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Kubiak: Tate has had an 'up and down' camp

Mr. THE NFL, I'm not sure if you're just trying to stir the pot or not. It has made for good conversation though. That's all I'm interested in. But I'm willing to throw my 2 cents in!

First, I watched a lot of Steve Slaton when he was at WV. I watched him tear up a lot of tough defenses. I watched him some (admittedly not as much) his rookie year with the Texans but by all accounts, he was nothing short of spectacular. Ben Tate's numbers at Auburn were very impressive and he played against arguably some of the toughest defenses in the country in the SEC and still put up strong numbers. Arian Foster put up some of the same numbers against some of those same defenses in the SEC during his time at Tennessee. I watched a little bit of Jeremiah Johnson at Oregon and he can run the ball as well, has a vicious stiff arm. I know less about Henry but he appears to be hungry.

I think this is a pretty strong testimony to the backfield we have. They're all potentially good backs. It's all got to be settled on the field of course, but I think it's a great place to start.

I don't think you can downplay our OL as I think we'll have a little more depth than last year. This Texan team is pretty young. But they're talented as most anyone out there with enough veteran leadership to get further than they ever have. I know playoffs is everyone's measuring stick, but this team wants more.

One thing I've learned about football is that one can never ever measure the size of man's heart and I think this team collectively is hungry. And it's going to be fun to watch.
 
Great post TexMexMom! That is how I feel about it as well. This team has never had the depth it has now. And all the players are excited about this year. Following them on twitter lets you know how pumped up they are.
 
TexMexMom said:
Mr. THE NFL, I'm not sure if you're just trying to stir the pot or not. It has made for good conversation though. That's all I'm interested in. But I'm willing to throw my 2 cents in!

First, I watched a lot of Steve Slaton when he was at WV. I watched him tear up a lot of tough defenses. I watched him some (admittedly not as much) his rookie year with the Texans but by all accounts, he was nothing short of spectacular. Ben Tate's numbers at Auburn were very impressive and he played against arguably some of the toughest defenses in the country in the SEC and still put up strong numbers. Arian Foster put up some of the same numbers against some of those same defenses in the SEC during his time at Tennessee. I watched a little bit of Jeremiah Johnson at Oregon and he can run the ball as well, has a vicious stiff arm. I know less about Henry but he appears to be hungry.

I think this is a pretty strong testimony to the backfield we have. They're all potentially good backs. It's all got to be settled on the field of course, but I think it's a great place to start.

I don't think you can downplay our OL as I think we'll have a little more depth than last year. This Texan team is pretty young. But they're talented as most anyone out there with enough veteran leadership to get further than they ever have. I know playoffs is everyone's measuring stick, but this team wants more.

One thing I've learned about football is that one can never ever measure the size of man's heart and I think this team collectively is hungry. And it's going to be fun to watch.
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Just wanted to tell you Arian is looking awesome. I hope he continues to impress everybody, he deserves it. Going by his comments on twitter and your posts here on the board, y'all seem like great people. Good luck to the both of you.
 
C Madd said:
This was in 2001 so I never talked to Rosenthal. There were only two guys running the site at the time and it was only getting about 100k hits per month, according to them. I played a fantasy baseball game called Baseball Challenge with both guys, Matthew Pouliot and Troy Beech. I'm not sure if Beech still works there but he took care of all the advertising while Matthew did most of the article writing. Troy asked me if I wanted to write one day and I submitted a sample of my writing. They hired me to do the updates for baseball at first, then it progressed to football and writing a few fantasy football articles.

I was supposed to start profit sharing after a certain amount of time but I quit to focus on college. Now they're huge and my college degree isn't helping find a job in this economy. :pissed:

All the writers they have now are so much better than me, anyways. They probably would have to had given me a different job or fired me.
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Man, that's very interesting C Madd. To think that you were messing with those guys in their earlier stages is funny and cool at the same time. Yeah, Roto is **** as far as info though man. I started reading most of Rosenthal's stuff and all of their updates about two years ago and I've won my Fantasy Leagues both seasons and I play against some Fantasy Football Lions man. Guys that take this stuff extremely seriously. We have rivalries around our league man. Guys that really hate each other through this stuff. Lol!!!

That would be cool to have job writing FF articles though. Did you ever persue that in any other type of way after that?
 
Haven't looked into writing again since that time. I ended up with a degree in finance so that was my primary focus for a while. I'd love to get back into sports writing again, though, whether it be about the Texans, the NFL in general or fantasy football. Even if no one reads it, writing is something that you can feel good about when you have a finished product.

