Also, for the next year – this:

That’s your boy Matt, on the right. I know, I know – he’s not in college anymore, but still – nice vest. This guy is a Houston Texan. I don’t like the signing, but whatever – it’s good for “business.” It should be a lot of fun for we Texans Bloggers.

As someone so astutely put it on Twitter yesterday – if Schaub gets hurt, our season is over no matter WHO the backup is.

Texans have seven of eight practice squad spots set
This from Mark “Scoop” Berman: C Brett Helms, OT Cole Pemberton, DT Malcolm Sheppard, LB Isaiah Greenhouse, S Torri Williams, WR Bobby Williams, and RB Chris Ogbonnaya. So much for Jeremiah Johnson making the P-Squad, but he may yet be picked up again once he’s healthy. By my count, that’s seven guys on the P-squad, leaving room for one more.

Texans part ways with Danny Clark
I like Danny Clark. I hate to see him go, but with Adibi healthy it makes sense… also – when I say “with Adibi healthy” what I really mean is – Danny, stay in shape and keep your phone on.

Maneri to the Patriots
The Patriots claimed OT Steve Maneri off waivers from the Texans.

Texans claim a CB, LB
The Texans claimed two players of waivers, so they are now at the 53-player max. LB David Nixon, formerly of the Raiders, and since they got rid of ex-Dallas CB Jacques Reeves, they snatched up CB Jamar Wall from the Cowboys.

The Aaron Schobel speculation is heating up again
I saw talk of this on a message board early this morning, but now there’s a link to the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram story. It basically confirms what a lot of us suspected – Schobel is still interested in playing, and never really wanted to retire as much as he wanted to skip the offseason/preseason work. As I said to John McClain when he told us Schobel was definitely done, “we’ll see.”

Check back in for updates as the day goes on.

I hope this report isn’t true.

If it is, I at least hope we sign him for a hell of a lot less than we signed Dan Orlovsky for, because I haven’t seen ANYTHING from Matt Leinart that makes me think he’s ANY kind of an upgrade over Orlovsky.

As someone on Twitter said (forgive me for not remembering who) Matt Leinart is David Carr with a weaker arm, a worse attitude, and worse hair.

[Watch this space today for any new signings or any other roster moves.]
*RB Gartrell Johnson has been cut by the Giants. I’d like to see the Texans add him.

Derrick Ward is a Houston Texan
This of course is old news by now. If the Texans had signed him last year, there would have been a lot of excitement. Good thing they didn’t, because he turned out to be a free agent bomb. He couldn’t hack it in talent-mediocre Tampa Bay, and he’s only here because the Texans have a desperate situation at running back. He didn’t even go to Seattle for his planned visit, meaning the Texans likely just gave him whatever he wanted to stay.

Jeremiah Johnson waived
I see a lot of people surprised by RB Jeremiah Johnson being waived. I have to say, I was one of those people too. He looked really good as a runner in the preseason. Clearly, the Texans are counting on his toe dislocation scaring teams away from snatching him off of the waiver wire. Lance Zierlein isn’t at all worried that JJ will be picked up (this tweet was in response to me asking him that very question). Let’s also not lose sight of the fact that as good as Johnson looked running the ball, he’s still – as Gary Kubiak would say – got a long, long way to go as a blocker, and you HAVE to be able to block as a RB in this system. If/when Johnson clears waivers, he’s a lock to hit the practice squad.

Andre Davis to Injured Reserve
Gary Kubiak mentioned in his Monday appearance on Sports Radio 610 that they weren’t sure if Andre Davis was going to be out for a few weeks or “ten weeks.” It was kind of an off-handed comment, but because of the way Kubiak usually is with the media, it made my ears perk up a little. Regardless of his tailbone injury, it was going to be tough to keep Davis. He’s not the kick returner he was when he signed his new deal, and for the money the contract pays – he needs to be. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Texans come to an injury settlement with him sometime this season and release him outright.

