A little more on Duane Brown
Jul 27, 2008 2008 Training Camp, Duane Brown as Eliza Doolittle, Putting people on notice, Ranting
First, my intertubes connection sux tonight. I guess there are too many dump trucks out there. This post will be fairly link-free.
I know that some of you might think I was a little harsh on Duane Brown in my Kickoff post this morning. DSITE, I believe, was more than a little offended. And, you know what? That’s fine. I can sometimes, and freely admit, be an asshole. That said, I want to say a couple more things about the subject.
Why am I pissed that Brown came into camp out of shape? The subject is definitely arguable, but I believe that Matt Schaub is a playoff caliber quarterback and Rosy Rosenfels is not. Why do I believe this? Mostly, because Rosy’s track record really does say “Backup QB,” and, to me, Schaub hasn’t proven to be so easily type-cast. To me, Schaub has a bigger arm, more mobility, and seems to do those warm and fuzzy leadership things that excite egocentric journalists so much. Again, this is arguable, and it’s just my opinion.
For all intents and purposes, Brown was the starter at LT the day he was drafted. Alex Gibbs’ shelf-life is only another season or two, and Brown is his final high-profile pet project. Probably. Brown must’ve known this, or at least had some non-subtle clues. He was the one at OTAs and minicamp, after all.
This, to me, is why there was no excuse for Brown to come into camp out of shape in any way. Yeah, it’s just 10 pounds, but it’s irrelevant. Contract negotiations do not mean it’s OK to sit on your ass and eat your way through the Little Debbie line of products. You are the starter, you are new to the position anyway, and you have a mighty steep learning curve in front of you.
And your primary job is to protect our starting QB’s blind side. If Teh Schaub gets hurt, Rosy starts. If Rosy starts, we are phucked.
It’s really that simple.
Xavier Adibi and Steve Slaton and especially Antwaun Molden (h/t Steph) are getting some serious props in camp, but it’s the one on whom we are relying the most, Mr. Duane Brown, who is out of shape. That pisses me off.
Call me crazy (and I’ll ban your ass. heh.), but I am going into this season being a bit more demanding about my expectations for our team. We have a playoff caliber roster and staff, and mediocrity is no longer an option. Either get it together, or get off the team.
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July 27th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
http://www.houstontexans.com/news/Story.asp?story_id=4430
Chester Pitts:(on if he sees the continuity on the offensive line with the new scheme) “Yeah, we brought in Chris Myers, and the young buck (T Duane Brown) is going to be fine. The whole thing is just really getting schemed down, everything Alex Gibbs wants. I mean it’s tried, tested and proven. It’s going to work. So, it’s just on us to put it all together.”
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I think Brown is a little fluffy, and clearly the heat can take it out of anyone if you are not acclimated and getting tons of reps. It was 90 degrees when I left practice. A lot of time the rookies and free agents have difficulties with the heat.
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Kubiak is going to teach him to prepare like a pro because that is what he does. And if he isn’t ready, he isn’t going to start at the beginning of the year at least. (I would prefer to have Salaam start with all those road games to be honest).
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July 27th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
In other words, I’m trying to talk you off the ledge.
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July 27th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
I have ZERO f’ing tolerance for someone being lazy or retarded and cashing in on $11MM.
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However, if our boy learns from this mistake and gets his shit together, then all is forgiven. And just FYI Duane, sending me a check or duffle bag of cash would also earn forgiveness.
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July 27th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
People who are paid to be in shape but aren’t in shape really rub me the wrong way. I’m in the Air Force and I’m one of my squadron’s physical training leaders, so every other day I have to watch people dragging ass to get in shape even though they are paid to do it. So forgive me if I go off.
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bigfatdrunk, I gotta agree. I always hear about this “rookie wall”, where players get dog-tired half-way into the season. A few good rookies manage to avoid it and have stellar years, but most of them hit it. It’s excusable for a few of them - Amobi Okoye, for instance, since he was a freakin’ teenager when he was drafted - but most of the time it’s just guys who were the best athletes on their teams realizing that there’s 1200 other guys who were the best athletes on their college teams out there as well. I have no doubts that Duane Brown will hit this rookie wall, especially since tackle isn’t a position where you can dog it out every so often. I’m convinced it’s a fitness issue, and it doesn’t seem to me that fitness is his thing. (One could argue that, if it was his sort of thing, that he’d be built like Joe Thomas.)