Maybe I'll just start posting here more.
 
gary said:
I have not heard much about him but I think Jeremiah Johnson is still on the roster too. So, some one should pan out from those five.
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JJ is there, and best case scenario, we can stash him on the practice squad again. If something takes one of the other 4 out, one isn't performing, injury, suspension of some sort, we can bump JJ up. None of the other guys are PS eligible, I think.
 
THE NFL said:
I think they will be better, but lets not go to far with this " mauling people " stuff. The Texans arent that team.
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the adverb "too" would be appropriate here, as a modifier to the verb go.

I'm just telling you what I saw. Winston & Studdard are maulers as they have mauled members of the opposing defense, most especially at the end of the season.

The Pencil Neck said:
Dude.

What the hell are you talking about? The only person talking about mauling people is you. No one here said our offensive line was going to maul anyone.
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Sorry, that was me.
 
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thunderkyss said:
JJ is there, and best case scenario, we can stash him on the practice squad again. If something takes one of the other 4 out, one isn't performing, injury, suspension of some sort, we can bump JJ up. None of the other guys are PS eligible, I think.
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One of them should work out which is my point.
 
TexMexMom said:
Mr. THE NFL, I'm not sure if you're just trying to stir the pot or not. It has made for good conversation though. That's all I'm interested in. But I'm willing to throw my 2 cents in!

First, I watched a lot of Steve Slaton when he was at WV. I watched him tear up a lot of tough defenses. I watched him some (admittedly not as much) his rookie year with the Texans but by all accounts, he was nothing short of spectacular. Ben Tate's numbers at Auburn were very impressive and he played against arguably some of the toughest defenses in the country in the SEC and still put up strong numbers. Arian Foster put up some of the same numbers against some of those same defenses in the SEC during his time at Tennessee. I watched a little bit of Jeremiah Johnson at Oregon and he can run the ball as well, has a vicious stiff arm. I know less about Henry but he appears to be hungry.

I think this is a pretty strong testimony to the backfield we have. They're all potentially good backs. It's all got to be settled on the field of course, but I think it's a great place to start.

I don't think you can downplay our OL as I think we'll have a little more depth than last year. This Texan team is pretty young. But they're talented as most anyone out there with enough veteran leadership to get further than they ever have. I know playoffs is everyone's measuring stick, but this team wants more.

One thing I've learned about football is that one can never ever measure the size of man's heart and I think this team collectively is hungry. And it's going to be fun to watch.
Click to expand...

I like your post! :splits:

Really feel bad about the things you had to endure on the Volunteers board.
 
Let me back up a bit. I dont really have a problem with the stable of RB's the Texans have. They are great, but they arent trash either. They are decent backs. Its Kubiak. I am not a Kubiak fan. I think he was a Draytonish former Houston Boy hire more about PR than what was best for the Franchise. I think he coaches scared and makes bad decisions and is a horrible clock manager.

What is saving Kubiak is 2 guys.. Schaub and Johnson.

I just dont have alot of faith in him taking this team to the next level. What they win, they win in spite of him.
 
THE NFL said:
Let me back up a bit. I dont really have a problem with the stable of RB's the Texans have. They are great, but they arent trash either. They are decent backs. Its Kubiak. I am not a Kubiak fan. I think he was a Draytonish former Houston Boy hire more about PR than what was best for the Franchise. I think he coaches scared and makes bad decisions and is a horrible clock manager.

What is saving Kubiak is 2 guys.. Schaub and Johnson.

I just dont have alot of faith in him taking this team to the next level. What they win, they win in spite of him.
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You are changing the subject, my friend!
 
THE NFL said:
Let me back up a bit. I dont really have a problem with the stable of RB's the Texans have. They are great, but they arent trash either. They are decent backs. Its Kubiak. I am not a Kubiak fan. I think he was a Draytonish former Houston Boy hire more about PR than what was best for the Franchise. I think he coaches scared and makes bad decisions and is a horrible clock manager.

What is saving Kubiak is 2 guys.. Schaub and Johnson.

I just dont have alot of faith in him taking this team to the next level. What they win, they win in spite of him.
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There are plenty of people here who aren't Kubiak fans. I'm personally not one of them but I understand that there are people who think Kubiak should have been fired and the reasons they think that. In the offseason, we had a ton of threads arguing the subject back and forth.

But just because you're not a Kubiak fan doesn't mean that you should look at the Texans through sh%t colored glasses and take a cynical view of every player and every move they make.

