in depth information about my favorite team, the Houston Texans. Since they are such a new team, if information wasn't on their website or in the Houston Chronicle, it likely didn't exist.

Well, with minor apologies to Buzz Bissinger, thank goodness for sports blogs. I want to point out in particular the fabu work that Solis has done at the BattleRedBlog about the 2008 Texans draft class. Check out these posts in particular:

"Super Steve Slaton" - Explains why this running back may be the perfect one cut and go back for the Texans zone blocking scheme.

"Steve Slaton: An Insider's Perspective" - A must read interview for Texans fans from with West Virginia's Director of New Media, John Antonik.

I caught up with Houston left tackle Ephraim Salaam at the Texans Draft Luncheon on Tuesday. He was there to accept the Mickey Herskowitz Award for being the most media friendly Texan. The video above is his message to Texan fans, and what he said to the crowd when he accepted his award. (The "Mark" and "Gary" referred to in the video are Texans TE Mark Bruener and coach Gary Kubiak)

Ephraim's personality is as big as he is, which given that he goes 6'7" 300ish, means it is huge. Very friendly personable guy. He had a busy offseason of media-friendly duties after he won the Super Bowl NFL Player ad contest. After that winning that, he and fellow Texan offensive lineman, Chester Pitts did repeated guest shots on the Ellen DeGeneres show.

A number of talking heads believe that the Texans picked Virginia Tech left tackle Duane Brown too early. They believe the Texans could have traded down again and still got their target. Those people would be wrong.

The San Diego Union-Tribune is reporting that the Chargers wanted Brown with the 27th pick:

"Funny that the Chargers finally got a tackle with their final pick. They had been stymied from starting off the draft with one when an unprecedented eight tackles were selected before they picked at No. 27.

'We came up one pick short,' said [Norv] Turner, who along with the rest of the Chargers brass watched Houston trade into the 26th spot and take tackle Duane Brown of Virginia Tech."

At the Texans draft party, someone told me shortly after the trade down from 18 that Brown was going to be the pick. I didn't believe it until I heard the pick later. If Brown was the target, then trying to trade down again was going to get too cute.

If the Texans only have offensive line guru Alex Gibbs for a short period of time, you should probably get him the tackle he wants pronto.

I'm not much fond of immediate draft grades. Assessments of players the day after the draft are often comical (and/or painful check out 5:10 and 8:55) in retrospect. The biggest problem is there is no one that can know more than just a brief snap shot of each player and how each player fits into 32 teams. And at the time they are doing their draft grades, they are probably a little tired and writing to deadline.

I'm not going to pretend I can grade out players before they take a snap in the NFL. But what I do know is that so many of the so called draft 'experts' are wildly off base in assessing the draft from what you know right now. So I am going to grade their Houston Texans draft grades, though I am sure you would find inaccuracies and superficiality in just about every team's grades:

The Draft Expert Losers:

Jason Cole, Yahoo Sports: "[Frank] Okam, a former defensive tackle, is likely to shift to guard, a clever move by teams that realize that non-athletic DTs can make for cheap, athletic G's."

Huh? Okam was drafted as a defensive tackle, to be a space eating guy next to Okoye that the Texans did not have. Nobody from the Texans is talking about him as a guard and are happy to get a DT who is large but can still move well.

I give Cole a grade of D. He is spared an F because he gave the same grade to the Texans that I did.

It's not a big secret that the Texans were looking for a running back in the draft. They acquired West Virginia standout Steve Slaton in the third round as a change of pace back.

While discussing the NFL trend toward having at least one receiving-type playmaking RB, Texans offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan gave Reggie Bush a left handed compliment in the process (video above):

"I think Steve Slaton pretty much fits any offense to tell you the truth. The reason I think that is because he's a good runner, and a good enough runner can fit into any scheme. What we like most about Slaton, is I think he's got a chance to be a special-type player. You look at guys around the league like Kevin Faulk, a guy like Reggie Bush; guys who come in and fill a specific role on third downs.
...
I think when a guy is 197 pounds and if you look at the history throughout the NFL there are not too many guys that are first and second down player for long periods of time. When you look at a guy that people are projecting as a third down type guy or a change of pace guy I believe a lot of teams have more important needs that go early in the draft. One exception is Reggie Bush; he is the highest guy that I've seen go that is a third down type player. The third round is when these guys start popping out."

That's about as direct as the Texans have come to talking about why they didn't pick The! Best! Running Back! Evaaaar! that a lot of people thought was a no brainer pick in the 2006 draft.

Houston Texans 2008 Draft Picks:

Round 1 - 26. Duane Brown, LT, Virginia Tech
Round 3 - 79. Antwaun Molden, CB, Eastern Kentucky
Round 3 - 89. Steve Slaton, RB, West Virginia
Round 4 - 118. Xavier Adibi, OLB, Virginia Tech
Round 5 - 151. Frank Okam, DT, University of Texas
Round 6 - 173. Dominque Barber, SS, Minnesota
Round 7 - 223. Alex Brink, QB, Washington State

The Good: Coming into this draft, the Houston Texans only had five picks because of previous deals. So a trade down from the 18th pick to the 26th was welcomed to get picks in both the third and the sixth round. The Texans draft class looks like they went to the store with a shopping list, because they targeted very specific, key needs. They drafted for a zone-blocking o-lineman, a tall fluid corner, a young, fast change of pace running back, help for a thin linebacking group, a space eating DT and a quarterback who can be developed and live on the practice squad. (Watch HT.com video above or transcript here to see what GM Rick Smith and coach Gary Kubiak say about the draft).

The only key needs that they didn't get were a DE on the other side of Mario Williams and a free safety. (Barber is listed as a FS on the Texans website, but from what I've read, it seems like he is more of a strong safety). The top five picks of the Texans, however, were arguably the five positions the Texans needed the most.

Yesterday, I went to the Texans draft party. Texans fans were happy with the trade down in the first round to acquire two more picks, but were generally disappointed in the Virginia Tech left tackle Duane Brown-who? choice in the first. A brief but good summary of the pick can be found here, and more Texans draft analysis will come later.

At the draft party, most Texans fans were happy with the announcement of the new Texans Cheerleaders. Above is a picture of them when they first learned they were on the squad after the final day of tryouts, and the video below shows their dancing introduction to the fanbase. You will like the video if you like watching cheerleaders dance. The SI swimsuit cheerleader twins are back, and I've been told that there are also sisters who are not twins on the squad.

video link