John McClain of the Houston Chronicle reports that **the Texans will bring in competition** for kicker Kris Brown by the time organized team activities begin in May.
Brown is coming off of the worst season of his career, having made only 65.6 percent (21-of-32) of his field goals in 2009.
"We'll bring in another kicker to compete with Kris," Texans coach Gary Kubiak said to McClain this week at the NFL meetings in Orlando, Fla. "We definitely will. That will start right away."
Brown has been the Texans' kicker since the team began play in 2002. In 2007-08, he had the best two-year stretch of his career, converting 87.1 percent of his field goals. Brown missed only eight kicks total out of 62 attempts during that span, but he missed 11 kicks last season alone.
Per McClain, Kubiak said that Brown has made changes to his kicking routine and has been doing everything he can to right the ship.
"He's never been a problem, work-wise," Kubiak said. "That's never been an issue with him. We're going to give him every opportunity to come back and kick the way he's kicked for us before, but we have to create some competition, and nobody knows that better than Kris."
McClain said he expects the Texans to sign an undrafted rookie or veteran free agent to be Brown's competition. Kubiak indicated to McClain that it's unlikely the Texans will take a kicker in the draft.
