DGDB&D: a Texans blog.

Kickoff – “Yep, we still do these cut-and-paste style” Edition

Dec 30, 2008 Kickoff

After the news that Richard Smith has been executed, I feel a little silly coming with a lateday version of a Kickoff.  Still, Eric and socctty did solid work coming up with a LOT of links over the last two days, so I’m putting them up.

From socctty:

The coming Cowboys collapse via salary cap

A reminder of David Carr’s awfulness: How do you lose by that score and only attempt 9 passes… in a dome?!

The Colts have 6 consecutive 12-win seasons. How ridiculous is that?  [Not only is it ridiculous, it's also maddening, annoying, and yet another reason to fucking hate them.]

Teh Schaub ended the year as the 7th best QB, according to FootballOutsiders (12th-best according to cumulative statistics). That means that he was the 12th-best over the yea,r but the 7th best if you consider only the times that he actually played. If only this guy could stay healthy. In retrospect, is Favre the worst Pro-Bowl choice for QB ever? What a farce that guy is.

Andre Johnson is, by all statistical measures, the best WR in the NFL.  And Kevin Walter is #16!  [The latter is the one that is amazing to me.  I mean, we all knew Andre was greatness personified, but who would have predicted K-Dub in the top 20?  Stop lying, you did not.]

Watch this vid and tell me that Mike Tannenbaum isn’t a piece of shit. Eric Mangini is a weasel and I have zero interest in him ever being a coach on the Texans’ staff, but he got screwed on this one.

FREE AGENCY NEWS (also by socctty):

Good news: it’s DeMarcus Faggins’ last year, according to these guys.   [And only four years too late!!] Side note: if Dunta makes it to free agency, I’d rather we went ahead and signed Nnamdi Asomugha over Dunta. Dunta’s a bad-ass but he’s coming off an injury, and business is business; while both will be given huge contracts, Asomugha will be closer in value than Dunta will, I’m afraid. [I agree with this completely.  I love Dunta, but Nnamdi is a ridiculous upgrade.] Adimchinobi Echemandu is his cousin, btw.  [I've heard that somewhere.]

Eugene Wilson, CC Brown, and Nick Ferguson are also free agents.   I’m sure at least one of them come back, specifically Ferguson. If they don’t, you can pretty much bank on us drafting Taylor Mays from USC.  [I'm not going to lie to you guys; I just got hard.]

We’ll be getting thin at DE with Earl Cochran and ND Kalu leaving, as well. Could Julius Peppers or Terrell Suggs be far away? [Julius Peppers + Mario Williams?  I need to lie down.]

From Eric:

I’m having a tough time with Dunta predicament. I realize he’s the heart and soul of the defense and in a sense deserves to get a “big” contract but, I don’t think he warrants top 10 money. Clearly, he was abused against the Bears’ Pop Warner all-star receiving corps and an off season may help him further recover but, damn, 8-10mil a year (top pay) for “maybe” is a whole lotta cap money! Kubiak, at his presser, told Dunta that, in the player eval, he wants him back. Dunta wants to come back but, would be pissed with a franchise tag and feels he’s earned top dollar and a long contract:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/6186246.html

Also, from Kubes presser is that lil Shanny called the entire game on Sunday! Think of this, 3 of 4 times in the red zone we scored against the Bears “D” (2 TD, 1FG). Shanny doesn’t call the plays from the coaches box but, from the sideline. He has an assistant from up there relay the formations he see’s and calls it from the field.

Gibbs only signed a one year contract so, it’s his call on if he wants to come back. Kubes wants him back in a bad way and who could blame him? What, if any, drop off would there be if he decides to retire Ray Rhodes also signed a one year deal and Kubes wants him back? Kubes in his presser stated that he would bounce ideas off of him and that he helped Kubes become a better coach. With Rhodes being asked to stay, what will a new DC think about him in an overhaul of the defensive coaching staff?

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/Story.asp?story_id=5074
The teams we’ll play next season is out. Chris talked about it on his blog and I commented that with parity, I can’t really look at any team (Lions excluded) as being real dogs. Miami, Baltimore, and Atlanta proved that! Was it coaching, was it the players, was it Durga, that turned these dogs into a  playoff team, one year removed from being laughed at and ridiculed? Somehow, they caught lightning in a bottle and created the “perfect storm” to come back from the abyss. Who’s next year’s Cinderella?

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/afcsouth/0-7-240/Texans–2009-opponents.html?post=true