Nick Polk’s release not reported, but sure he’s been cut
If you’re trying to do the math on the roster, the latest reports (such as the Berman link in my previous post) do not include undrafted rookie free agent safety Nick Polk. I follow him on Twitter (and you could too if you use my Texans on Twitter feature). Here are three tweets that seem to tell the story he’s been cut. Here, here, and here.

The final 53-man roster is not due until Saturday afternoon, but we should expect news on cuts to trickle out of Reliant as the day goes on. Discuss this, give your final roster predictions, or even talk about how free agent RB Derrick Ward is visiting the Texans today below in the comments. For now, here is the ongoing list of Texans cuts to this point (all unofficial, of course):

Texans’ Roster Cuts
K Kris Brown, via Chron.com
RB Chris Henry, via Adam Caplan
CB Jacques Reeves, via Ed Thompson
QB John David Booty via HT.com

The following unofficial cuts are via Mark Berman:
FB Jack Corcoran
WR Bobby Williams
WR Derrick Townsel
TE Derek Fine
OL Adam Stenavich
OL Steve Maneri
OL Cole Pemberton
C Brett Helms
C Chris White
DL Malcolm Sheppard
DL Mitch Unrein
DL DelJuan Robinson
LB Will Patterson
LB Isaiah Greenhouse
DB Mark Parson
DB Torri Williams

QBs (3) – Schaub, Booty, Orlovsky.
Notable: Orlovsky’s terrible performance against the Bucs leaves Gary Kubiak with two choices, in my mind. Cut Dan Orlovsky and have John David Booty as the backup, or keep all three. I think we know enough about how the Texans operate to know they won’t cut Dan, so we waste a roster spot on a third QB. Thanks, Dan.

RBs (4) – Foster, Slaton, Johnson, Free Agent.
Notable: Jeremiah Johnson’s dislocated toe complicates things. No word yet on how long he’ll be out, but for a player at his position I’ve gotta believe it will be a little while. Chris Henry is good on special teams, but I still haven’t seen even a hint that he can cut it as a running back on this team. He’s gone once the team finds a suitable free agent replacement.

FBs (1) – Leach.

WRs (6) – Johnson, Walter, Jones, Anderson, Dickerson, Davis.
Notable: I’ve thought for a while that Dickerson might have trouble clearing waivers to get to the practice squad. After last night, I’m convinced of that. Andre Davis might be headed for injured reserve before it’s all said and done, but looking at the roster I think the team can afford to keep six WRs (for now).

TEs (4) – Daniels, Dreessen, Casey, Graham.

OL (8) – Winston, Smith, Myers, Brisiel, Brown, Caldwell, Studdard, Butler.

DE (4) – Williams, Smith, Barwin, Jamison.

DT (4) – Cody, Okoye, Mitchell, Okam.

LB (6) – Ryans, Diles, Bentley, Adibi, Sharpton, Greenhouse (Cushing suspended).
Notable: This came down to Clark vs. Greenhouse. Clark is still an effective player at his age, but Greenhouse has looked good in the preseason, and Clark is hurt. Personally, I’d like to see the Texans hold on to Clark but I think they will go with youth and undetermined ceiling over knowing what they will get with Clark (that is, when he can actually get on the field).

CB (6) – Jackson, Quin, McCain, McManis, Reeves, Molden.
Notable: I didn’t seen Molden on the field last night, so I’m starting to wonder if he’s either hurt again, or just plain isn’t going to make the team… or maybe I just missed him.

S (4) – Pollard, Wilson, Barber, Nolan.

ST (3) – Rackers, Turk, Weeks.
Notable: Rackers has just been named as the kicker, as I expected. For a long time I thought that if the competition was close, Brown would get the nod – but the news that he is dealing with an injury coupled with the fact that he would be carrying “mental baggage” into the year made the choice easy for me. Brown could have done fine in 2010 with the Texans, but with the events of 2009, one bad miss could have made everything unravel, and that’s not a chance the team can afford to take.

Practice Squad (8) – DT Malcolm Sheppard, WR Bobby Williams, CB Mark Parson, S Torri Williams, OG Shelley Smith, OT Cole Pemberton, DE Jesse Nading, C Brett Helms.

