FanHouse JebPutzier

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

It's a brave new world in Denver, where the Broncos will take the field without Mike Shanahan on the sideline for the first time since 1995. Josh McDaniels, their new coach, was 19 back then, and has one of the shortest resumes of any head coach in NFL history. That could be a good thing or a bad thing, but it was clear that Shanahan's system was no longer bearing fruit and the team may benefit just from the change of voice on the sideline.

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.

A few days ago, I wanted to figure out what the story was behind these two pictures that were taken at the Texans All Access event:

Well, the kind folks from the Texans gave me some answers. The first picture is a poster inside wide receiver Charlie Adams' locker of tight end Jeb Putzier's head on Arnold Schwarzenegger's body, with the notation, "You've Been Putzied!" One of my friends at the Texans explains that Putzier is a prankster. Though not certain of this, he believes that whenever Putzier gets one over on someone, they get that poster in their locker.

As for the skateboard in front of Matt Schaub's locker, well, apparently it is Bradlee Van Pelt's skateboard and not Schaub's. So don't fear, Texans fans, if a freak skateboard accident happens at Reliant Stadium, it is gonna happen to the third string quarterback on the depth chart and not the starter.

See, now that you know these answers to such important questions, you can sleep soundly at night, just waiting for mini-camps, training camps, preseason and actual games to start. I think the time would go faster if the Astros could win a game or two.

(Photo credit: Andy Martin, TexansBullPen.com)