To me, this team looks like an improvement of last year's team which was an improvement of the team from the year before, etc. Last year's team was good enough to make the playoffs. This year's team, despite the so-call more difficult schedule, should make it.
 
THE NFL said:
Let me back up a bit. I dont really have a problem with the stable of RB's the Texans have. They are great, but they arent trash either. They are decent backs. Its Kubiak. I am not a Kubiak fan. I think he was a Draytonish former Houston Boy hire more about PR than what was best for the Franchise. I think he coaches scared and makes bad decisions and is a horrible clock manager.

What is saving Kubiak is 2 guys.. Schaub and Johnson.

I just dont have alot of faith in him taking this team to the next level. What they win, they win in spite of him.
Click to expand...

Both Schaub & Johnson are better players than they were before Kubiak. I understand they each work on their own to get better, but I have to believe Kubiak fosters that work ethic, and pushes them both as well. Andre used to drop a lot of balls. I can only think of one he dropped in '09, and the determination, and raw power he's displayed this year, to get the ball, and get into the endzone, I believe are new aspects of his game, that I believe Kubiak, or one of the coaches Kubiak brought, helped develop in Andre. He's still a quiet leader, but his actions are much louder today, than they were even two years ago.

Schaub is another one. As late as the SF game last year, you could still see Schaub taking what the defense gave him. A broken play was a broken play. Past the halfway mark, he wasn't waiting for the game to come to him, he was much more assertive, and was actually directing the outcome of more and more plays. If he got chased out of the pocket, he didn't look to throw the ball away, he was looking to make a play, and he made several plays. Even from the pocket, although his sack numbers went down, from being more decisive, he's also taking that last second hit, and making a perfect pass at the same time.

You can say those improvements in their games are in spite of their HC, but I find that hard to believe. Similar developments have been happening all over the field, on both sides of the ball. Jacoby, Barber, Winston, Studdard, just to name a few were playing much better at the end of the season, than they were at the beginning of the season.
 
I like Ben Tate a lot, but i think he struggles his first year, this will be the year Chris Henry emerge and be the back everyone thought he'd be, i'm talking 1000 yd. rusher if he gets touches early.
 
What is with these new posters and Chris Henry?

The guy is not a pro back. Before the combine of his draft, he was a nobody. After the combine, a second round pick. A couple years later, and he has a 3.8 yards per carry. 3 TDs. He looks good in every camp, but never in a game.
 
thunderkyss said:
Both Schaub & Johnson are better players than they were before Kubiak. I understand they each work on their own to get better, but I have to believe Kubiak fosters that work ethic, and pushes them both as well. Andre used to drop a lot of balls. I can only think of one he dropped in '09, and the determination, and raw power he's displayed this year, to get the ball, and get into the endzone, I believe are new aspects of his game, that I believe Kubiak, or one of the coaches Kubiak brought, helped develop in Andre. He's still a quiet leader, but his actions are much louder today, than they were even two years ago.

Schaub is another one. As late as the SF game last year, you could still see Schaub taking what the defense gave him. A broken play was a broken play. Past the halfway mark, he wasn't waiting for the game to come to him, he was much more assertive, and was actually directing the outcome of more and more plays. If he got chased out of the pocket, he didn't look to throw the ball away, he was looking to make a play, and he made several plays. Even from the pocket, although his sack numbers went down, from being more decisive, he's also taking that last second hit, and making a perfect pass at the same time.

You can say those improvements in their games are in spite of their HC, but I find that hard to believe. Similar developments have been happening all over the field, on both sides of the ball. Jacoby, Barber, Winston, Studdard, just to name a few were playing much better at the end of the season, than they were at the beginning of the season.
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I'm not the biggest Kubiak fan; yet, I've tempered by anti-Kubiak sentiment
after training camp started. When you watch training camp on
the NFL Network, other teams are "live" during their practices.

The last two years, at The Steelers and home for The Jets, our team
looked like it forgot how to tackle. They were physically manhandled
on both sides of the ball for 4 quarters to start the season. Although
the enthusiasm is high, I'm still in a "wait 'till I see it" mindstate with
this Kubiak-led squad.

No one wants to be more wrong about the man than me. It's time he
puts Houston Football back on the NFL map.
 
rmartin65 said:
What is with these new posters and Chris Henry?

The guy is not a pro back. Before the combine of his draft, he was a nobody. After the combine, a second round pick. A couple years later, and he has a 3.8 yards per carry. 3 TDs. He looks good in every camp, but never in a game.
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Yeah, I'm wondering myself. Henry hasn't shown anything in this league since he's been in the NFL.
 
