** Owner Bob McNair
**(opening statement) "Good afternoon to everyone. Thank you for coming out. I'm really pleased today to announce that we've exercised our option to extend David Carr's contract. As you know early on this year when we were talking about what we were doing in the organization, we indicated that the first thing that we had to do was select our coach, which we're delighted to have Gary Kubiak with us, and he'd be putting his staff together and after that he'd be evaluating our team.
"The quarterback is a key position and they've been evaluating that, and they have come to the same conclusion that we have and that many others have: David Carr is the person who can take us to the Super Bowl. He has the ability to do it. He has shown that he's a great team player. He's very resilient; he's only missed four games in four years, and he's taken more abuse than probably anybody in the history of football. He has done a wonderful job for us, and it's up to us now as we go forward to give David the resources to allow him to perform at the level that we know he is capable. That's our responsibility.
"One of the things that weighed quite heavily on us as we were going through the process of selecting a coach was who can really help us develop our young quarterback and get our offense going. It was quite clear that Gary Kubiak was the person who could do that. As we were going through the process and visiting with Gary, he indicated to us early on that he had great confidence in David. We also asked the other coaches that we visited with here about what their view would be if they were here; would they be confident that David was the person? Every one, to the man, said that David Carr can take us where we want to go. Of course we're here to build a championship team. David is here to do the same thing. We've made a commitment to him and he's made a commitment to us. We're going to work hard to give him the resources and protection he needs so he can perform, and he's going to go out and do everything he can in performing his job. We're delighted that we're able to announce this, and delighted also that we've got Gary Kubiak here as our head coach and as the person who is really going to have a tremendous influence on David."
**Head coach Gary Kubiak
**(opening statement) "Hello everybody, how are you doing? This is an easy decision for me and I think everybody has known that from the start. I knew a lot about David before I even came to Houston. I studied him coming out of college, I've studied him throughout his career and I've continued to study him over these past few weeks. I've come to the same conclusion that I really had all along: I know he's a fine football player and he possesses everything you're looking for in a quarterback to be successful in this league. Along with that, he has the desire to be as good as he can be and to lead this football team, and that's all you could really ask of a young man.
"I've been so impressed with him in my short time here as I've visited with him. But as I look at him over the past four years with this organization, the thing that really has impressed me is how this kid has continued to battle for this franchise. He's been through four years now. He's been through some good times, some really tough times, but he's been there every week for everybody, battling and trying to do the best job that he can do. Now it's time for me to help everything around him get better. All you have to do is look around this league. It doesn't matter who the quarterback is, if you don't surround him with good people and you don't put him in a good system, a good environment, there are not many of them that are going to be successful. And that's my job; to provide that system, to provide that environment and to put in the work necessary to make him successful and the Texans successful.
"The other thing that has been extremely impressive to me is that I've challenged him about the work that he has to do to help us reach a new level and become a championship football team. Along those challenges all David has said to me is, 'Coach, let's go to work.' And we will do that. I've got to help him get better. He has got to work to get better. We've got to take the group around him, and as a group of 11, we've got to get better on the offensive side of the ball as well as the defensive side of the ball. We will do that. I'm excited about his commitment, he's got mine and together we're going to make this thing work. This is a great day. We need to move forward and go to work to get better. I know we're both excited about doing that."
**Quarterback David Carr
**(opening statement) "Thanks Coach. I first want to say thank you to Mr. McNair, Charley Casserly and Gary Kubiak for just providing me the opportunity to go out and prove to them that I deserve all these nice things that they've just said about me. I think it is very important that in this business you have the backing of the people around you, and that's always been something I've never worried about since I came here. And for them to have the belief in me to go out and execute at a high level, I'm excited about that. But what I'm more excited about is working with this man right here. I think Coach Kubiak's track record speaks for itself. The players that he's coached, the guys that he's been around, have said nothing but positive things about him.
"Obviously my career here these first four years hasn't been quite what we wanted it to be, but I know that he can take me to the level that I want to play at and he can take this team to the level that we need to play at. To my teammates at home, they're going to get everything that I have. All the hard work and dedication that it takes to go out and be a successful football team, that's what I'm going to give to them, so hopefully they're giving the same to me. I'm excited to go forward from here."
McNair
(on the chances of Vince Young being a Texan) "I really can't say because all
of our options are open. We have not closed any doors. We'll be visiting with
all the top players, including Vince Young, and the whole process is going to
lead to one conclusion, and that is: what can we do to put together a winning
football team and what could we do to help this team? Whatever it is, that's what
we'll do. And we'll make that decision April 29."
