Evening Wrap-Up: 8/4, Schobel Dominates The News

- The big story out of camp today was the quoting of Gary Kubiak on ex-Buffalo Bill Pro Bowler Aaron Schobel's free agency. Schobel, who the Bills said they would keep to try to trade earlier this week, was let go when Bills GM Buddy Nix scavenged the trade market and decided there was nothing he could realistically get for the 32-year-old defensive end.

John McClain continues to beat the drum for Schobel, quoting Kubiak and then applying a very misleading headline to his piece ("Texans, DE Schobel show interest in each other"). Of course, Kubiak's quote (i.e. the only evidence McClain offers up of the Texans' interest) was as follows: 

"He's been a real good player in this league for a long time," coach Gary Kubiak said after practice. "We're going to evaluate him like we would any other player of his caliber, and we're going to see if we think he can help us."

In other words, the same thing in a different phasing of what Kubiak said about Larry Johnson when he was a free agent and McClain thought they were interested. I'm rooting for the Texans to sign Schobel, but it seems to me like the interest is one-sided, and if his agent is getting as many calls as he says he is in the article, I would think the odds are against him landing here. Nick Scurfield penned the much more appropriately titled "Texans To Evaluate Schobel".

- USA Today gave it's yearly preview of the Texans, noting that someone named "Brent Myers" is the center. Yikes. Well, they also have a much more interesting story on Bob McNair saying that he believes Brian Cushing did not do steroids. I guess that's not that interesting either, but at least he's on the record about it.

- The Texans preseason games, after years of complaining, will finally be broadcast in HD. It will be a joy to actually be able to figure out which third-string player actually got that tackle.

- Our quote sheet for the day is very Bernard Pollard-centric, as Kubiak, defensive backs coach David Gibbs, and Pollard himself took questions. Gibbs says that Pollard has actually toned his personality way down from where it was, meaning he somehow used to be even more fiery and loud. 

- McClain pens a piece about Connor Barwin growing into his position. Of course, he had to tickle his ridiculous stat fancy along the way too, so lets look at that: 

Coming off the bench and playing left end most of the time, Barwin recorded 4½ sacks - more than any rookie defensive lineman playing in a 4-3 scheme.

Never mind that he was doubled in sack total (or more) by Brian Orakpo and Clay Matthews. That doesn't count (for some reason) since they were in a 3-4 scheme. Look, it was plenty impressive that Barwin got 4.5 sacks as a bench player who was completely raw at defensive end, you don't need to spruce that up anymore by getting more obscure, General.

- Nick Scurfield's morning notes marked on how dinged up the Texans are in camp. They were down to just six linebackers at the afternoon practice.

- It was Kevin Walter's birthday, so he of course got pied in the face. Meanwhile, Trindon Holliday was given a little trike as a prank and he actually wound up riding it with a little help from Jacoby Jones. 

Camp is open again tomorrow night, and I'll be out for that. Expect an afternoon post on the morning aspect of training camp, then I'll come back with details after that on Friday morning.