DexmanC said:
I'm not the biggest Kubiak fan; yet, I've tempered by anti-Kubiak sentiment
after training camp started. When you watch training camp on
the NFL Network, other teams are "live" during their practices.

The last two years, at The Steelers and home for The Jets, our team
looked like it forgot how to tackle. They were physically manhandled
on both sides of the ball for 4 quarters to start the season. Although
the enthusiasm is high, I'm still in a "wait 'till I see it" mindstate with
this Kubiak-led squad.

No one wants to be more wrong about the man than me. It's time he
puts Houston Football back on the NFL map.
Click to expand...

DexmanC, I've never denied that Gary Kubiak has problems. The problem you point out here, is definitely a big one.

I've just been of the mindset, that he's doing (and has done) more good than harm since he's been here. To me, this looks like a championship team. Last year, they looked very good, despite making mistakes at key points in the games. Yes, some of that is Kubiak, but I also believe some of it is young players. When you look at how young we are, I find it hard to not believe that youth is/was the biggest factor. At the same time, that youth is going to be a big plus for us in the future.
 
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thunderkyss said:
I've just been of the mindset, that he's doing (and has done) more good than harm since he's been here. To me, this looks like a championship team. Last year, they looked very good, despite making mistakes at key points in the games. Yes, some of that is Kubiak, but I also believe some of it is young players. When you look at how young we are, I find it hard to believe that youth is/was the biggest factor. At the same time, that youth is going to be a big plus for us in the future.
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I agree. I think, while we have some excellent veteran leadership in good spots, the youth on this team is what is helping change the landscape and that should come together this season. Will there still be some "young" mistakes? Absolutely. The proof in the pudding will be how everyone responds after those mistakes are made. My hope is they don't panic and just ride it out. It's going to be a fun thing to watch, IMO.
 
Honestly if Tate struggles this year, people are going to call him a bust (on this very board, in fact). Arian Foster and Slaton are going to have to provide a significant 1-2 punch to keep Kubes from putting his new toy into play. I think if we haven't seen enough of Tate by the end of the season to properly evaluate his talent then that means that Foster/Slaton ran us into the playoffs.

Understanding this, preseason is going to be huge for our second round pick because he may play his way into more snaps. I remember Slaton's first preseason. Dude was on FIYAH.
 
THE NFL said:
We will see how great this O Line and RB corps is come the season.

The Texans have always had alot of back sin camp. Having alot of RB options doesnt mean you have a great running game. if you dont have a great O Line and a talented runner you wont.


Alot of you overvalue guys like Slaton and Foster and Tate, as well as the OLine. What has this OLine done before? Why now all of a sudden are they going to be throwing DLines all over the place. They arent new. The Texans Oline is a pass blocking finesse group. They are big by NFL standards.

I think they will be better, but lets not go to far with this " mauling people " stuff. The Texans arent that team.
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You were saying?
 
Rey said:
You were saying?
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Rey...Dude it's just one game. Not nearly enough to be gloating. This could just as easily an illusion brought on by our playing a Colt team that really sucked. Let's wait a few games to say "I told you so."
 
GNTLEWOLF said:
Rey...Dude it's just one game. Not nearly enough to be gloating. This could just as easily an illusion brought on by our playing a Colt team that really sucked. Let's wait a few games to say "I told you so."
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Who gloating? I'm not even saying " told you so"...because I actually didn't tell him anything...


But if you tell me I'm not going to knock anyone out, and I KO the first dude I step in the ring with in 10 seconds then you were wrong...

I didn't imagine Foster running for 230 so no...It wasn't an illusion...
 
Rey said:
Who gloating? I'm not even saying " told you so"...because I actually didn't tell him anything...


But if you tell me I'm not going to knock anyone out, and I KO the first dude I step in the ring with in 10 seconds then you were wrong...

I didn't imagine Foster running for 230 so no...It wasn't an illusion...
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I'm not saying it was an illusion and I'm with you on the enthusiam. I'm just saying let's get a few games under our belt...more concrete for the argument... its all good
 
I think the point is that The NFL said it wasn't going to happen, because it never happened before. Wether it is real or not isn't the question.

If The NFL said, "Rey doesn't have the power to knock a guy out with one punch. He's never done it before, therefore I won't believe it till I see it." and Rey knocks the first guy out with one punch, then it's obvious Rey does have that power, even though he is the same guy from before.

I think that was a very good analogy, and fits very well here.
 
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