New coach Gary Kubiak, a local product who played football at Texas A&M and backed up John Elway with the Denver Broncos, stuck with Carr one more season, but after the team finished the 2006 season with a 6-10 record, Carr was let go. Carr’s replacement was Matt Schaub, the back-up to Michael Vick with the Atlanta Falcons, and except for the 2009 season, Schaub has proven to be a brittle, delicate quarterback capable of greatness when he’s not injured.
The First Great Player
The true spark of the team is wide receiver Andre Johnson, who is truly one of the greatest players currently playing professional football. Unfortunately, thus far, neither Kubiak nor Kubiak’s handpicked GM, former Bronco assistant GM Rick Smith, have proven capable of finding players with the skill set, determination, pride, and work ethic of Johnson.
The team’s one winning season, at 9-7, came in 2009, and the team had to go on a spurt in December to get to that point.
2010 Playoff Outlook
But as the 2010 season prepares to start, the Texans are facing what experts are labeling as the toughest schedule in the league, including games to start the season against the Indianapolis Colts, Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins, and New York Giants. And they’ll be starting the season without the services of Rookie of the Year linebacker Brian Cushing, who starts the year serving a four game suspension for having failed a league mandated drug test for performance enhancing drugs.
If Schaub can stay healthy, if Andre Johnson continues his greatness, if Williams can perform at the top of his game, if Cushing comes back from his suspension playing as well as he did at the end of the last season, then it’s possible that the things could finally break the right way for the Houston Texans in 2010.
