Coming off a 2011 season-ending Lisfranc injury, Texans quarterback Matt Schaub is in the final year of his contract, six years after coming to Houston in a trade from the Atlanta Falcons.
Schaub spoke about his situation last Thursday during an interview for the “Off the Turf with Scurf” podcast on HoustonTexans.com.
"To me, it's just about focusing on your job, getting ready to go, and guys go through it every year," he said. "It's just a matter of getting some things done, but you've got to go out and you've got to get healthy and you've got to get ready to play and go out and prove it on the field. So I'm just looking forward to just going out and playing and not worrying about that.
"That stuff, if we take care of our business, get our job done, things will take care of themselves. But I love the city of Houston and want to be here for many years to come. It's important for me to finish what we started here, so I'm excited about what the future holds. Right now, it's just about getting ready for camp and just keeping the blinders on and keeping the focus on the next task."
Schaub fully expects to be 100 percent healthy for training camp. It's unclear if the Texans will try to extend his contract before the season or wait until he finishes the year healthy. Texans left tackle Duane Brown and outside linebacker Connor Barwin are also entering the final seasons of their contracts, along with players such as safety Glover Quin and fullback James Casey.
A factor in Schaub's future could be his close relationship with Texans head coach Gary Kubiak, with whom he has worked for five seasons.
"He knows the game so well inside and out, the game situations," Schaub said. "Just the conversations we have, we view the game the same way and game situations and game management. I almost know what he's going to call before he calls it, just given the situations and having been in so many games with him and seen the calls that he makes.
"We just have a good non-verbal communication between us that we know what each other's thinking and how we want to approach different teams, so I think that just allows us to go out and cut it loose. But he's a player's coach. He understands what it's like to be a player at this level, the marathon of a season, how to keep us going throughout it not have it be so much of a grind. I think players relate well to that. Players respect that even more so than they otherwise would."
