FanHouse SteveMcKinney

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

Mike Holmgren has long been one of the primary identities of the Seattle Seahawks. He took them to the Super Bowl and made them a perennial winner of the NFC West. Then last year happened. As Holmgren's retirement tour rolled along, more and more injuries piled up, Seneca Wallace had to start at quarterback for a few games, and the Seahawks stumbled to a 4-12 record.

For the last two years, the Houston Texans have finished their seasons with a league high 17 players on IR. Last year, starting quarterback Matt Schaub, running back Ahman Green, and standout wide receiver Andre Johnson were only on the field together for two games. Other key starters that missed substantial time last season due to injury include cornerback Dunta Robinson, center Steve McKinney and guard Fred Weary (Houston Texans video of his rehabilitation above).

There's no way I would have predicted the Texans finishing 8-8 with those injuries and running back Ron Dayne (now unemployed) as their leading rusher. Quite the coaching job by the staff.

The coaches and fanbase are sick of this injury story, and after the last two seasons the team has talked about how they can reduce injuries. An article in HoustonTexans.com discusses how the coaching staff believes that they will be able to reduce injuries:

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.

Jared Zabransky, third string Texans quarterback and EA Sports NCAA Football coverboy is having his NFL debut tonight in Tampa Bay. He will be playing three quarters and Gary Kubiak says:

"Sage won't play very long. I think you'll see him for a couple of series, a quarter at the most. I want to look at Zabransky and see if he has a future with this team....I put some pressure on him, but that's good. That's the only way you find out about guys like this, giving them an opportunity. He's going against a good defensive team, a (defensive coordinator) Monte Kiffin defense, in a visiting stadium.

I'm interested to see how he handles himself. Our decision is simple: Do we think he has a chance someday to be a player in this league? And if he does, we have to find a way to keep him on this team."

Check out the above YouTube to see an interview about Zabransky and why the Texans were interested in him.

Training camp is finally here and FanHouse breaks down the most important position battles heading into the season, team by team.

Texans fans used to complain about Steve McKinney at the center position. Last year, McKinney was moved to guard and after struggling with nagging camp injuries had a hard time getting into the lineup behind Fred Weary. When Mike Flanagan suffered various injuries until he finally had a season ending rib injury, Drew Hodgdon was asked to play center. Finally, after the Hodgdon experiment didn't go so well, McKinney was asked to play center and a number of observers believed that McKinney looked the best of the three.

Drew Hodgdon is being looked at as a guard this offseason, and the primary battle is between Flanagan and McKinney and publicly the Texans haven't declared a front runner. In yesterday's Q&A, Gary Kubiak had high praise for practice squader Chris White too.

Flanagan has a shared history with Texans offensive coordinator Mike Sherman (and Ahman Green for that matter), so he has the edge for the starter role. McKinney is able to play both guard and center, so his versatility may make him more valuable as a backup. That being said, if McKinney is a better center than Flanagan, the Texans would be better served having him in front of the quarterback.