Texans camp report: Sorry, Osi -- Mario's just warming up

Editor's note: Clark Judge, Pete Prisco and Mike Freeman are traveling to every NFL training camp and filing daily reports and analysis. Next camp report from Prisco: Saints.

Texans: Five things to know | Prisco

METARIE, La. -- It might not be wise to have Houston Texans defensive end Mario Williams and New York Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora in the same vicinity any time soon.

There's a feud brewing, even though they play the same position on two teams in two different divisions who won't meet this season.

Williams plays a mean, nasty game on the field, but off it he's laid back and getting him to say anything inflammatory is almost as hard as blocking him. But when Umenyiora's name was brought up, that all changed. Gone was his mild way, replaced by anger that was genuine.

That's because Umenyiora publicly knocked Williams this summer after my CBS Sports.com rankings of the Top 50 players came out. Williams was sixth on that list, opening a lot of eyes, including those of the 42nd-ranked Umenyiora.

Asked on a national radio show what surprised him about my list, Umenyiora said, "Mario Williams at No. 6." He then added, "This guy right here at No. 6 is just absolutely ridiculous."

What bothered Williams most about the comments, which came this summer, is that he saw Umenyiora a couple of days before he made them, and the Giants defensive end said nothing to him about it.

He only shook his hand.

"He's a coward," Williams said. "If he has anything to say to me, he should have said it to my face. You write that."

Consider it done.

Hard to believe that my little list could cause an NFL feud, but, hey, we're all about doing our part to stir the pot.

Imagine if Umenyiora wasn't even on the list?

By putting Williams in the sixth spot, it caused quite a stir. Umenyiora was far from alone in questioning the ranking. Fans ate it up. Talk-show hosts crushed it.

Memo to all of you: He belongs there.

Williams is the real thing -- and then some. If the league's general managers and coaches were polled and asked to take one defensive player right now off another team's roster, most would probably take Williams. He's 23, had 14 sacks last season and was the league's best defensive player in the second half of 2007.

"He's the guy I would take," one NFC head coach said "He's only scratched the surface. Plus, there's the value of that pass rusher."

Maybe it was appropriate that I came here to the Saints' facility to talk with Williams since Reggie Bush is with New Orleans. The Texans were in town for two days of workouts with the Saints before they played a preseason game, putting the Williams-Bush link back in focus again.

Mario Williams had 10 sacks in his final eight games last season. (Getty Images)

In 2006, the Texans picked Williams first overall in the draft, passing on Bush and Vince Young. It was a controversial move at the time, one that was panned in Houston, but it's a move that has played out right for the Texans.

Bush certainly hasn't lived up to the hype, rushing for 1,146 yards and a 3.6 per-carry average in two seasons. Williams didn't do much his first season, but he sure did in 2007. His 14-sack season, which tied him for second best in the NFL, helped wipe away the year-long criticism heaped on him for a rookie season in which he had just 4½ sacks.

"Like I said, the way I am stuff like that doesn't affect me," Williams said.

Texans linebacker DeMeco Ryans, who came in that same rookie class as Williams, disagrees.

"It was tough on him," Ryans said. "I just told him to put the focus on what he has to do and be the best player he could be. That's all he could do."

Williams played hurt that first season. He also moved up and down the line, hurting his comfort zone. That changed last season. Williams was healthy and he was stuck at right end, his position of choice.

After getting four sacks in his first eight games in 2007, Williams had 10 sacks in his final eight, including 3½ against the Denver Broncos and one in the Texans' 23-10 victory over the Saints.

"Going through the hard time as a rookie helped him grow up," Texans coach Gary Kubiak said. "I think through the middle of last year he started to realize how good a football player he was."

Williams said when he looked back at the tapes of last season, especially those in the first half of the season, he was frustrated by the sacks he should have had.

"The number could have doubled," Williams said. "I'm not putting the number out there, but the sky is the limit. I know I have to play the whole season like I did in the second half." To help make that a possibility, Williams has leaned up. At 6-7, his weight is down from 291 to 285. The extra quickness will make him even more of a handful for the league's left tackles.

"I came in and ate right and worked out harder," Williams said. "I'm a lot quicker. This game is going to the smaller, quicker defensive ends. I figured I'd be quicker and still have good size. I can feel it. I'm faster."

So Williams has the size, the power, the moves and now he's quicker? Is it possible that we might see Michael Strahan's single-season sack record fall in 2008? Williams was nine short of the breaking the mark of 22½ last season, and said the number he left out on the field would have easily passed it.

So what's the number this season? Twenty-five? More?

Williams won't say. But you get the idea that the 14 he had in 2007 was just a start. If he goes past that, and there's nothing based on what he did in the second half last season that would indicate he won't, than his lofty rating in my Top 50 players might not be so talked about.

Maybe then the fans and media will finally realize how good Williams is as a player, one who only scratched his potential last season. And maybe, like the rest, Umenyiora will see that Williams deserved his spot.

Mario Williams vs. Osi Umenyiora. Let the sack race begin and let the feud simmer.