If you read a lot of the Texans online coverage, whether it be the blogs or anything else, many of us have the same questions about this team. Let’s take a look at where the team stands on these issues now, and in the days leading up to week one. The “scale of judgement” will go from -5 to 5 (yep, that’s math. Sort of.) -5 would mean the team is going backwards, 0 means no movement, 5 would mean a huge upgrade.

Offseason concern #1. Interior Offensive Line issues
Following an abysmal team rushing performance in 2009, the Texans problems (in this area) are twofold. We can argue back and forth about what percentage of blame falls on the running backs, and what percentage falls on the offensive line, but it’s clear that blame falls on both sides.

Texans’ solution
Texans brought in versatile veteran Wade Smith, who has just been named the starter at left guard. Barring a surprise, the rest of the offensive line remains the same (Brown, Myers, Caldwell, Winston), with another year of experience and coaching under their collective belt.

First team results to this point
One inconsistent showing, one putrid showing, one dominant showing. The Texans were inconsistent against the Cardinals on the ground, especially on the inside. At that time, Kasey Studdard was the starting LG, with Wade Smith coming in later. Arian Foster ripped off a couple of decent runs, but also had a lot of 2009-esque runs. It was sloppy at times, but you can also chalk that up to it being the first preseason game.

In game two, the Texans were awful in all phases of the game. The running game averaged 3.4 yards per carry, but worse than their performance was the fact that the Texans were SO dominated, that they only got 20 minutes of possession time.

Against the Cowboys, the lines on both sides dominated. Wade Smith had his best game, and was soon after named the starter. Kasey Studdard is bumped down to backup status.

Early verdict
It’s hard to say. I lean toward an “incomplete,” but that’s a cop-out. Because it’s preseason, you really never know what you have – but the combination of an upgrade at LG and some new wrinkles in the running game (did you also see them do a couple of counters?) give me the confidence to say that the team has definitely improved their interior O-line situation. How dramatically they’ve improved it remains to be seen, and of course we will never know exactly how much the new running back situation has to do with that. They go hand-in-hand, one makes the other look better when things are going well.

SCORE: 2
The running game has still been a little too inconsistent for me to jump up and say we’ve had a significant upgrade. Simply inserting Smith into the lineup over Studdard is an immediate upgrade. Gary Kubiak has stated that Smith has shown the most improvement of all the players fighting for the open offensive line positions. I have no reason to think that’s inaccurate, and you’d think since he’s only been with the team for a short while that he is only going to get better. Okay, sure. I buy that too.

The reason I don’t move above a score of two in this category, is that in the end – the Texans didn’t do any real work to upgrade the center position other than have other guys already on the team compete with Chris Myers. Myers isn’t a terrible center, but he’s had more than his share of issues. Certainly enough that he should have had to fight for his job as hard as Studdard had to, and against some new blood. Opening up competition for a spot for a week in preseason is not the same thing as bringing in competition, if you get my meaning.

Next up, we’ll talk about offseason concern #2, the running back situation.

That said, I have some problems with what I saw on Saturday. Now, I’m already kind of seen as a cynical “over-worrier” when it comes to the Texans, but please hear me out.

After watching the game a second time, something that was crystal clear to me the FIRST time was only reinforced. The Texans did nearly EVERYTHING they could to win this game. They treated it (as they often do) as the preseason Super Bowl. The Cowboys? They were exactly who the Texans were in New Orleans. They had been away from home for a while (much longer than the Texans were), they had no desire to win the game, and it showed.

While in a perfect world, people could stand up, redfaced, and scream “I MAKE 20,000 A YEAR AND YOU MAKE TEN MILLION AND YOU NEED TO GIVE MAXIMUM EFFORT ALL THE TIME RAAWWRR!!!” — That’s not the world we live in. It’s preseason. Teams don’t care. For teams like the Cowboys and Colts, who have both looked pretty awful at times – that’s fine. They’re proven winners, and playoff teams. For the Texans? You better show me something.

