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    <title>SB Nation User Blog:  exsquid</title>
    <link>http://www.sbnation.com/users/exsquid</link>
    <description>Posts made by exsquid on SB Nation</description>
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      <title>The Houston Texans and the Talking Heads</title>
      <link>http://www.battleredblog.com/2009/7/22/957656/the-houston-texans-and-the-talking</link>
      <author>exsquid</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:28:53 -0000</pubDate>
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&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;July 20, 2009 by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nfltouchdown.com/author/bill/&quot; title=&quot;Posts by Exsquid&quot;&gt;Exsquid&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nfltouchdown.com/tag/houston-texans/&quot;&gt;Houston Texans&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nfltouchdown.com/tag/off-season/&quot;&gt;Off season&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nfltouchdown.com/tag/texans/&quot;&gt;Texans&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; It's still a couple of weeks, more or less, until training camp starts, and the football news is slower than a snail.&amp;nbsp; Since there is really no news to talk of, other than a few things I will get into later,&amp;nbsp; I thought now would be a good time to update everyone on what the so called &quot;experts&quot;, a.k.a. Talking Heads, have to say about our &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/teams/HOU&quot; class=&quot;sbn-auto-link&quot;&gt;Texans&lt;/a&gt; and the upcoming season.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; I have perused all of the magazines and websites, that I could find or think of, with the exception of ESPN, and the considered opinion of all of the writers/editors, et. al., is that the Texans will take third place in the AFC South, again, and have their first winning season.&amp;nbsp; With one exception, one person (other than our own Andy) did have the Texans winning the AFC South, however, I can't remember who or where that was.&amp;nbsp; Our own Andy gave them a 2nd place finish in the division.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; All of these so called experts (and we all know how accurate they usually are), gave the Texans' record running anywhere from 12-4 to 7-9.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; All of the Talking Heads are in agreement that the keys to the Texans' season are two-fold.&amp;nbsp; First, and foremost, is the defense; they must step up and get out of the league cellar.&amp;nbsp; The Texans' defense must rank somewhere, in the middle of the league, in points and yards allowed, and put pressure on opposing QBs.&amp;nbsp; The better the defense gets, the better the Texans' season should be.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The second thing that they all agreed on, was that the team, as a whole, must stay healthy.&amp;nbsp; If the offense can stay healthy, they can put up as many points as anyone in the league.&amp;nbsp; So it, again, comes down to staying healthy (like last year) and having the defense step up and shut down the opponents.&amp;nbsp; Of course you can say the same thing about every other team in the league.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In other news, CB &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/players/2751/Dunta_Robinson&quot; class=&quot;sbn-auto-link&quot;&gt;Dunta Robinson&lt;/a&gt; still has not signed his tendered offer and has stated that he will hold out during training camp, and possibly the start of the season.&amp;nbsp; By now, everyone knows that Dunta is not happy about the franchise tag.&amp;nbsp; That was done after he turned down a $23 million dollar offer, so I don't see where he has much room to complain.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; While I agree that he brings a lot of leadership to the Texans' secondary, and is a better than average corner, he is not an elite corner.&amp;nbsp; While he did come back from a career threatening injury, and contributed alot to the team, he is not worth the money that he is seeking at this time.&amp;nbsp; Maybe, if he plays very well this season, he might be worth more to the team, but not right now.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; TE Owens Daniels has signed his offer, but skipped the last of OTA's and mini-camp.&amp;nbsp; This is one player who is on the bubble as far as a long term contract is concerned.&amp;nbsp; If he performs better than last year, then a new contract is coming. If not, then the rookies may get a shot at starting sooner then they thought.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The Texans have signed half of their rookies to contracts, and it looks like the rest will be done before training camp opens at the end of the month.&amp;nbsp; This is good news, since it looks like three or four of them maybe starting in some formations when the season starts.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Well, that's all I have for this installment.&amp;nbsp; Look for more frequent updates, when training camp opens and there is actually some football news to report.&amp;nbsp; Next week, &quot;How I would Talk To Dunta Robinson About His Contract&quot; or &quot;If I Was Rick Smith&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Originally posted on www.nfltouchdown.com&lt;/p&gt;

  


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  &lt;h5 class=&quot;poll-title&quot;&gt;Is Dunta Robinson really worth elite CB pay at this time?&lt;/h5&gt;
  
    
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      &lt;h5&gt;Yes&lt;/h5&gt;
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      &lt;h5&gt;No&lt;/h5&gt;
      &lt;div class=&quot;poll_option_bar&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;vote_count&quot;&gt;9&lt;/span&gt; votes&lt;/div&gt;
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    &lt;div class=&quot;poll_option clearfix&quot;&gt;
      &lt;div class=&quot;poll_option_percentage&quot; style=&quot;display:none&quot;&gt;30%&lt;/div&gt;
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      &lt;h5&gt;Maybe after this season&lt;/h5&gt;
      &lt;div class=&quot;poll_option_bar&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;vote_count&quot;&gt;4&lt;/span&gt; votes&lt;/div&gt;
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      &lt;h5&gt;Never&lt;/h5&gt;
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  &lt;p class=&quot;poll-total-votes&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;13&lt;/strong&gt; votes
      
    | &lt;span class=&quot;poll-has-closed&quot;&gt;Poll has closed&lt;/span&gt;
  
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      <title>The Houston Texans and Fantasy Football</title>
      <link>http://www.battleredblog.com/2009/7/1/931752/the-houston-texans-and-fantasy</link>
      <author>exsquid</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:56:05 -0000</pubDate>
      <description type="html">


&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nfltouchdown.com/tag/texans/&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The fantasy football magazines are coming out and there are several &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/teams/HOU&quot; class=&quot;sbn-auto-link&quot;&gt;Texans&lt;/a&gt; in the spotlight for fantasy football players to consider.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For those of you who play fantasy sports let&amp;rsquo;s run down who you should be looking at from the Texans this year.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;WR &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/players/2728/Andre_Johnson&quot; class=&quot;sbn-auto-link&quot;&gt;Andre Johnson&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;:&amp;nbsp; Rated in the top 5 amongst wide receivers in the NFL, if you can get him do it but don&amp;rsquo;t expect him to last into the second round of the draft.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;RB Steve Slayton&lt;/b&gt;:&amp;nbsp; Rated in the top 15 amongst running backs in the NFL, that being said I am in three leagues and Slayton has not lasted past the first round in any of them (no, I didn&amp;rsquo;t get him except once).&amp;nbsp; With a healthy backup his carries will drop this year but I believe his actual value will increase.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To continue reading go to www.nfltouchdown.com&lt;/p&gt;

  


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