FanHouse Domanick Davis

Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson had his left knee scoped and cleaned up last Thursday, and the Texans say he should be back by the beginning of training camp. (great video above of AJ talking about his surgery and other topics, including coach Alex Gibbs). This news is a little unnerving to Texans fans (and should be something that fantasy players should watch) because:

1. When Andre Johnson was out last year, the offense still functioned, but not as efficiently, especially in the red zone.

2. The Texans have had a history of being overly optimistic in talking about players coming back from knee problems. Andre Johnson was initially described as week to week after suffering his knee injury in Week 2 last year, then it was said he would be out 3 to 5 weeks, and he didn't end up coming back until Week 11.

Running back Ahman Green was also described week to week with his knee bone bruise injury last year, until the Texans decided that he really needed to shut it down. In the 2006 training camp, Domanick Davis/Williams was described as the perfect zone blocking back until he ended up never playing a down that year and then later retiring due to a knee bone bruise.

For the last three weeks, coach Gary Kubiak said that the Texans were putting special emphasis in practice on their running game. And Ahman Green played last week. And the Texans still averaged 2.9 yards a carry for their running backs against the Jaguars.

Since Kubiak has been coaching the Texans, there has never been a game where the running game worked well at the same time that the passing game was working well. More often than not, the passing game has worked in spite of the running game.

This may be surprising to some. When Kubiak first came to the Texans, there were visions of Domanick Davis (Williams) putting up huge yards in the sort of Denver offense that gives backs big yardage totals and suited Davis' game. Davis never played for Kubiak due to a career ending knee injury, and the Texans offense never became a Insert Generic Running Back here, gain a ton of yards attack.

When Texans #1 receiver Andre Johnson strained his knee in Week 2 against the Panthers, estimates on his return were as long as five weeks. The Houston Chronicle is reporting today that it is likely that Johnson won't be back until the November 18th home game against New Orleans.

Uh-oh.

The Texans have a history of providing overly positive assessments to fans of when players will come back. See e.g. Tony Boselli, Domanick Davis/Williams, Charles Spencer. Hopefully, Johnson's situation is not in that league of unhappy results. For an additional information about Johnson's injury, please check out my September discussion.

The Texans have been able to throw the ball in Johnson's absence even without a functioning running game, but his presence is particularly missed in the red zone. If they can't figure out how to improve red zone scoring in Johnson's absence, field goal kicker Kris Brown is going to have a lot more opportunities like he did against the Dolphins.