The Houston Texans will not be placing their Super Bowl visions on the leg of a rookie kicker after all.
Head coach Gary Kubiak revealed that Randy Bullock — the big leg from Texas A&M that the Texans spent a draft pick on — is going on injured reserve for the year with a groin injury. That ends one of the closest position battles of the Texans' preseason and gives the job to veteran Shayne Graham, who outperformed Bullock by at least a slight margin anyway.
"Randy's going on IR," Kubiak said at his Sunday press conference at Reliant Stadium. "He's torn a muscle somewhere in his groin area. I don't know all the specifics."
Kubiak said that Bullock has been kicking through the injury for much of the preseason and that the rookie came in "black and blue" on Sunday, the day after the Texans' preseason game in New Orleans.
Graham — whose own website touts him as "one of the most accurate kickers in the NFL" — has been money on a number of long field goals this preseason. Now, he shoulders the pressure of kicking for a team that could be in a number of close, high-pressure games with significant consequences.
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