FanHouse

How many playmakers can one team lose and still win? This is the question that the Texans are facing at least over the next couple of weeks. The games against Atlanta on the road and Miami at home appeared to be the soft spot in the schedule, but with all the injuries to key Texans players, maybe not so much.

The Houston Chronicle article about the Texans injuries is here, and here's some additional thoughts about what this might mean for the team, including some information I haven't seen anywhere else.

Out For the Season:

Steve McKinney, Center: Torn ACL. Veteran Mike Flanagan will start in his place. Flanagan looked decent in his competition for the starting job in the preseason, but last year, McKinney looked better in run blocking. Flanagan got injured last season, and is on the oldish side, so there's concerns about depth. Chris White currently is the backup at center, and Kubiak liked his performance at camp.

Cedric Killings, Defensive Tackle: Fractured Vertebra. Cedric Killings was with the team in camp, was cut, but then was resigned when Travis Johnson was out with an injury. They kept him on the team after Johnson came back, but then Killings was injured during a special teams collision. With both McKinney and Killings on IR, the Texans chose to re-sign wide receiver David Anderson and tight end Joel Dressen, players who had been in camp with the team. Both are good special team players.


Out for Unknown Time:

These are players that I know will miss time, but it is unclear how much. Texans fans have learned that it is hard to take Texan reports of injury duration at face value because sometimes they are overly optimistic or reveal information selectively. See e.g. Tony Boselli, Domanick (Davis) Williams, Charles Spencer. Not that unusual in the league, but worth pointing out.

Andre Johnson, wide receiver: Sprained PCL and MCL. Originally, he was diagnosed with a sprained PCL, but that wasn't reconfirmed after his initial MRI when his injury was just discussed as a "sprained knee." At that time, there were suggestions he would be out from 3 to 5 weeks. After the Colts game, the Houston Chronicle reported he had a sprained PCL and MCL and when he will be back is "uncertain," but that he is ruled out this week.

In 2005, Johnson missed 3 games and was hampered for more due to what was called publicly a "calf injury." As I understand it, (I'm not a doctor nor will I play nurse), a sprained PCL manifests pain in the calf, and his 2007 injury is in the same leg. Hopefully for Texan fans this is more a matter of coincidence, and less something that is going to be recurrent.

Jacoby Jones, wide receiver/punt returner: Separated shoulder. With the absence of Johnson, Jones was in line to be depended on being more of a playmaker for the team. Unfortunately, he got his injury while playmaking, getting slammed to the ground at the end of a 74 yard punt return. The Texans suggest he will be out two to three weeks.

UPDATE: Jones in his Rookie Diary says that the injury isn't as bad as it first felt, and says he isn't really in any pain now.

It's terrible luck that Johnson and Jones, two of the most well conditioned players for the Texans are both out with injuries.

Ahman Green, running back: Bruised knee. *Damning with faint praise alert* Since he has been a Texans, Green has looked by far like the class of the Texans running back group, hitting the holes with some pop. However, he also hasn't played an entire game for the Texans. He bruised his knee against the Chiefs in the home opener, and it has become worse.

Though it is good that Green doesn't have anything structurally wrong with his knee, a diagnosis of bruised knee with swelling doesn't provide Texan fans lots of comfort. Similar words were used by the team last year with Domanick (Davis) Williams, and that led to him never playing again, and the season long Texans running back experiment. Green in his radio show was very optimistic about his knee, but with this team it is hard to tell when you should be optimistic about a particular injury.

The paper says it is unlikely that Green will contribute much if anything in Atlanta, and that Kubiak says it would be "a big, big bonus" if he could play. The running game is a point of emphasis for the Texans this week given how poor it looked last week. Practice this week will determine what the running back lineup will look like, but it sounds like Ron Dayne and Samkon Gado. The Colts run defense is much better than the Falcons, so if the Texans continue to have problems running the ball this week, it may be time to hit the panic button about the running game.

Dayne is coming off of a rib injury, and Gado's performance against the Colts was described as knocking some rust off. Dayne had some nice performances last year, notably against the Colts, but he also managed to get injured in the last game during pregame warmups.

Overall Effect of Injuries

Gary Kubiak intends to put his best available players on the field. The tight end unit is one of the more experienced, well-coached groups for the Texans, and Owen Daniels, Jeb Putzier and Mark Bruener may be seeing substantial time on the field.

Wide-Receiver/Kickoff Returner Jerome Mathis may also be seeing a lot of time. Though he typically works kickoffs, there's been some discussion of him returning punts in Jones' absence.

The Texans line (with the help of Matt Schaub making quick decisions) has looked much better this season, and it will be interesting to see if their good play continues with Flanagan at center. Though the Texans have done an amazing job in remaking their roster since 2005, they still do not have a lot of quality, experienced depth and can't afford to lose any more players.

Do you have anything to add to this other than just saying "oh (insert favorite expletive)?"