Pro Football Focus first spoke to Chris Myers during the 2011 season, just after the loss of QB Matt Schaub and the first start of his backup Matt Leinart. At the time, T.J. Yates wasn’t even on anybody’s radar, and the Texans were hoping they could keep their season on the tracks and secure that elusive first postseason berth. He was quick to talk about the team’s goals and reluctant to even think about the prospect of any individual honors before those goals had been realized.
This time we caught up with him after having won the franchise’s first playoff game, running the Baltimore Ravens close in their second, and after he had been off to Hawaii as a member of the AFC’s Pro Bowl squad.
The Texans have firmly rid themselves of that troublesome monkey from their backs, and now look ahead to the 2012 season as the AFC South favorites for the first time.
Myers himself is a free agent, and finished the year as our top-ranked center, ahead of perennial All-Pro Nick Mangold. Check out what he had to say when we caught up with him second time around.
Pro Football Focus: Hi Chris, thanks for taking the time to talk to us again. How are things going?
Chris Myers: Things are going great man, really can’t complain since we talked last. It’s been a fun ride this season, and unfortunately we ended it with that second round, but it is what it is this season. I, fortunately, got to go to the Pro Bowl which was a really great addition to the year.
PFF: What was that like?
CM: It was an awesome experience. You always kind of have that underlying goal for you on a personal level, but you never kind of, I don’t know, think about it too much. It’s only a personal goal, and you’re thinking more about the team. And then when it happened, especially with me being an alternate, it didn’t happen right away–all of a sudden I found out and it was just awesome to be able to share and bring my whole family out. My family from my hometown, Miami, and of course my immediate family from here in Houston.
PFF: How does that process work if you’re an alternate?
CM: Well the day the announcements are made for the starters and so on it’s kind of kept a secret who the alternates are, but the coaching staff of each team gets a notification from the league of who the alternates are, first, second, third string alternates. So I got notified by my coaching staff and then I just had to sit and wait.
PFF: What was the week in Hawaii itself like?
CM: It was just a really humbling experience. I’ve always gone way over and above whatever dreams I could accomplish in football, but when you accomplish things, you keep setting higher goals for yourself. That was just above what I ever thought, and to see all those faces just walking around and all the different players that you see every year at the Pro Bowl it’s pretty cool to be a part of. And, even aside from the football part of it, just getting to experience Hawaii. The fact that it’s still out in Hawaii, seeing Pearl Harbor, and going to see North Shore, and getting to go to Waikiki, my family would never have been able to experience all of that, so the opportunity for me to play in the Pro Bowl brought them out there, and it was great.
PFF: It seems that the Pro Bowl belongs in Hawaii.
CM: I just don’t think it would get the same player turnout if it was in the city of the Super Bowl every year.
PFF: You got seven of the 50 All-Pro votes for the center position, but we had you as the top-ranked guy in the entire league, which do you think is a fairer reflection of your season?
CM: I’ve said it every time someone asks me about the Pro Bowl even, but a center isn’t going to do anything better than the rest of his offensive line does, especially the guards. Not too many centers sit for 60-something plays a game and block by themselves. A guard or a tackle can do that a whole game, but a center is going to get tremendous help every game from both guards, so I attribute a lot of the success that came my way personally to both of my guards and my offensive line. You’re not going to have a center be successful in this league without a great offensive line along with him, so I think it’s a testament to them.
PFF: The Houston assistant O-line coach, Frank Pollack, just went to the Raiders along with Greg Knapp. What kind of an impact does losing coaches like that have to you as players?
CM: It’s kind of a two way street. He’s been here a long time–longer than I’ve been here in Houston–and Frank has a tremendous experience, especially as a player, to be able to give current players input. He played a long time, especially in San Francisco, so you take to heed what he says to you and the different techniques that he’s trying to teach you, so to have someone like that is tremendous for the team. But, on the other end, you’re so excited for him to be able to get a head O-line coach job back in the bay area where he played for so long. It can be frustrating to lose coaches, you know you’ll see them later in your career, you know, when you face that team, but you’re just happy for their opportunity to get that job and to further their career.
PFF: What does an assistant O-line coach actually do day-to-day in the organization?
