Updated: Texans could have done better at No. 2 QB

<em>Posted by ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky</em> <p>The <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/clubhouse?team=hou">Houston Texans</a> have made their choice for <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=2658">Sage Rosenfels</a>' replacement as backup quarterback, and I don't suspect fans in Houston are doing cartwheels over it.</p> <p>It's former Lions QB <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=8559">Dan Orlovsky</a>. I hate to label the guy off one play, but I imagine a lot of people are with me on this one. Say the name and what pops into your head? The ridiculous play where he rolled out along the thick white stripe in the back of the end zone, clueless that the play was dead and he'd given up a safety.</p> <p>I like my quarterbacks, even my backups, to have a fundamental understanding of the field's parameters. When they don't, I certainly don't reward them with three years for $8.5 million, the contract numbers reported by ESPN.com senior writer John Clayton.</p> <p>Say what you will about Rosenfels, whose own boneheaded plays late in a home game against Indianapolis last season turned a win into a loss, but his team scored points when he played as opposed to most teams where the backup in the game often means a touchdown less on the scoreboard.</p> <p>I think trading Rosenfels for a fourth-round pick from Minnesota was a smart move. I think signing Orlovsky was a bad move, but he gets a clean slate and a fair chance. We didn't have a good feeling for Rosenfels when he joined the team either.</p> <p>I'm surprised, frankly, the Texans didn't take a close look at Titans free agent <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=4555">Chris Simms</a>, who's connected to offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan and would have brought more upside. I haven't heard Simms name since free agency opened.</p> <p>But the central fact here remains the same: The Texans need a 16-game season out of <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=5615">Matt Schaub</a>.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>UPDATED 3:58 p.m.</strong></p> <p>When he met Houston media Sunday afternoon, Orlovsky spoke about the safety fiasco last season in the Lions game at Minnesota:</p> <blockquote><font size="1">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.<br /> </font></blockquote>

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