11 News sports team previews this weekend's NFL draft

Last night I was attending a gathering and ran into left guard Chester Pitts. He's one of just a few players remaining who has been around from the start of the franchise. He is also excited about what the organization is doing and feels like the team is close to being really good. I agreed with him and then we started talking about what he thought the Texans were going to do in the draft. I smiled when he said, "I think I'm getting a new neighbor!" He, of course, was meaning he felt like the organizations braintrust was going to draft a left tackle.

All the experts think this is a strong draft for offensive lineman. That position is so crucial and when Charles Spencer, who was supposed to be there, was injured, it put the Texans behind five years. We don't know right now if Spencer will ever play again but that was a tragic moment in the teams development.

I'll never forget when my coach Bum Phillips came into a quarterback meeting one hot August day in San Angelo, Texas in the late 70's. He had a big smile on his face and looked at Dan Pastorini and me and said we just traded for next years number one draft choice. He then explained that we had swapped our upcoming top pick to New England for All Pro left tackle Leon Gray. The rest, as they say, is history as Gray anchored a line that pancaked defensive players so Earl Campbell could do his thing.

The point of all of this is you never know how, when and why draft picks are used until deals present themselves and that is the beauty of draft day. What will happen, no one knows but Pitts is convinced he'll have a new friend.