CM: Well, the way we work, he was pretty much installing all of our pass protection and pass game stuff for the O-line. Our head O-line coach, John Benton, will do the whole running game for us, and Frank would get up on the board and do the whole pass protection game. He was pretty much our pass protection coach. He worked a lot more with the tackles out at practice because of his experience, that’s what he played, but he does a lot of things. He does a lot of breakdowns, he does the scout cards. He pretty much puts different cards together for the defenses that we face week in week out during practice, which is a huge responsibility, so an assistant offensive line coach’s job isn’t just that; an assistant–it’s a lot more work than you think.
PFF: So you’re an impending free agent, what is your outlook on that, are you looking elsewhere, or to come back to Houston?
CM: I would love to be able to come back here. I want to come back here and see this thing through. I have no want to leave, but I do understand how it is. I’d love to be able to stay here, I’ve built so many friendships and relationships and the camaraderie that we’ve built as an offensive line as a whole, and just the thing that’s going on with the team. This organization is going big places in the next few years and I want to be a part of it. That being said, I’ve been in the league a while now, this was my seventh year, and I understand that it is a business and there are a lot of other free agents up this offseason and it’s gonna depend on everything else going on, so I’m just biding my time for the next month and enjoying my time off until free agency hits. When it does, that’s what my agent is there for and hopefully I’ll be here.
PFF: You’ve just finished your seventh year, as you said, how many years do you think you’ve got left playing?
CM: I hope a long time. When I first got to Denver in 2005 I was playing behind Tom Nalen who played like 14-15 years, and I hope to get to that point. I’m only half way there. I hope I can play for a long time and looking back at my last couple of years, I think I’ve played my best ball the last two seasons, and I really feel like I’m on the up, so I’m hoping I can play that time. Who knows, as long as my body lets me without hindering me for my future.
PFF: Are you more conscious about things like that now, rather than when you’re young and you just take your body for granted as something that’ll always be there?
CM: Oh yeah, definitely. Back when I came into the league I would see guys living in the training room. In my first couple of years I didn’t touch the training room, I thought it was the worst place in the world, but in the last couple of years I live in the training room. I’m one of the first guys in there at 5:15 in the morning, and I’m in there after practice. You realize when you get older that taking care of your body is the most important part, and that’s what I’m trying to do.
PFF: Do you have to watch what you eat to maintain your weight? You’re one of the smaller and most athletic linemen in the league.
CM: Yeah, but for some reason my metabolism is great, so I don’t even have to worry about what I eat. When we come in for weigh in day I’m usually right at my weight and don’t have to worry about being two, three, or four pounds over and a lot of guys do. Fortunately enough, I’m one of the lighter guys and I can just come in, or I can go to that O-line dinner and eat whatever I want.
PFF: There is a lot of trash talk during games, especially down in the trenches; do you get involved in that?
CM: I get involved I guess, if it pertains to me, but as a group we get a lot of dirty looks and dirty talk because of guys getting cut blocked all the time. We take it for what it is, and we roll with it. It’s part of our offense and part of the game, and has been for a long time. Guys get really pissed off with it, but you know what, we’re going to keep doing it, so you can either keep talking about it or you can try and play off it. Once they start talking about it, you know you’ve got them, because they’re not worried about playing anymore they’re worried about the cuts.
PFF: When they start talking to the officials and complaining in-game do you guys just laugh, or do you try and wind them up even further?
CM: You may take a jab here and there just to kind of respond, but for the most part you just keep going. When you get them on the ropes, especially in the run game, you want to keep going, you don’t want to waste time talking. But there are those games where you have to kind of get into it a bit.
PFF: Against Baltimore the second time you played them you seemed to have a lot more success, and execute better, was there anything specific you did to have more success second time around?
CM: No, we didn’t do anything different we just came out of the gate knowing that we wanted to be dominant running the ball. We knew we weren’t going to get anywhere without being able to establish the run and be physical with them up there. Especially in a playoff atmosphere, where we’d had that first playoff game here in Houston, but we as a franchise didn’t know what it was like to have a road playoff game, and going up to Baltimore where they’ve had plenty, and they were a dominant team who have had success for years … we just wanted to be able to establish ourselves and get some respect. Unfortunately, it didn’t pan out the way we wanted it to, we had some turnovers, but I think we were able to grind out the game with them and hopefully earned some respect throughout the league.
