Kickoff
Jun 13, 2008 2008 Season, Adimchinobe Echemandu is fun to say, Babyeating-Sisterfuckers, Bloggerating, Bud Adams is evil, Demarcus Faggins sucks, Kickoff, National Media, Non-Texan stuff
How NOT to blog. From–surprise!–a Baby-eating Sisterfuckers’ fan blog comes a fantastic example of why old media thinks blogs are a ridiculous exercise. Sweeping generalizations about other teams? Check. A pollyanna-esque assumption that all the players on your team will be healthy and uber-productive? Check. A conclusion that does not follow logically from anything you have written? Check.
Know thy enemy. Petey Faggins turns 29 today, making him the worst 29-year-old CB in the league and opening the door for someone else to claim the title of Worst 28-year-old CB. Congrats! (He also allows me to link to one of my favorite posts. Woot!)
Um…what? Article from RealFootball365, suggesting that we should sign LaMont Jordan because our RB roster is currently Ahman Green, Vonta Leach, Admichinobi Echemandu, and Samkon Gado. Way to research your premises, guys. Fo’ real.
That’s about it…not much Texans news floating around the ether today. Hopefully, I’ll be back with something later today. No promises, though.
Enyimba Enyi
Jan 18, 2008 2008 Season, Adimchinobe Echemandu is fun to say, Free Agency, Nigerian Mafia, Nnamdi Asomugha
Good news, Texans fans: the team is already addressing some of our needs and filling holes in the roster. For instance, with the unceremonious release of Adimchinobe Echemandu a couple weeks ago, the team suddenly found itself short one Nigerian. Problem solved–yesterday, the team signed veteran Center Chukwunweze Sonume Okobi, better known to you and I as Chukky Okobi.
This is the kind of pro-active move that lets one know that the team is committed both to winning and to maintaining a Nigerian mafia. This is something that a certain Raiders cornerback might ought to consider when looking for a new team.
(Yes, yes…technically Chukky was born in Connecticut and his parents are Nigerian, but with a name like his, that is close enough.)
Everyone out! C’mon. No, not you, Scottie. Not you, Number 2. Not you, Frau. Not you, Goldmember. Not you, guys back there. Not you, henchman holding a wrench. Not you, henchman arbitrarily turning knobs, making it seem like you’re doing something.
Dec 27, 2007 Adimchinobe Echemandu is fun to say, Corky Johnson, Free Agency, Hype, Nigerian Mafia, Nnamdi Asomugha, Tremendous Busts, Undrafted Free Agent watch list
Tim beat me to the punch on this, but Adimchinobi Echemandu was cut by the Texans yesterday, ending my dream that he would become the new Nigerian Nightmare.
While the official reason given was that the team needed to cut someone to make room for DelJuan Robinson (more on him in a minute), the fact remains that there had to be some underlying reason for why Joe E. was the person chosen. One can only assume that either Kubiak never got past Joe’s back-to-back performances against Oakland and New Orleans (2 carries for 6 yards, then 1 carry for 2 yards and a fumble lost) or the team is completely committed to using Darius Walker the rest of the way in order to evaluate him.
Either way, I can live with the decision. After all, this was a guy that we signed out of absolutely nowhere and those kinds of players rarely get mulligans. Besides, it’s not like he bounced back after that New Orleans game–in two more games he had 7 carries for 15 yards. Walker, on the other hand, is averaging 3.7 yards per carry and has 13 catches for 81 yards in his three games of action. Now, the pessimists–of whom I am a charter member–will point out that Walker showed last week that he lacks the speed to be a true number one back in the and that he would be best suited as a 3rd-down back, so an evaluation of his “long-term potential” is rather pointless. (The numbers certainly support this: he ran a 4.56 and a 4.57 at the NFL Combine; for the sake of comparison, Najeh Davenport ran a 4.44 at his Combine. Davenport also pooped in a hamper, which has nothing to do with Darius Walker but is still worth mentioning.) While this may be true, I think the general consensus was that Echemandu was not going to be the answer, regardless of how Walker did or did not pan out. Fair enough.
All of this overlooks the main reason I was high on Echemandu from the start. Namely, that a certain cousin of his is arguably the best or second-best cover corner in the NFL and can opt out of his contract at the end of the season. I was hoping that some family ties might have made it easier to entice him. With the emergence of Fred Bennett, however, and assuming that Dunta Robinson will be back and be 100% at some point next year, then giving Nate-Clements-money to Nnamdi Asomugha is probably not the highest best use of our free agent dollars (see, e.g., Pat Williams, Alan Faneca, Jared Allen, Demorrio Williams…)
Which sorta segues into DelJuan Robinson. The Second-team All-SEC tackle was undrafted out of Mississippi State, primarily due to a knee injury that limited his senior season to 8 games. In those 8 games, he had 12.5 tackles for a loss, which was fifth-best in the SEC. At MSU’s Pro Day, Robinson ran a 5.07 40, a 2.88 20, and put up 23 reps on the bench. He was part of the group of undrafted free agents that the Texans signed in May, was released by the team at the end of August, and was signed to the practice squad shortly thereafter. Because defensive line was the one place that didn’t turn into a M*A*S*H unit, Robinson had not gotten a shot at the active roster. Until now.
