On heels of Schaub injury, Texans lose Diles

Posted by ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky The Texans suffered a tough blow today when strongside linebacker Zac Diles, an improving young player, broke his left leg in a freak accident in a non-contact practice drill.

Diles leads the Texans with 47 tackles and is scheduled to have surgery tonight.

"We lost a kid that was becoming a great player," coach Gary Kubiak said. "It's difficult on the football team to watch that today but we just wish him the best..."

"We were just in a drill working on; I think we were either on punt or punt return. Actually it was a half speed drill. Somehow he claims he kicked himself. I'll have to go back and look at it. I haven't seen the film yet. But, just a freak accident but we all heard it. It was obvious that something bad had happened when he hit the ground."

Diles will be replaced by Kevin Bentley with the potential for rookie Xavier Adibi to get involved.

"First, my heart went out to the kid, that's really what I was thinking the whole time," Bentley said of watching Diles go down. "I wasn't really thinking, 'Now you've got to step up.' It's more that I was thinking, 'It sucks for him right now, because he's been playing really good football.'"

"I'm always ready. Pretty much, the last few years, this has been my role. I've done it in Seattle the last few years, and I'm ready. I don't know what else to tell you besides I'm ready."

Bentley joined the Texans this season as veteran depth after three seasons in Cleveland and three in Seattle. The bulk of his experience is as a backup. He has played as a special teamer in all eight games this season, with a bit of work filling in for DeMeco Ryans in Jacksonville.

In all he's played in 95 games with 22 starts.



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