Hey gang... by no means am I a capper of this, but I'll throw the information I've got out there about how the Texans should be going about this opening game against Denver.
David Carr might play a little longer than expected, but certainly not past the first quarter. Capers has some interesting action between Tony Banks and recently returned NFL Europe superstar Dave Ragone. These guys are going to split the majority of the remainder of the game (Ragone probably getting more reps to get back into the flow of the game which is much faster than NFL Europe)... Capers really wants to see Ragone pan out and might give him more playing time than a backup would figure to see.
The offensive line is going to be mix and match all night, but the 7 guys competing for 6 spots should get the 1st half, maybe even 3 quarters. Capers wants the line to start to jel together, and no better way to do that than preseason. Zach Wiegart is the exception to this, as if he plays, he will be limited.
WRs are going to be problematic. Johnson won't play much. Gaffney has been wearing a red jersey the entire camp and probably won't play Saturday. Mathis has a leg injury and will likely be held out of Saturday's game. So the WRs aren't very deep... At RB, Dominick Davis will see a typical RB load... probably around the same length of Carr's. Rookie Vernand Morency and Tony Hollings will see a bunch of carries (both capable running backs... remember, Hollings was drafted 2 rounds before Dominick Davis was with a supplemental pick in '03), while Houston maintains working out their FB spot with Jonathan Wells transferring there from backup RB last year.
On defense, expect to see a lot of Dunta and Buchanon working together to figure things out. Capers expects the majority of the starting secondary to be working at least the first half, with nickel corner DeMarcus Faggins playing a bunch of downs as well. SS competition is tight with the Texans, as incumbent Glenn Earl is being given stiff competition with 6th round surprise CC Davis. 1st rounder Travis Johnson will get in probably about 3 quarters in the Texans line rotation. Gary Walker has been banged up a bit, so the rotation is cut to 5 guys. Zeke Moreno is missing on defense, meaning Morlon Greenwood might have to play the majority of the game, as Houston is real thin on middle linebackers (and Kailee Wong won't come close to playing the entire game).
That's what I've got for now... if anything changes between now and then, I'll bring it here. But the Texans seem to be real fired up about this game, and these two teams have been training for 3 days in Houston prior to this game with a couple skirmishes breaking out between the teams. If anyone can figure out Denver's rotation for the game, Houston -1.5 might be the play, as any win that this franchise can get is a step in the right direction mentally, if nothing else, for a team that has post-season aspirations this year.
David Carr might play a little longer than expected, but certainly not past the first quarter. Capers has some interesting action between Tony Banks and recently returned NFL Europe superstar Dave Ragone. These guys are going to split the majority of the remainder of the game (Ragone probably getting more reps to get back into the flow of the game which is much faster than NFL Europe)... Capers really wants to see Ragone pan out and might give him more playing time than a backup would figure to see.
The offensive line is going to be mix and match all night, but the 7 guys competing for 6 spots should get the 1st half, maybe even 3 quarters. Capers wants the line to start to jel together, and no better way to do that than preseason. Zach Wiegart is the exception to this, as if he plays, he will be limited.
WRs are going to be problematic. Johnson won't play much. Gaffney has been wearing a red jersey the entire camp and probably won't play Saturday. Mathis has a leg injury and will likely be held out of Saturday's game. So the WRs aren't very deep... At RB, Dominick Davis will see a typical RB load... probably around the same length of Carr's. Rookie Vernand Morency and Tony Hollings will see a bunch of carries (both capable running backs... remember, Hollings was drafted 2 rounds before Dominick Davis was with a supplemental pick in '03), while Houston maintains working out their FB spot with Jonathan Wells transferring there from backup RB last year.
On defense, expect to see a lot of Dunta and Buchanon working together to figure things out. Capers expects the majority of the starting secondary to be working at least the first half, with nickel corner DeMarcus Faggins playing a bunch of downs as well. SS competition is tight with the Texans, as incumbent Glenn Earl is being given stiff competition with 6th round surprise CC Davis. 1st rounder Travis Johnson will get in probably about 3 quarters in the Texans line rotation. Gary Walker has been banged up a bit, so the rotation is cut to 5 guys. Zeke Moreno is missing on defense, meaning Morlon Greenwood might have to play the majority of the game, as Houston is real thin on middle linebackers (and Kailee Wong won't come close to playing the entire game).
That's what I've got for now... if anything changes between now and then, I'll bring it here. But the Texans seem to be real fired up about this game, and these two teams have been training for 3 days in Houston prior to this game with a couple skirmishes breaking out between the teams. If anyone can figure out Denver's rotation for the game, Houston -1.5 might be the play, as any win that this franchise can get is a step in the right direction mentally, if nothing else, for a team that has post-season aspirations this year.