**Carr
**(on how he deals with community support for Vince Young) "As far as the fans, I think I can pretty much understand where they are coming from. If Bakersfield, Calif. had a professional football team when I was coming out of school, I think the feeling would probably be pretty similar. I definitely understand that. Congratulations to the University of Texas for that national championship; I think it's great for the state. As far as Vince Young being a Texan, as far as me commented on the players I can't really do that, but if he were to come here then my job is still the same; if any quarterback was to come here my job is still the same. It's to go out and perform like I know that I can, and do whatever I can to compete for a job, just like I've done for the four years since I've been here. So whatever is good for our football team, I'm all in because these guys make the decisions and I go out and just try to play my position."
(on if he's noticed the local community support for Vince Young) "It's hard not to. You see Texas win the National Championship and obviously everyone was watching that game. I thought Vince Young played a great game, one of the most spectacular games I've seen in a bowl championship. It was very impressive and I'm happy for that school. It'd be hard not to notice that being in this city."
**McNair
**(on considering drafting a quarterback) "Well, we'll consider anything. Again, we'll make that evaluation as to how we can put together the strongest team we can. San Diego's got Drew Brees and Phil Rivers. You need two good quarterbacks. But all the options are available. We're going to look at all the players and the coaches, Charley and the scouts are going to look at all the players. Charley's role is to get the players that Coach thinks will help us win. And that's what we're all about. We're going to build a championship team. We'll do whatever it takes to do that and we'll keep all of our options open. And who knows, if someone wants to give us a Godfather trade offer, they might have the number one pick. It's just a question of what's available to us at that point in time and what is the value to the Texans."
**Kubiak
**(on comparisons between Carr and Broncos QB Jake Plummer) "I didn't compare him to anybody. I've had the ability to coach some great quarterbacks, Steve Young, John Elway, Jake came to us from Arizona after a trying time in his career. I've been around Griese. I've been around many of them. But the one thing I do know is you're looking for a specific type of competitor, an athlete, a talented kid to lead your football team and that's what we have here. Not only that, but we've got a great young man. Now we've got to do things to help him be successful. All you've got to do is look around this league. Ben Roethlisberger won a Super Bowl this past week and he was nine for 21 and it wasn't a Super Bowl-type performance. This game's about the team. The quarterback's got to do his job but everybody around him is the key. We've got to get better as a football team and then get David to do his part as well as he can do it. Taking him to another level as a player is going to help us all get better. It's about a building process, it's about everybody, it's not about one guy."
McNair
(on picking up the three year option vs. the two year) "We just thought that was the wise decision to make, so we selected three years."
General manager Charley Casserly
(on other teams' interest in the number one pick) "I think the meaningful conversations will come the week of the draft. We've already had one inquiry into the pick. So, that's pretty early. So we've already had one. I would think in Indianapolis, we'll probably have some informal discussions. What has to happen is people have to begin to evaluate the players in this draft seriously, especially the juniors. Once you go through the spring workouts and people come back in April and put their draft board up, that's when I think people really find out the value in each player and how they have them rated. That's when you get your serious discussions. So I would say the week of the draft is when this thing gets serious."
*Carr *
(on running Kubiak's offense) "I think there are probably two ways to do it.
You can do it how Indy does it, where he calls his plays at the line of scrimmage
or you can go up and let the coach make the calls and put you in positions to
take advantage of the defense. And I think that's what the Broncos have done
and Coach Kubiak has done an excellent job of. I've even found myself, when we've
had practices against them, watching their offense. I've told Coach Kubiak this
before, we used to turn around when our defensive drills were going on and watch
their offense. It was always something growing up that I've been a fan of. Even
when he was with Steve Young with the San Francisco 49ers, obviously being from
the west coast, it's an offense that I've followed pretty closely and something
that I'm excited to go out and try and do. I think it fits my strengths and even
more than that it fits the strengths of the players that we have here and I'm
excited to do it."
Kubiak
(on comparisons between Carr and Broncos QB Jake Plummer) "I didn't compare him
to anybody. I've had the ability to coach some great quarterbacks, Steve Young,
John Elway, Jake came to us from Arizona after a trying time in his career. I've
been around Griese. I've been around many of them. But the one thing I do know
is you're looking for a specific type of competitor, an athlete, a talented kid
to lead your football team and that's what we have here. Not only that, but we've
got a great young man. Now we've got to do things to help him be successful.
