The Texans used a sixth round pick last April on Trindon Holliday with the idea that he would replace Jacoby Jones on punt returns and Andre Davis on kickoff returns so that they could both concentrate on offense.  Well, even the best laid plans don’t come to fruition all of the time and this is one of those cases.  Holliday will undergo surgery today to repair ligament damage in his right thumb which will cause him to miss most if not all of his rookie season.  Holliday returned 3 punts for 1 yard (0.3 avg) and 5 kickoffs for 114 yards (22.8 avg) during the pre-season for the Texans.

UPDATE:  (8/31/2010) - The Texans have placed Trindon Holliday on the Injured Reserve List ending his rookie season.

The Texans have lost rookie 2nd round pick Ben Tate for the season as he will undergo ankle surgery tomorrow.  Tate carried the ball 2 times for 7 yards (3.5 ypc) and he caught 1 pass for 5 yards in the Texans’ pre-season opener.  It’s back to the drawing board for the Texans as they will be leaning on Arian Foster and Steve Slaton in the running game once again in 2010.

The Texans have picked TE Dorin Dickerson out of Pittsburgh with the 227th overall pick (7th round) of the NFL Draft.  The Texans will likely move Dickerson to WR.  He is 6′1″, 222 pounds and he runs a 4.6 40.  He is a good open field runner with a good set of hands.  He needs to work more on his run blocking but that will be less of a issue at WR.  Dickerson played in 13 games (9 starts) for Pitt last season in which he caught 49 passes for 529 yards (10.8 avg) with 10 TD grabs.  He played in 46 games (11 starts) in his four years at Pitt and he caught 63 passes for 708 yards (11.2 avg) with 13 TD grabs.  The Texans got excellent value with this pick as Dickerson has a very nice upside.

The Texans have picked return specialist Trindon Holliday with the 197th overall pick (6th round) of the NFL Draft.  Holliday is a mini-man at 5′5″, 160 pounds but he’s as fast as lightning running a 4.3 40.  Holliday returned 22 kickoffs for 537 yards (24.4 avg) and 26 punts for 362 yards (13.9 avg) with 1 TD for LSU.  In his four years at LSU, Holliday returned 73 kickoffs for 1,806 yards (24.7 avg) with 1 return for a TD and he also returned 58 punts for 647 yards (11.2 avg) with 2 TDs.  The Texans think adding Holliday will allow Jacoby Jones to focus more on playing receiver in 2010.

The Texans have picked OG Shelley Smith out of Colorado State with the 187th overall pick (6th round) of the NFL Draft.  Smith is 6′2″, 301 pounds and he is a nasty lineman who gets out well to pull and trap.  He seems to be a perfect fit for the Texans and he could develop into a starter down the road for them.  He played in 8 games (all starts) for the Rams last season and he has played in 35 games (31 starts) in his four years at Colorado St.