FanHouse Mark Bruener

Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.

Longtime NFL reporter Rick Gosselin, like most writers, knows that readers like draft grades. He grades a draft, and then re-grades it after the season. He's a tough grader, and gives most teams average grades.

Surprisingly, this year the only team that received an A+ in his grades were the Houston Texans. He thought the picks made sense for the team, and I agree. I don't know how they will perform on the field, but the selections were good value and fit key needs.

I caught up with Houston left tackle Ephraim Salaam at the Texans Draft Luncheon on Tuesday. He was there to accept the Mickey Herskowitz Award for being the most media friendly Texan. The video above is his message to Texan fans, and what he said to the crowd when he accepted his award. (The "Mark" and "Gary" referred to in the video are Texans TE Mark Bruener and coach Gary Kubiak)

Ephraim's personality is as big as he is, which given that he goes 6'7" 300ish, means it is huge. Very friendly personable guy. He had a busy offseason of media-friendly duties after he won the Super Bowl NFL Player ad contest. After that winning that, he and fellow Texan offensive lineman, Chester Pitts did repeated guest shots on the Ellen DeGeneres show.

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.