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Obviously you have to be an excellent athlete to make it to the NFL. It just seems like some of these guys realize they’re great athletes, and that they think that’s enough. And 10 pounds isn’t much for an athlete to lose, because they’ve done it a dozen times or so in the past. (I’ve gone from 185 to 160 three times in a year for several years in a row as I go between running tangents and weight-lifting tangents) So he’s probably thinking “why can’t I do it this time too?” And he most certainly can - he’ll probably be down to a good weight in two weeks. (I saw something where he said he needed to lose 10 in order to get to about 315). But during that time he’s going to be fat and slow. And you have to remedy that before you can start polishing up on your technique. Until he takes care of that, he can’t get technically sound because he’s going to be too out of shape to work on technique, and he’ll be in danger of teaching himself bad habits, like holding, or jumping the snap count.
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But even then, what’s most disconcerting is not that he’s going to be two weeks behind the curve, but that this might belie another problem. It is the first red flag for me that he doesn’t take his job seriously, or that he thinks he can just go out there and either be handed his job, or just “out-athlete” the other players. Yea, fat chance doing THAT in practice against Mario Williams.
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Perhaps it will click in when he sees stars from being spun around so many times in practice.
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July 28th, 2008 at 12:55 am
It takes a lot more than calling an o-lineman fat to offend me. Hell, that was most of high school football for me anyway. I understand your concern and I hope like hell this is just an adjustment to NFL training camp that will pass soon enough. If all he did from OTAs until now was sit on his ass and eat, then we have a problem. The more likely scenario is that he’s a young guy adjusting to NFL training regimens in a climate that’s pretty brutal on big guys who aren’t used to it. I’m gonna try to keep from getting too worried over 10 lbs on a 325 lb guy unless the news doesn’t get better from here. This isn’t a Mike Williams 285 lb receiver situation quite yet. And if Steph’s quotes of Kubiak from the last post are any indication, the weight isn’t scaring the coaching staff too badly.
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You have every right to be upset if you feel a player isn’t working hard enough. All I want is to let him have a few more days to adjust before deciding whether he is a lazy asshole or just a kid with a few more lessons to learn.
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July 28th, 2008 at 7:33 am
1st round pick… rookie… and he dares to show up to camp out of shape?!??! I now invoke my right to return to my draft-day opinion of the Duane pick: “fuuuuuuuccccckkk!!!”
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July 28th, 2008 at 8:14 am
It’s way too early to judge Brown, imo. I’m certainly not inclined to get too bent out of shape about his condition on the first week of training camp. Everyone makes mistakes, and if it turns out to be a habit that indicates he’s not taking this seriously, then I’ll be upset at him. But as of now, I don’t see any evidence of that happening. He’ll be in shape and used to the heat soon enough.
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July 28th, 2008 at 8:56 am
I’m bent out of shape over his condition because I’d prefer to have my 1st round pick rookie be *excited* and ready for camp… and doing everything he can to be in perfect shape. Not 10 pounds overweight.
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July 28th, 2008 at 9:12 am
@grungedave:
Fixed.
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July 28th, 2008 at 9:39 am
At the first Texans team luncheon that Mario Williams spoke at, he mostly spoke about how hot it was at camp. Very likely because they did camp that morning and he was probably still sweating a bit in his clothes even after a shower.
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If he were at any other position, I’d be more concerned about the weight. That he is *fat* at a Gibbs line means that he would probably be perfect for just about any line in the league. Gibbs has been known for getting players weight down, and the Texans have fined linemen for their weight in the past. I am guessing the vets working with the team for a while know more of what is expected as far as size.
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But Kubiak’s words were just a small public pop upside the head, but nothing big. If he keeps saying stuff, than that’s more of a problem.
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July 28th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Wow, file this one in the “could be worse” folder
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=Ap4l0FU5cLQx053qOsMsDrpDubYF?slug=ap-steelers-hampton&prov=ap&type=lgns
It looks like former longhorn and all-around destroyer Casey Hampton is a little more than 10 lbs overweight. The Steelers defense flat out doesn’t work without him and he can’t practice at all until he gets in better shape. If an 8 year vet can get that badly out of shape, maybe we should cut a slightly flabby rookie more slack.
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July 28th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Andre Johnson talked about getting a little winded at one of the practices too. There were complaints about Mario at his first training camp and how much time he spent getting water and doubled over with his hands on his knees. I’ve been living here my whole life and I still hate doing anything outside during the day…well anything that doesn’t involve a beach, or a lake, and beer.
I would rather him not be ten pounds overweight, but for a guy that big to begin with it doesn’t take much to add a few pounds. It probably won’t take long for him to lose it either.
It’s not ideal, but I’m not going to flip out over it and hold it against him. I’m sure the first time he gets beat in a game someone will go on a rant about how he’s out of shape because he doesn’t work hard enough….that could turn out to be true, but it’s too early to start that.