PFF: What was that first playoff game like for the Texans?
CM: Oh, unbelievable. I got to play in some playoff games in my rookie year in 2005 in Denver, and the atmosphere that was here–even just in the last month of the season, ever since we beat Atlanta in early December–has just been tremendous. The fans have been fantastic every single week, and been a huge help, and we got to see it culminate in that playoff game against Cincinnati. From the first snap to the last snap it was just unbelievable. It’s such a huge help, especially for the defense, how many delay of games and false starts you get, and just the feeling you get running out of the tunnel knowing your fans are right behind you. I hope it stays like that from here on out.
PFF: Do you pay attention to offseason stuff that happens to divisional rivals? It looks like the Colts will now be a 3-4 defense under their new coaching staff.
CM: Yeah, you pay attention to it. You’ll see online or on Sportscenter and when you read certain things, but you don’t really pay real attention to it until it comes around. Until the season rolls around, it’s pointless to really get into it. It’s good for conversation, but what good is it going to do you talking about it for the next six-seven months, you know?
PFF: What are your offseason plans? You’ve got a young family now, how does that influence your downtime?
CM: We’re pretty much settled here in Houston. We’ve had our house now for four years, a little over four years, and we’ve got two daughters under two years old–two years old and four months–so we’re kinda stationary here. We’ll travel back and forth to see my wife’s family and see my family, but other than that, we’re kinda here. Last offseason with the lockout I did a lot of working out down here with a lot of the guys, and I think I’m going to do the same thing this year, I’ll be in Houston working out. In my first couple of years in the league you do the whole going back to your hometown and partying thing a little bit, but once I settled down and got married I’m a bit more low-key now.
PFF: We read recently that with the new CBA NFL coaches can’t even talk about football to their players until April.
CM: Yeah, it’s something along those lines, I don’t even know the exact dates and timelines for everything right now until I get filled in by a rep, but there’s a whole bunch of different things they’re not allowed do. Being a veteran, I think it’s a good thing, I want to get my mind off football for a little bit. (laughs)
PFF: So veteran guys like you really just switch off and take a step back until things start to roll around again?
CM: We’re in there working out and you’ll see the coaches walking around and stuff like that. You’ll have a conversation, but they’re not allowed to, you know, meet with you, or be out on the practice field while you’re running voluntarily and that kind of thing. We’ll see how all that works out, it’s a new CBA for this offseason so I’m sure there’ll be kinks everywhere.
PFF: That’s got to get awkward. You see your coach and get chatting, but you’ve got to stick to the weather and how the wife’s treating you because nobody can talk football …
CM: Yeah, that’s what I’m saying, I’m sure there’ll be kinks in there to be worked out, but for the most part it’s going to be just the players trying to do things on their own and then we’ll all meet up when the official offseason workouts start.
PFF: What are your goals going into the next season?
CM: Just trying to build off this year, and what we’ve done in the past couple of seasons. Every season we’ve been saying we need to take that next step and we finally did it, we made the playoffs. Obviously, the overall goal for any player and team is the Super Bowl, and we were close this year. We were two games away, and that’s going to be that fuel for the fire for us. Being able to go up and play that kind of grinding and scrappy game on both sides of the ball and get it done this time is going to be that motivation for us in training to go that extra mile to make it happen.
PFF: How do you think you guys will react to being the favorites for the division next year for maybe the first time with the Colts falling so far?
CM: It’s going to be a fun offseason and a fun preseason to see all the different hype and talk and so on, but when it comes down to it, we’re all professionals, and we’ve got to get it done on game day. When you strap it up and you get on the field you’re not thinking about the talk and all the media hype, you’re going out there and remembering your preparation for the week and focusing on performing. It is what it is and it’s fun to deal with and do all the interviews, but when you’ve got to get it done on Sunday you’ve got to get it done on Sunday.
PFF: Thanks again for taking the time to talk to us Chris. Hopefully the Texans bring you back and you get a chance to take things one-step further next year.
CM: Thanks guys, my pleasure.
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