Is Matt Schaub Injury Prone?

Texans QB Matt Schaub injured his ankle in the Monday Night Football game against the Vikings. It didn't happen from a hit, but rather when he ran out of bounds on a play. Untouched.

Schaub says he's fine and is confident he will be ready for the home opener against the Jets. He wasn't going to be playing in the fourth game of the preseason against the Buccaneers anyway. Even so, the number one question about Schaub has never focused on ability but rather durability. (The number two question would be his red zone decision making, but that's a different story).

In the last two years with the Texans, Schaub has missed 10 games, 5 in each season. A stomach virus took him out of one game last season, and coach Gary Kubiak wouldn't let him play. The rest were due to some pretty serious shots. Over the last two seasons, players have been fined $90,000 for illegal hits against Schaub. Some of those hits have taken him out of games, and some have not.

His current ankle injury came from running about of bounds on a rollout. He was avoiding a player and stepped awkwardly out of bounds, and says that he might have caught some divot. The play happened right in front of me, and you could tell right away that he hurt something. He stayed in the game for a number of plays after that but they took him out at the half as a precaution. Kubiak said had it been a regular season game, Schaub would have stayed in the game.

As was noted in a recent FanHouse "Fantasy Coin Flip," Schaub can be a very effective quarterback...when he is on the field. There's any number of reasons that can be given for why he has been out of games: inexperience at key positions on the offensive line and at running back. exposing him to hits (even when they aren't sacks), teams knowing they have to be physical with him to derail the offense even at the risk of fines, him not getting rid of the ball fast enough on blown plays, the quarterback position is one where injuries are easy to get, and just plain old bad luck.

As someone who has seen all of the hits that have taken him out of games, I am not sure that he could avoid some of these injuries. The guy seems snakebit.

Whatever the reason, Texan fans and fantasy football types will be following his health situation pretty closely. Until he can get through an entire season without serious injury, there will be people who doubt that he can. Kubiak has expressed confidence in backup Dan Orlovsky who has shown inconsistency in learning the new offense. One play he looks good, the next not so good and with both types of plays, he looks like he is holding the ball too long.

Speaking of players who hold on to the ball too long, third string QB Rex Grossman has recovered from his hamstring injury and will be seeing time in the 4th preseason game against the Bucs. The Texans under Kubiak have typically kept two quarterbacks on the roster and have been worried the last three seasons with injuries to the starters or backups. Perhaps this early season injury to Schaub may lead to them keeping Grossman on the roster.