UPDATE 8/27: I asked Nick Scurfield of Houstontexans.com about this situation and here’s what he said:
Nick Scurfield (1:03:31 PM):
I’ve seen that report before. Kubiak was talking about offensive tackles in that quote, not defensive tackles. The top three offensive tackles being Eric Winston, Duane Brown and Rashad Butler. That must have been a typo in the transcript. We’ll have to get that fixed on HT.com
Hope Restored! Perhaps Okam isn’t a lock for the roster. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
Well, I must say that I am not happy about this but I saw it coming: It is now clear, right from the horse’s mouth (sort of), that Frank Okam is assured of a roster spot and that Deljuan Robinson is a likely roster cut. Clearly, there has been evidence of this newly discovered information from the gameday rotation… particularly in New Orleans when Big, Fat Frank received reps in the first quarter. Then, in Sunday’s presser, Kubiak mentioned that Frank Okam made a “couple nice plays”… and finally, from practice this afternoon, Coach Kubiak essentially announced the DTs that will be on the opening day roster. Here’s the quote, followed by the translation in red italics:
(on if he’s going to be trying out more defensive tackles) “No, but we probably will be looking at a few more. We’ve got a bunch of young players behind our three. So we’re going to continue to bring some guys in and look at them. If we’re to develop a problem down the line we’ve got to have some resources to pull from. That’s basically what we’re doing.” (via houstontexans.com)
Amobi Okoye, Shaun Cody, and Frank Okam are the three veterans we are counting on… After that, Earl Mitchell and maybe Malcolm Sheppard are rookies that will fill out the backend of our roster. Maybe we can find a veteran and place Sheppard on the practice squad, but we aren’t sure. Deljuan Robinson isn’t even an after-thought to me anymore. Even those guys at Texans Bull Blog, who clearly have the ability to read my mind, don’t know why I have so thoroughly dismissed Deljuan Robinson as a Texan DT… and, he’ll soon be cut and they’ll never find out!
Well, there you go. Directly from Kubiak’s mind, the Texans DTs will be: Cody, Okoye, Okam, Mitchell and probably Sheppard. Robinson to be cut.
Man, I hope you’re wrong about this one. After cringing through the New Orleans game again on the DVR I did see ONE play where Okam got some penetration into the backfield and was pretty disruptive. That’s out of all the others where he’s only visible when being pushed halfway back to the endzone though. Kubiak must be seeing something I’m not, and with his back turned too. Perhaps since you seem to have a direct link to his brain you could be so kind as to pass along my list of players who would be a better use of Okam’s roster spot:
Gilligan
1) DelJuan Robinson
2) Jeff Zgonina
3) Ryan Moats
4) Sage Rosenfels
5) some guy that played tight end in college, who for some reason we are trying to convert to a defensive tackle
6) Albert Haynesworth (and I’m not even one of these Haynesworth bandwagon people either)
7) a life-size cardboard cutout of Stone Cold Steve Austin
9) Phillip Buchanon
ok, maybe not that last one, but you get the idea…
here’s another one: Mark Wahlberg! He at least played a football player in a movie once
Jon,
I can only receive messages. I haven’t figured out how to plant them yet. Sorry.
Oh, and hysterical list, by the way. At least we will rid ourselves of Fred Bennett this preseason.
dang!