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Ht: 6' 3"

Wt: 320

Age: 27

Born: 6/26/1979, Inglewood, CA

College: San Diego State

NFL Experience: 6th season

Drafted: 2002 - Rd 2 (50th overall) by the Texans

"That was something that we started chasing this year," Kubiak said. "We thought we had a good enough football team to do that this year. That will be our goal from now on, and that was talked about last year and that won't change. ... I would hope that we can get our football team good enough and have enough confidence in what we're doing that every year we don't do that, we consider it a big disappointment. I'm all in for that, but I know we have to get better as a football team to get there."

For the second year under Kubiak, the Texans struggled mightily to run the ball. Each year, something different has gone wrong. The Texans didn't do much to upgrade the running back position in 2006 because they were under the impression that Domanick Davis was going to return from a serious knee injury.

In 2007, they made a big free agent acquisition by signing Ahman Green away from Green Bay. Green was hurt in the first game, however. He ended up playing sparingly throughout the season and eventually landed on the injured reserve.

Both seasons, the Texans ended with a practice squad player moving into the starting role.

Green returns next season, and it is likely Ron Dayne will be back as well. The Texans will also have Darius Walker and Chris Taylor. While they will look for a capable starter in case injuries befall Green again, the Texans are hoping much of their improvement comes with the help of new assistant head coach Alex Gibbs.

"I think one thing that's obvious is that we have to get consistency in who's running the football," Kubiak said. "We went out and we chased that last year in free agency with Ahman. Of course, that did not work out with his injury this year, so that was extremely disappointing for our franchise and the steps that we have taken.

"In this league, you have to have two (running backs), I'm not sure you don't need three in the long haul to be successful. Of course, we're counting on Ahman coming back and being 100 percent; he can be a huge factor for our team when he is. I think I've said this in the past, when you're missing things and guys are hurt, you can't just all of a sudden sit up there today and look at a roster and say, 'Well, we'll be OK there because he'll be healthy.' We can't approach things that way. He was hurt; he wasn't there.

"We have to go out and find some young kids. We have to find some guys that are going to be in it for the long haul and be there, and if Ahman is 100 percent healthy and playing every week, then that's a bonus for our team. I just think we have to get some consistency back there in who's doing it."

Defensively, the Texans struggled most in the secondary, where injuries destroyed the position. The Texans lost three starters -- Dunta Robinson, Glenn Earl and Jason Simmons -- to season-ending injuries. Only safety C.C. Brown started every game.

With the serious knee/hamstring injury sidelining Robinson, cornerback has become an offseason priority. He is expected to miss at least half of the 2008 season. The Texans already have very little depth.

"We basically, other then C.C., we played with an entirely different group the last nine weeks of the season," Kubiak said. "We made adjustments. The coaches made adjustments that, to me, were effective. They gave us a chance to win throughout the back end of the season, but at the same time, some of the simplicity that we had gotten to because of our changes really ended up hurting us in some games. If we're going to beat the Colts, we have to cover the Colts.

"We have to look hard at our secondary. We have to have guys that can go out there and lock some of those guys down so we can be aggressive and blitz and those types of things. I think our secondary is a concern. Dunta Robinson, when is he coming back? Right now, we're talking about midseason, so that makes it even more of a concern. You have a young rookie (Fred Bennett) back there that has very quickly become our strength back there, and that's a young kid. We have a lot of work to do back there to become an improved defensive football team."