By coaches' accounts, Ahman Green had a great camp. Then he hurt his groin during his first touch of his first preseason game and hasn't played since. He says he will be ready to go by the Pittsburgh game, and by restructuring his contract to one incentivized for game play, he is putting his money where his mouth is. According to the Houston Chronicle's John McClain:

Green's base salary will be 1.8 million, which frees up 2 million in salary-cap dollars.

To get Green to agree to redo his deal, the Texans are giving him $200,000 for every game in which he's active this season, starting with the second game of the year. That means Green can make three million if he stays healthy for every game.

In other words, Green was at risk of getting cut and being forced to retire. Green played on and off last season with a knee bone bruise and was eventually put on IR. The Texans didn't want to put him on the roster to risk more of the same. So they shifted some of his salary base he would receive if he just limped onto the 53 man roster, to paying him for individual games if he is activated for them.

The running backs who look to be on the 53 man roster for sure are Ahman Green, Steve Slaton and Chris Taylor. Taylor has also been taking reps as backup fullback. Free agent acquisition Chris Brown has been struggling with various ailments throughout camp and preseason, (non-surprise!), so the Texans are probably relieved that they could restructure Green's contract to keep an experienced RB on the roster ... at least for the time being.

Yesterday I outlined the tough choice for the Colts Pro Bowl center, Jeff Saturday. Today the news is worse for Peyton Manning, the Colts, and their fans ... according to Saturday's agent, Ralph Cindrich:

If Saturday opts against surgery, "I don't think he'll be able to get back on the field for at least six or seven weeks,'' Cindrich said. "He's down for a while.''

If Saturday has surgery, his recovery might last 11 weeks, Cindrich said. "But from all reports,'' he added, "he could be back before the end of the season.''

Ouch. This has to be a stomach punch to the Colts, as they've been slowly and surely getting all their injured players back on the field this preseason, culminating with Peyton Manning's hopeful return in the regular season opener.

Now -- barring something absolutely unforeseen -- Manning will be taking the first Colts' offensive snap in their new building from rookie Steve Justice, not his trusted leader of the line for the past four years. Week one against a stout Bears defensive front should be a good test for the kid.

After consulting with every doctor this side of Doogie Howser, Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman has made a rational, well-researched decision.

Or maybe he's continuing to prove that he's absolutely crazy.

"I'm going to play," Merriman said via text message to the Union-Tribune. "I'll deal with it when it's time to get surgery."

You read that correctly. Merriman, after being told by at least five doctors (counting the one employed by the team) that he needs knee surgery, is going to put off the surgery and play for the Chargers this season.

Merriman has two torn knee ligaments, and he's already acknowledged that he could be risking his career by continuing to play.

There's no question that every NFL player faces a certain amount of risk every time they put the pads on and play. It's a wonderful sport, but it's also extremely violent and unpredictable.

There's another part to this story, too.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has missed most of the preseason with a foot injury, but it's widely believed to be an injury that is not particularly serious, and that the Patriots have mostly just wanted to rest Brady for the regular season.

The Boston Herald, however, reported yesterday that a walking boot was spotted at Brady's locker, which would seem to suggest that Brady's foot injury was more serious than previously believed. And today the Herald reported that crutches were leaned against Brady's locker. Uh oh.

So is Brady's injury serious? I don't think so. I think someone in the Patriots' locker room is having fun with the media and enjoying the fact that the Herald is making a big deal out of nothing. (The Herald seems to have caught on with its most recent post that it's all a joke.)

The Herald, of course, also made a big deal out of its report that the Patriots videotaped the Rams' final walkthrough before the 2002 Super Bowl, a report the paper later retracted. Herald reporters in the Patriots locker room had better be ready for more jokes coming their way.

Chad Johnson has a partially torn labrum in his right shoulder. Yet, if you listen to Ocho Cinco, he is going to be just fine. I am not a medical "expert" per se, but I think that when you have anything that's torn in a important part of your body, you are not "fine".

Still, the loudmouthed Bengals wide receiver is maintaining that nothing is wrong.

Johnson did not seem to worried about the injury, and claims he will be ready for the season opener at Baltimore on September 7.

"I'm lifting my normal weight. I do everything normal now. Everything," said Johnson, who caught 93 passes for 1,440 yards and eight touchdowns last season. "It's been what? Eight days? (since the injury) I'm back to normal."

It takes me eight days to recover from wakeboarding for a weekend, and while I'm no professional athlete, wakeboarding is no partially torn shoulder muscle. So forgive me if I'm not entirely sold on Johnson's health.

Oh, and it turns out the Bengals might not be sold either. They have T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Johnson and Chris Henry (again!), so if everyone's healthy, the very last thing they need in the entire world is a wide receiver. Yet, SCOOP Mortensen is reporting that Rudi Johnson is on the block in Cincy, as the Bengals are looking to get a wide receiver in return for the former stud running back.

