If you don't want to follow John McLain's training camp coverage through the Chronicle, there are plenty of ways you can still find out what's going on. Steph Stradley has been reporting from camp pretty regularly, but the one I immediately liked and will be looking forward to is the reports over at Battle Red Blog. Let's take a sampling of what they've been about so far.
↵- Brendan Harris might beat out Kareem Jackson for the starting cornerback spot. I'm no crack football analyst, but I did not see it with Jackson last season. He will undoubtedly improve, and Johnathan Joseph's comments the other day made me rethink my view that Jackson would be a terrible cornerback again. Still, having Harris win the starting job would make me breathe a big sigh of relief, even with Joseph and Manning in the secondary.
↵- I know it's a pipe dream, but reading about Brad Maynard's deficiencies really made me pine for Shane Lechler. Can't we free him from his Oakland prison?
↵- Also encouraged by the things said about J.J. Watt and Mario Williams. Having a defensive end who can knock down passes at the line will be huge against the Colts. Having a Mario Williams who is a force rushing the passer is even better.
↵- You know what I also liked? No mention of Mike Lombardi's comments about the Texans being soft. I don't care what Lombardi thinks, but the real reason this "controversy" bugged me was it was old news. Lombardi has called the Texans soft multiple times over the past 18 months. I've heard him at least twice on Bill Simmons' podcast, a couple of times on NFL Radio and I think he even wrote about it for the National Football Post. In short, it was not surprising to learn that's what Mr. Lombardi thinks about these Texans. Why it became a story now is something that shouldn't happen with the compressed nature of this season. Aren't there better stories out there?
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