All you've got to do is look around this league. Ben Roethlisberger won a Super
Bowl this past week and he was nine for 21 and it wasn't a Super Bowl-type performance.
This game's about the team. The quarterback's got to do his job but everybody
around him is the key. We've got to get better as a football team and then get
David to do his part as well as he can do it. Taking him to another level as
a player is going to help us all get better. It's about a building process, it's
about everybody, it's not about one guy."
**Carr
**(on learning the new system) "I haven't told Coach Kubiak yet but I'm moving a couch into his office and we'll start working pretty soon."
**Kubiak
**(on teaching the new system) "Yeah, we've got extra work to do, there's no doubt about that, because I'm teaching him a new system, a new way of doing things. But we've got plenty of time and we'll get started on that before the draft. It'll be a process of Coach Calhoun and I getting David ready to go. I want him as comfortable as he can be before we go into our OTAs and going into training camp. It's my hope to put him through a couple training camps before we actually get to July. But we'll enjoy doing it. It'll be fun, we'll go to work and we'll make up a lot of ground real fast."
**Carr
**(on Reggie Bush) "I think any player that brings that kind of excitement can help our team. As far as him in particular, I watched what he did against Fresno State and that's pretty much all I had to see. As far as players helping our team, that's their decision. I'm just here to go out and do my job. If we have a player like that that can help us on the offensive side of the ball, I'm all for it. I'll be excited to work with him."
**Kubiak
**(on Carr being held back in the previous offense) "I don't think you look at things and say he was being held back in this situation or that. What I look at is I look at what we do and what we teach and I see him fitting into that very quickly. His strengths are moving around, he can make plays off-schedule. In this league, as a coach you're not calling the perfect play all the time and when you don't, you want a kid that can go out there and keep you on the field and make things happen. And that's something he possesses from day one. Letting him continue to do that, you don't want to get him away from that, but also getting him to work within your scheme and give him a chance to add to his strengths as a player, I see it being an easy transition. I really do. Working with Jake, in lot of ways I see the same ability here in what he does and what he brings to the table, athletically."
**McNair
**(on the draft) "What we'll be doing is looking at all the players and trying to make that determination as to which player can bring the most to our team. That depends upon where we pick. I'm sure Charley's phone will be ringing quite often and there will be a lot of people talking to him about the possibility of trading down. And we'll look at that. Regardless as to what we do, that result is going to be very positive for the Texans. We're either going to have a superlative player, or we're going to have multiple players that are very good players. In either case, it will do nothing but improve our team. We'll keep those options open and we'll talk to anybody that wants to talk."
**Casserly
**(on the draft) "Obviously, people are going to write a lot of things and say a lot of things, but we're going through our draft meetings right now and we're only three days into them. This is beginning of the process. The coaches haven't even had their opportunity to get involved and Gary hasn't had the opportunity to get involved and look at some key players that are going to be at the top of the draft. So it's not an automatic write-in, as they've said, I can guarantee you that."
**Kubiak
**(on Carr being sacked so much the past four seasons) "Sacks will take their toll on anybody but there are a lot of things that go into that. That's me evaluating their scheme, how they did things and how they protected the quarterback. I'll tell you as I told David as we talked this morning, sacks are tied to two people, the people up front and this guy right here (Carr). And that's 50/50. It's not 80/20, it's not 90/10, it's 50/50. He'll do a much better job with the football as far as getting it gone and understanding where he has problems. And we'll work hard at protecting him better. There are a lot of people involved in that. Everybody's going to have to do their part for us to get better and we will get better in that phase. We'll try to keep them off of him."
(on the coaching staff taking shape) "I would say we're 95 percent done. There is one more position that we're talking to a few coaches as an assistant defensive line coach. Other than that, we are done. As far as Mike (Sherman) goes, I think everybody knows I have a tremendous relationship with Mike. Mike's going to make a decision over the next three or four days whether he wants to come back and coach this season. I'm hoping to be the first one to know that, so I'll let you guys know Monday."
(on how much Kubiak and Carr have had the chance to visit with each other) "Off
and on. Of course, David's in here every day working out, so he's easy to find.
I went down the other day with a bunch of coaches and we visited with him. I
visited with him two or three times, we had a great visit today. We're going
to spend a lot of time together. It's been enjoyable. He's the player I know
best around here right now as I start to get in touch with all of them. It needs
to be that way. We've got to work together every day. That's the key to what
we're doing."