Trent Edwards, I think we all believe, is the starting quarterback in Buffalo. The possibility of J.P. Losman somehow snaking Edwards' has seemed pretty far fetched up until now. However, with Edwards down because of injury, J.P. impressed some people -- against the Colts on Sunday.

J.P. Losman was efficient in replacing Trent Edwards (bruised knee). Losman finished 13-of-19 for 108 yards before hurting the thumb on his throwing hand while making a handoff on Omon's 1-yard TD run. Coach Dick Jauron said Losman's injury was nothing serious.

It was exactly the kind of performance the Bills wanted to see.

"He did a terrific job," Jauron said. "He handled the information, we got in and out. It was a noisy game, and it could have been noisier but we got off to that good start."

Muy interesante. I certainly don't think Losman is going to steal the job from Edwards while he's injured, but a strong preseason performance could certainly do a lot to tighten up the leash on Trent, especially when you think about the playoff aspirations that Buffalo has to have this year.

The Colts have been awful in the preseason thus far on offense. Just brutal.

First of all, I'll remind everyone that doesn't live here in Indy that this usually means the team is right on track. They never win preseason games (0-5 the year they won it all, as a matter of fact ... and that looks realistic right now). It's actually gotten to the point that many Colts fans hope for losses in the exhibition games. A superstitious rite of passage for en route to each successful regular season, if you will.

This year things were a bit different, though. With Peyton Manning on the sidelines, the fans were hoping to see some life from the offense, just in case the future Hall-of-Famer isn't ready when the season begins. What they saw wasn't pretty, but it shall soon be rendered meaningless.

Manning is going to practice tomorrow. Sure, it's going to be a test for him ...

"I think we'll ease him in and see how he practices and what he's able to do and we'll see from there,'' (Head Coach Tony) Dungy said.

Fellow FanHouser Tom Mantzouranis took little time after Osi Umenyiora tore his knee to wonder if the Giants would try to lure Michael Strahan out of retirement.

The Giants have lost their top two defensive ends from last year and could be tempted to ask Strahan if he'd come back.

According to one source, Strahan could be coaxed out of retirement if the price is right:

"If the Giants make a sincere overture, it's a good chance that Strahan would consider coming back," the source said, according to the Daily News. "There are other things he has to take into consideration: the money and his contract with Fox."

Strahan currently holds a position at Fox Sports as an NFL studio analyst.

"But if the Giants really want him, they have a shot," the source said. "It's not out of the question."

Giants co-owner Steve Tisch says that they'd be stupid to not at least gauge Strahan's interest in playing. Strahan, who is in Greece vacationing, told NFL Network that he has heard about Umenyiora's injury but hasn't heard from the Giants.

Oh ... and according to the Daily News, "nicely" means "$8 million".

Yesterday was a busy day at Halas Hall, but not on the field.

Chicago Bears first-round bust pick Chris Williams told reporters that he already had a tweaked back before the NFL draft.

''I had a herniated disc before I got here,'' Williams said. ''We knew that. Everyone knew that. It just was a thing where most people it doesn't affect. It wasn't affecting me, so if nothing is broke, you don't fix it. Then something happened in practice that second day, the disc started moving and that caused some problems.''

So he withheld information to get drafted higher? The nerve of this guy! Oh wait, Bears GM Jerry Angelo said that he knew about it when he drafted Williams in the first round.

''There is a lot of history of players that had this condition that he had at the combine that have played with it,'' Angelo said. ''We were basing it off of the play time. We were basing it off of no symptoms for a period of three or more years. We were comfortable with that. I did use the term wear and tear. There were concerns. But you know what, you could say that for a lot of players at a lot of positions.''

So, there's been plenty of talk about the woes of Shawne Merriman; he has a PCL injury and it's much worse than we originally thought. Not good news for either him or the Chargers.

Turns out though, that it might actually be worse than we could even have imagined before.

"It could be career-threatening if I did (play)," Merriman said. "It's a possibility. That possibility is still open."

A course of action has not been decided. Merriman, who will consult with a doctor in Miami early next week before making a decision, has been told reconstructive surgery would sideline him for the entire 2008 season. Another option is a less-invasive surgery that would allow him to play at some point in the season.

Quite the conundrum for the Pro-Bowler, especially considering the Chargers are considered strong contenders for the Super Bowl this year. (It's also interesting to hear that quote -- is the "career ending" part open or is it the playing that's open? I think the former, but I digress.)

Does Merriman play and attempt to help the Chargers head to the Super Bowl as is now? That notion seems pretty foolish, considering the strong, strong risk for an early, and worse, injury. What seems likely to me is that he opts for the less invasive surgery referenced above and tries to return around mid-to-late season and help give the Chargers a playoff push.

The smart thing is to just miss 2008 and make sure not to tank the rest of his career, but with the Chargers in a division that they should win pretty handily, it's certainly viable for Merriman to be thinking immediate future rather than long-term as he examines his options.