But let me ask you this: if you are the front office and you have four healthy defensive tackles, one of whom is retarded, but have injuries throughout your linebacking corps, secondary, and offensive line, why would you activate another defensive tackle? The only answer I can come up with is “because we are washing our hands of the retarded guy.” If that’s the case, it makes sense to see if Deljuan can play and let Travis languish until the time comes to set him free. (If they make Johnson a June 1 casualty next year–either by cutting him then or cutting him prior to that date but designating him as one of the two June 1s allowable under the CBA–there will be a cap hit of almost $2.5MM in 2008 and 2009 as opposed to a $5MM hit in 2008 if they cut him right now just to make a point). Besides, they might be able to convince Cincinnati that Travis would fit right in on their roster and get something in trade for him.
So while I might have had high hopes for him, if you are telling me we had to sacrifice Joe Echemandu to get rid of Travis Johnson…well, that’s a deal I’d make any day of the week.
Somehow, I doubt they’ll make a Fathead of any of these guys
Nov 20, 2007 2007 Season, Adimchinobe Echemandu is fun to say, Batman, Injury bug, Nigerian Mafia, RB free-for-all
Just scrolled across the bottom of NFL Network:
“Houston Texans: Activate RB Darius Walker from practice squad.”
Interesting for a number of reasons. First, this might mean that Gary is starting to doubt Joe Echemandu. (Echeman-don’t?) Second, it wasn’t that long ago that someone close to the Texans organization told me that “Walker’s not good, but you’re right [in thinking] he asked to be released. That said, I would be shocked if he made a roster, let alone play a down in the NFL.” Maybe is he is less not good now? Third, could this possibly be the final sign that Ahman Green shan’t be suiting up in the Texans colors again this year (or ever)?
Boo!
Oct 31, 2007 2007 Season, Adimchinobe Echemandu is fun to say, Andre Johnson, Batman, Houston Chronicle, Injury bug, Nigerian Mafia, The Schaub Experiment
Because I aspire to be nothing moreso than evenhanded,1 I should point to John McClain’s entry from today.2
If the Texans can keep from embarrassing themselves at Oakland the way they did at San Diego and escape with a victory, they’ll stop the bleeding momentarily.
[...]
The Texans need to run the ball like they did at San Diego, where they outrushed the Chargers 115 yards to 109 — thanks to Adimchinobe Echemandu. They also must continue to play that kind of run defense, something that had been lacking in recent weeks.Obviously, the Texans can’t continue to turn over the ball. They’ve committed 23 turnovers, including 11 in the last two games.
And it would help, of course, if the defense could actually force some turnovers.
[...]
If the Texans defeat the Raiders, enter their week off 4-5 and get back Schaub and Johnson, those of us with the glass-is-half-full philosophy will feel better.The rest of you won’t, because your glass is always half-empty, and you expect — indeed, almost welcome — the kind of incompetence the Texans have shown so you can say, “I told you so.”
While I still think the playoffs are out of reach already–losing your first three division games and being in last in your division at the half-way point is a big ass mountain to climb–McClain is right in his assertion that this is the last chance to really put together a “good” season. If we lose the Raiders and fall to 3-6, the odds of getting to even .500 are slim. That would require, obviously, a 5-2 record to end the year.3
Not impossible obviously, save for two things. First, teams that start 3-6 rarely decide to right the ship and finish 5-2; there is a reason you get to 3-6 in the first place. Second, the schedule only gets harder from here, with @Titans, Broncos, @Colts, Jaguars, and even a game with the upstart Browns @Cleveland.
Now note: With that kind of road ahead, I am not saying that winning this Sunday and going into the bye week at 4-5 makes us a lock for a winning record. Far from it. Still, I can at least fathom the idea that this team can finish 4-3 and sneak out a win or two against “better” teams. 5-2, on the other hand, seems less likely at this moment than the Patriots going 19-0.
Now we just need to find a way to win without Matt Schaub. Or Andre Johnson. Or Ahman Green. Or Adminchinobe Echemandu.
There’s a Halloween scare for you.4
1 Not counting “rich,” “Paris Hilton hot,” “the owner of many, many monkeys,” “reincarnated as Monica Bellucci’s underwear,” “quoted in the Wall Street Journal,” “tall,” and “a ninja.”
2 We haven’t done footnotes in a while, have we? This is fun. Wheeeeeeeeee.
3 Math!
4 Not for nothin’, but the giving out candy gets more entertaining with each passing beer. Father of the year, bitches!
Someone get Tony Hollings on the line, I guess
Oct 31, 2007 2007 Season, Adimchinobe Echemandu is fun to say, Batman, Injury bug, Nigerian Mafia, Ron Dayne likes pie
Because Baby Jesus has decided that I am not allowed to be happy with anything Texans-related this year, it appears that my latest crush, Adimchinobe Echemandu, might be sidelined with a gimpy hamstring.
He apparently tweaked it in San Diego, most likely as he tried to outrun our ineptitude, and played through the pain.
If Echemandu can’t go, we’re pretty much screwed Ron Dayne will likely get the carries. (I say this on the far-fetched assumption that Ahman Green won’t be healthy). Dayne is not 100% either, however, as in related news, he continues to play through sucky fatness.
