UPDATE: It is now official. Slaton will be placed on IR, ending his 2009 season.
Adam Schefter of ESPN is reporting via his twitter feed that Steve Slaton will be placed on injured reserve. Schefter is almost always right on the money.
My gut feeling about the “Kubiakspeak” dealing with Slaton was right, unfortunately.
That leaves Andre Johnson as our only “special” weapon on offense, with Slaton and Owen Daniels both done for the year. Sure, there are other weapons, but those three were by far the most dangerous.
Will these injuries play into Bob McNair’s decision of whether or not to keep Gary Kubiak in Houston another year? I don’t know, but I kind of hope they don’t. That might sound contradictory as you know I’m a Kubiak fan – but if Bob’s going to make his decision, I want it to be more about coaching and execution than circumstances. All teams have to endure injury problems. I haven’t taken the time to examine how bad the Texans’ injury situation is compared to other competitive teams, but I imagine it’s not close to the worst.
With Chris Brown and Ryan Moats figuring to get the most work actually touching the football, hopefully we will also see what Arian Foster and Chris Henry (who is said to be close to joining the active roster) can do. Foster has been on the roster for a while now, but has only seen some limited special teams work.
Despite leading the team in touchdowns with seven, this was a lost year for Slaton. He lost his starting job after repeated fumbling problems, his pass protection regressed, and his ability to make quick, decisive reads in the zone blocking scheme evaporated. After a neck injury, he started feeling numbness in his hands and arms, and ultimately the numbness in one of his fingertips wouldn’t quit. He saw a specialist in Dallas yesterday, and apparently the report wasn’t good – so he’s done.
I guess when you don’t have feeling in the tips of your fingers, you really can’t pass the ball effectively, so with no chance of running the vaunted halfback option, it turns out Steve has no role for the remaining four games.
Get well, Stevie Wonder. We need you back next year with a new focus. I have a feeling that with Steve, effort and dedication are never a problem. I don’t know what happened to him this year, but I think we can all be sure that if the problems can be fixed by hard work – Steve will fix the problems.
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Dec 9, 2009 at 15:00:51
Is it a bad thing that I’m excited to see what Arian Foster brings to the table?
Dec 9, 2009 at 16:36:44
Fantasy playoffs start this week?
Dec 10, 2009 at 02:21:06
This one hurts. We are practically going out with our 2nd team offense next game. Shaub could very well be injured again with his shoulder. the same thing happened to stafford and he got knocked out in the cincy game. I hope seattle has no pass rush because we will be screwed with no shaub. If shaub gets hurt, I propose we put andre back at Qb and have him throw the ball to himself.I have a feeling we will be 8-8 again folks. the one thing that might save this regime is that they are pretty good talent evaluators. Although I will admit, I did not like that they did not go after brian dawkins or Sharper in the off season at the safety position, they have done good in the street free agents and draft department.
Dec 10, 2009 at 16:19:30
@truth
Brian Dawkins and Darren Sharper are playing better than anyone could have predicted, to include the teams that signed them.
As far as going 8-8, I sincerely doubt it. The Seahawks are terrible on the road this season, so we have a shot this week. The Rams are a maybe because they are in a similiar boat with us in that their record is less a reflection of talent and more of a success at finding ways to lose. The Dolphins and Patriots will kill us because they are still vying for playoff position. We could easily go 6-10.
Dec 10, 2009 at 17:40:00
“I haven’t taken the time to examine how bad the Texans’ injury situation is compared to other competitive teams, but I imagine it’s not close to the worst.”
If you had left out the word competitive, I might agree with you. However, people tend to underestimate how much injuries affect team performance. When good teams lack injuries, people don’t see that as a reason that they are good, but generally that is a huge factor. Of winning teams, I only see Indy as possibly having comparable injuries to us.
Dec 11, 2009 at 13:48:46
Wow! maybe we might want to consider that the NFL is really getting some parity in the league. Look at the Steelers they only have an outside chance to make the playoffs. The Pats are not looking like they are going to do much and the lowly Bengals are divison leaders. If you look at how many games we lost on the last play of the game, we are not far off.
In any event it has been exciting!
Dec 12, 2009 at 00:19:51
@ kyle
I can see what you are saying about sharper. The best thing to happen to him was to have them hire gregg williams. I really wanted Gregg Williams for our d coordinator position. Brian Dawkins has been a great safety. They decided to stay pat instead of signing an experienced safety. Dawkins contract is not bad at all and he is a good leader, which is something we really need.We stayed with Barber. 8-8 is the best case scenario for us. We will beat seattle and st. louis. It is the Miami and New England game that could go either way. I look forward to your draft coverage later. It looks like it will be Terrance Cody. We should trade up for suh. We need to fix our pass rush and we need to get more of a push in the middle.
Dec 12, 2009 at 15:12:23
@truth
Actually, as far as the season, Jerome Solomon of chron.com wrote an article that gave me a glimmer of hope for the playoffs, basically saying that the rest of the AFC has been so mediocre this year that we still have a shot, as long as Jacksonville and/or Denver tank and no one else but us “gets hot”. The bottom line is we SHOULD beat Seattle (sucks on the road, no running game), and St. Louis (put both safeties in the box and dare Kyle Boller and Donnie Avery to win the game; they won’t). After that, we COULD be tied for the 6 spot. (however, if Denver and Jacksvonille both win 2 or more games, we are out)
Also, Terrence Cody would be the worst pick ever. He is too big to play 4-3, and, even then, his work ethic and endurance issues are comparable to Andre Smith, who only got drafted by the Bengals because the Bengals coach was the coach for the Shrine Game, and he must have feel in love.
And we can’t trade up for Suh, You really can’t legitimately trade into the Top 4, and Suh WILL be a Top 4 pick. He may go #1 overall.
Dec 13, 2009 at 06:06:46
Although I have seen teams trade into the top 4(IE the jets and browns), I agree that it very rare. Un addition the jets and browns had the pipeline with mangini going to the browns.
I do not want cody, but we need that big d.tackle to take on two blockers to free the other guys on the dline. I have been saying for the longest time that cody will be a bust and the Texans have done a great job of picking busts in the first round.I put cody in my last post because I really could see the texans picking him. In a perfect world, we trade for Shaun rogers. I have been drooling over suh since september and I feel like he is the closest thing to a sure thing we got in this draft. My mancrush for suh is 10 times more than your man crush for sintim was last spring.
As for the playoffs, Playoffs….Playoffs…Playoffs you kidding me…we are just trying to win a game. Sorry I had to go Jim mora on you. I do not see us beating both New england and Miami especially since both will be fighting for the division and/or the wild card.If we were healthy then maybe we could pitch a shutout, I just think it is extremely unlikely.
Dec 13, 2009 at 14:04:18
we don’t have to trade for Shaun Rogers. as I mention in my post at justdraft.angelfire.com/hou2010.html he’s a potential free agent hire.
IF you are looking for people we can draft at the nose, look up Arthur Jones of Syracuse and Marvin Austin of North Carolina as potential 1st round picks, Dan Williams of Tennessee (a favorite of mine) in the 2nd, or Terrel Troup of Central Florida in the 5th.
I’ve mentioned Vince Oghobaase forever, but scouting reports seem to indicate that he’s a much better fit at 3-4 end.