Matt Schaub hardly registers on the Q Score scale.
Write Liz Merrill of ESPN.com:
“..Schaub doesn't worry about these things. He doesn't seem fazed by much of anything. There was the time last spring when a number of teams were courting Manning, and Texans coach Gary Kubiak texted his quarterback and asked him to pick up the future Hall of Fame quarterback at the airport. Kubiak was kidding, but that's not exactly the type of thing you joke about via text. Manning was causing insecurity complexes all over the league last spring.
“Schaub said he simply laughed and texted, ‘I'll send him back to Terminal C.’”
As Merrill says, it’s hard to pry interesting stuff out of the super low-key Texans quarterback. So that passage is illustrative gold -- it shows me confidence and sense of humor, and gives texture to the close relationship between coach and quarterback.
The second half of her one-two Texans punch is on J.J. Watt, the burgeoning defensive end who’s been the most productive defensive player in the NFL to this point.
He grew up with his dad telling him “Act like somebody,” a theme that echoes with him and can be seen in a lot of what he is saying and doing now:
"You have to be able to be a nice guy off the field," Watt says. "Be personable. Be great with the fans, be great with the kids. But as soon as you step onto the field, you have to turn into a monster…"
"To me,the biggest thing about having success in the NFL is that you have to have the belief that nobody on the field can block you. If you have any doubt in your mind, you're not going to have success. And every time I step on the field, I firmly have that belief that the guy across from me cannot block me."
These are two good reads for Texans fans as they brace for a weekend without their team on the field.
During the Texans 6-1 start, we here at AFC South Blog HQ wrote big pieces on both Schaub and Watt. If you care to revisit our look at Schaub and the issue of clutch and Watt’s effort to redefine the end position in a 3-4, please do.