So, they did. They came out on fire, especially defensively. But my thoughts on this game can be boiled down thusly: The Texans showed WAY too much, and wanted this meaningless game WAY more than the Cowboys.

Why the Texans did this, I have no idea. I can only assume they felt pressure to have a good showing in front of their angry fans after the New Orleans debacle. What’s the best way to ensure a dominant performance? Open up the playbook on both sides of the ball, and get after them. And they did.

The Texans were blitzing, stunting, and using defensive looks that the Dallas offense will be much more ready to handle when they return to Houston in week three. By then, they will have gameplanned for the Texans, and their beat up offensive line will be in better shape. Anyone who follows the Texans closely and pays attention to their defensive scheming was I’m sure in a near state of shock when Frank Bush dialed up a corner blitz with Glover Quin on the first series. There’s not a whole lot of tape on that sort of thing out there with the Texans, and of course – it worked beautifully. This time.

On offense, the Texans will beat you no matter how much tape the other side has, mainly because, well, they simply have a great offense. But there was one play in particular that I’m VERY upset they yanked out in the preseason. The 24-yard touchdown pass from Matt Schaub to Jacoby Jones was a thing of beauty. I’ve never seen a team bite on the play-fake as hard as the Cowboys bit. It was beautifully sold, perfectly executed, and SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN RUN IN THE PRESEASON!!!!!

Obviously, an enormous part of the Texans offense is based on misdirection and play action. But the route that Jacoby ran on the bootleg – where he went ACROSS the field after faking a typical bootleg route – that was something new and exciting, and any defensive coordinator worth TEN CENTS in the NFL is not going to fall for that more than once. It sure was a pretty play, though.

Even as cynical as I am, I have no wet blanket for what the running game did on Saturday night. They didn’t do anything fancy in that respect. They Cowboys knew it was coming, and they couldn’t do anything to stop it. Arian Foster is looking fantastic. I’ve been fine with him as the starter since Gary Kubiak started preparing us for it way back when – my ONLY concern with Foster is that he had injury issues at Tennessee. He only started two games last year, and we just don’t have a large sampling of him yet. Can he hold up to the wear and tear week to week? Man, I sure hope so because after already losing Ben Tate, this team is an injury to Foster away from having one of, if not the WORST running back situation in the NFL.

Jeremiah Johnson looked great, but he has issues with blitz pick-up. Steve Slaton still has shown me nothing at all to sway me away from thinking he’s the same guy he was last year. His field vision still looks non-existent, he hesitates, and that’s not even including the fumbling problem – which may have only been a one-time thing against Arizona, we just don’t know. The problem is, the fumbling is only one of many problems he has as a runner now. If he’s still considered the number two running back, it’s only because he’s a better blocker than Johnson – because Johnson certainly looks like a much better runner.

What happened, Steve? Seriously. It’s sad. The guy was unstoppable in 2008.

The Texans also appear to not have fixed their red zone scoring issues. I’ve seen in two separate places now references to how the Texans “would have had one more touchdown in the red zone if not for a holding call.” I don’t see it that way. The hold is what sprung the touchdown. It’s not like it happened away from the play. Chris Myers’ hold is what allowed Foster to score, and yes it was a legit holding call. Now – the pass interference call against Glover Quin – that was a load of horse crap… but I digress.

Look, the Texans looked great on Saturday. Other than their red zone woes, there was a lot to be excited about. I just don’t see the value in breaking open the playbook like that just to appease the fans who want to win yet another preseason Super Bowl championship.

So that’s my harsh, cynical look at what you would think I would look at as a triumphant return to form for the Texans on Saturday. I love that they won big. I love that they dominated – I guess I just am ready to take that step as a fan, where I don’t care about anything that happens in the preseason. I don’t want the players to think it’s a big deal, and I guess I don’t want the fans to think it’s a big deal either.

Maybe I shouldn’t have typed this on a Monday?

Quick thought: Tonight’s Cowboys team = last week’s Texans team. They just didn’t care. It certainly won’t be that way when they return in week three, and their defense SURE as heck won’t be as simplistic as it was tonight.

Much more to come, of course.