Reading the coverage of the Houston Texans...
Jadeveon Clowney spoke Thursday about something that's been apparent for a while: He's been playing through a lot of pain, and had a setback recently with his rehabilitation from arthroscopic knee surgery. John McClain of the Houston Chronicle says Clowney and Texans quarterback Ryan Mallett are two players for whom he feels bad. I'm with him there. Mallett waited and waited for his chance, got it, performed well, and then he suffered a season-ending injury. Clowney suffered a serious injury in his first NFL game and has taken a lot of unwarranted criticism from many different sources through the recovery process.
The Chronicle's Jerome Solomon takes a look at this year's draft class as a whole. He writes: "Those rookies must be lighting it up in practices, which are closed to media, because their game contributions have been minimal. When it comes to the NFL draft, premature evaluation is a serious enough condition to have its own WebMD entry, so treat this as an early warning, not a declaration. It is difficult to draft 10 players and have as little production from a group of rookies as the Texans have had thus far this season. ... This isn't about the future of the Texans' rookies - I'm no soothsayer. It is about their production, or lack thereof, through the first 11 games of their NFL careers." Solomon also contrasts this draft's production to the last time the Texans drafted with a veteran general manager and new head coach. That was 2006, a draft that included Mario Williams, DeMeco Ryans, Eric Winston and Owen Daniels.
Tom Savage is the likely Texans backup quarterback this weekend, writes Drew Dougherty of HoustonTexans.com. Texans coach Bill O'Brien said he is "leaning toward" that, with Thaddeus Lewis only having had a few days with the team. "It's a good feeling that things are paying off," Savage said. "But I can't focus on that kind of stuff. I just have to focus on being ready." The Texans drafted Savage in the fourth round out of Pittsburgh this May. He's been inactive all season.