Quarterback Dan Orlovsky passed for 265 yards and a touchdown against the Texans last season.
The Houston Texans signed free agent quarterback Dan Orlovsky on Sunday. The former University of Connecticut star spent the first four years of his NFL career with the Detroit Lions. Following are Orlovsky's comments to the Houston media.
QB Dan Orlovsky
(opening statement) "First, just I'm excited to be here. To Mr. McNair (Houston Texans owner Bob McNair) and his family and (Texans general manager) Rick Smith and (Texans head) coach (Gary) Kubiak, I'm excited. I'm grateful for the opportunity, and I think they realized and know I'm going to work my tail off to just be part of this team and do anything I can to help win the division and into the playoffs."
(on why he signed with Houston) "I think any quarterback in the NFL wants to start. That's just the competitive nature of us. I think the big reason here is just coach Kubiak. Spending time with him last night, and coach (Texans offensive coordinator Kyle) Shanahan, sitting down with them and really getting to know them – not only as football coaches, but as people, what they preached and what they believed in – was important to me. I'm not stupid; I know no team is just going to say, 'Hey, you're our starting quarterback.' And I wouldn't feel comfortable with them because I haven't done enough to prove that I'm a clear-cut starter. Did I do enough to say that I have potential? Sure, so why here? I feel comfortable. I feel that coach Kubiak is a coach that can push me and I'm excited to learn under him and under (Texans QB) Matt (Schaub) and just get better."
{QUOTE}(on why he signed so early in the free agency period) "Well, just like I said, sitting down with coach Kubiak and coach Shanahan last night, you realize that they're not going to beat around the bush. They're straight shooters. I feel it's a good opportunity just to learn from those guys. I told them I'm really hungry to get coached, to get pushed and to see where I can get to. Coach Kubiak carries a reputation with quarterbacks, so it wasn't one of those things where I thought I need to go do this, do this, do this and see all these other teams. I felt like what was going to be fair for me and what was going to be a good opportunity. And the economics of it wasn't a big deal to me; it was about the opportunity to learn and get better. I'm still only 25, so I know I have a long career ahead of me and my biggest thing was to try and become as good of a quarterback as I can, and I think that this situation presents that."
(on if he was disappointed that Detroit told him he was going to be a backup in 2009) "I was disappointed. It was a confusing situation to be a part of because I didn't think the play on Sundays was warranting that call or that decision, so it was disappointing. It's tough to hear during the week that they say, in Week 12, Week 13, Week 14, 'Get back and get healthy because you give us the best chance,' and then a month or two later that somehow changes. I have no bad things to say about the people in Detroit. I'll be grateful to Mr. Ford (Detroit owner William Clay Ford) and his family for the opportunity and I wish them the best of luck. I'll miss the guys that I played with, but it was just time for me to move on."
(on how difficult it will be to not play as much) "It's something that is hopefully hard for me for the remainder of my career, to have the hunger to play. Whether I end up being a starter for a long time or I don't, you always want to have the hunger to play. That's what gets you up every morning. To get the taste of it, to be in the thick of it and have the opportunity to play last year was awesome. So yeah, I'm sure there will be an adjustment needed on my end to get back into the role of, 'Yeah, I am coming here as the backup and Matt is the starter,' but that doesn't change my preparation, my mindset during the week. I need to prepare like I'm going to take the first snap because I would be doing an injustice to my team if I didn't. I've been in the backup role before in my career, my three years in Detroit, and it's not that I'm saying, 'OK, I'm complacent being the backup,' but I know what my role is and it's much bigger than me. So my role is to be prepared to play as good as Matt, if not better, if he goes down and just to prepare him during the week and do everything I can to try to get him to play as good as he can and just be a part of a winning football team."
(on the things that played into his decision to sign with Houston) "There's a lot of things that play into the decision. Obviously, seeing the history that (former Texans QB) Sage (Rosenfels) has had an opportunity to play weighs into it, but it's not one of those things where it was the deciding factor. Matt, I hope he plays 16 games next year and is healthy for all of them and into the playoffs, but I will be prepared and I will be ready to play if needed and called upon. So that played a part in it, sure, but it was not a deciding factor."
(on how many visits he cancelled after signing with Houston) "One. I had one to Denver this afternoon and just made the decision to stay."
(on how he feels he played last season) "That's a good question. I never like to sit up here and talk about myself. I think that amidst the situation, and no one out there really knows the real situation until guys like me and my teammates, we were in it so we know the truth, but I think I did some good things. I think I made some good growth as a quarterback. There's things I wish I could take back, but it's all a learning process. Seven starts under my belt, I feel that within that situation I did some really good things. And it was a confidence booster to myself to say, 'OK, I really can do this on Sundays.'"
(on how many different offensive coordinators he's played under in his career) "Four. Four coordinators in four years."
(on if he had a hard time living down his safety in Detroit's game at Minnesota last year) "No. I mean, ten seconds after, I realized how idiotic it was and how dumb it was, but I wasn't going to change it. It's one of those things that you wish your name was never attached to, but it was. At that moment, I had the decision to make if either that safety was going to hold me down for the rest of that game and into the season or if I was just going to try to overcome it, and it was one play. I think the good thing for me last year, growth-wise, was to realize just playing every play individually and not trying to be Superman."
(on his performance vs. Houston last season) "I thought I played well. After watching the film, I thought I did some good things. I probably missed some throws. The experience was great. I had the opportunity – I was telling coach (Kubiak) this last night – I had the opportunity when I was at school at UConn to play (Texans DE) Mario (Williams) as a freshman, and just seeing him on film, you realized how good he was going to be. I had not seen him since that game. We were in stretch lines and he walked – ran – right by me and I just looked at him and I said, 'Golly, he is a big man!' So now to be on his team is probably a good thing. But yeah, I'm excited. I think the nucleus of the team is really good. I think there's a lot of good young players, so I'm excited to be a part of it."
(on going 0-16 with Detroit last season) "It was the toughest thing I've ever done athletically in my life. It's nothing you want your name to be a part of, but you can either take it as something that will define you or something that will make you better. When you're in Week 10, Week 11, Week 12 and you're 0-9, 0-10, 0-11, that's really difficult to get up every day and go to work when you know that not everyone is on board. I can't say that the players weren't; I think all of our players were great and I think they didn't give up, but was difficult. Probably the culmination was Green Bay that Sunday. It was embarrassing, to be honest with you, but it is what it is and your name will be attached to it, unfortunately, forever, but you just plan on moving on."
