Texans Training Camp 2008

[drewmar74]

Originally Posted by b0ng

Slaton looks like he has tons of speed to get to the outside and around the edge. Between the tackles, not so much, although Walker looked a lot better today than I imagined he would. Chris Brown was a little unimpressive. Ahman looked real good.

I was curious how Ahman would look in the ZBS. I was also curious as to if he would show any lingering effects from last year's knee injury.

Based on what you said and the lack of commentary to the contrary, it sounds like all is well on the AG front, eh?

I hope he can hold up, but I just don't have a lot of confidence in him after his knee got "debacled" last year.





Yes, I know that's not the proper use of the word "debacle." It's an Emmit Smith-ism, though, and I like it.

[gary]

He sure didn't show any lingering knee effects today.

[J-Russ]

Some quotes from McClain.

Now, here are some observations after watching the first five practices of training camp: Every day, I'm more impressed with rookie cornerback Antwaun Molden. He's got the size, speed and work ethic the coaches love. He has confidence. He doesn't get down on himself. Like Fred Bennett in last year's camp, he makes at least one big play every day.

I've had three former players I trust tell me they think he's special. They've watched Molden in practice. They've watched him on the sideline interacting with his teammates. They're very impressed.

I'm going to go out on a limb right now and say that I believe sometime early in the season Molden will be in the starting lineup. It could be because of an injury, or it could be because he's just played himself into a starting job, but based on what he did in the offseason and what he's done early in camp, he's got a chance to be very, very good.

Molden has been receiving some pretty high praises during this off-season.....

At safety, the coaches have talked a lot about veteran Glenn Earl and rookie Dominique Barber. We all know that C.C. Brown and Will Demps are the starters, but the truth is that both are capable of being beaten out if somebody emerges. I think Earl has the best shot. He started 15 games in 2006 but missed all of last season with a foot injury.

I've been hearing alot of good things about Barber.... I hope I can eat crow, because I was pretty harsh during the draft after we selected Barber and Brink.

The best hit I've seen was delivered by defensive end Earl Cochran. He drilled running back Chris Taylor, lifting him off the ground and planting him like a geranium. Cochran's hit brought a lot of cheers from the fans and defensive players as well.

Watching the offensive and defensive linemen go at it in pass protection drills, I'm always amazed at how Mario Williams blows by his man almost every time. Williams is fun to watch in that drill. He's also fun to watch when he's going against two linemen.

Defensive tackle Anthony Maddox showed impressive quickness and explosion in the morning practice. He also showed some nifty moves. The coaches would love to see a tackle develop as a pass rusher to come off the bench in passing situations to play next to Amobi Okoye.

Rookie left tackle Duane Brown did a good job. The coaches are throwing a lot at him. He's going against ends, tackles and outside linebackers. They've also had cornerbacks blitz from the slot. I think the idea is to hit Brown with as much as they can to see how he performs. They don't want him to be surprised by anything.

[aj.]

Originally Posted by Austrian

How did Boyd look with the 3rd string guys?

Hard to assess.... a young inexpereinced qb with a bunch of 3rd teamers around him. Most of his play calls were pretty conservative - handoffs and short passes. Wait 'til the pre-season games, then we'll know more.

Ahman looks great. Just like last year.

[gary]

I haven't really watched Molden yet but I'm going to. From what I've been reading here he sounds really good.

[drewmar74]

"I'm going to go out on a limb right now and say that I believe sometime early in the season Molden will be in the starting lineup. It could be because of an injury, or it could be because he's just played himself into a starting job, but based on what he did in the offseason and what he's done early in camp, he's got a chance to be very, very good. "

That sounds great.

Of course, McClain may not be going that far out on a limb since Reeves has sounded very, very average based on what I've read so far.

[Thorn]

Thanks to all who've posted their observations here. This is beginning to be my favorite information thread.

[gary]

I hope that McClain is right.

[aj.]

Anyone interested in why the Texans are line dancing instead of stretching before practice? I asked Nick Scurfield of the Texans and he provided this answer from Dan Riley:

http://boards.houstontexans.com/show...&postcount=170

More fuel for the Riley debate.

[gary]

Now I know.

[The Pencil Neck]

Originally Posted by aj.

Anyone interested in why the Texans are line dancing instead of stretching before practice? I asked Nick Scurfield of the Texans and he provided this answer from Dan Riley:

http://boards.houstontexans.com/show...&postcount=170

More fuel for the Riley debate.

Actually, he's got that right.

Stretching is good... but stretching before you exercise can be bad. Stretching can actually weaken the muscle and lead to injury. Stretching should be performed after you work out or on another day.

Like he said, there are tons of studies for this.

[GuerillaBlack]

That's what I do. Stretch after working out. Helps keep them muscles lean.

[gary]

Originally Posted by The Pencil Neck

Actually, he's got that right.

Stretching is good... but stretching before you exercise can be bad. Stretching can actually weaken the muscle and lead to injury. Stretching should be performed after you work out or on another day.

Like he said, there are tons of studies for this.

Thank you because I did not know this.

[texasguy346]

Thanks to all who've shared reports of what they saw. It's great to have such a wealth of information for those of us who can't attend camp. My brother is in the process of packing to move to Kentucky with his girlfriend so most of my free time is spent helping him pack. Can't wait to see the first preseason game.

[gary]

EC had a very nice lick on Taylor today.

[Malloy]

Originally Posted by aj.

Anyone interested in why the Texans are line dancing instead of stretching before practice? I asked Nick Scurfield of the Texans and he provided this answer from Dan Riley:

http://boards.houstontexans.com/show...&postcount=170

More fuel for the Riley debate.

Wanted to ask about that, now I dont have to

Thanks AJ, and to everyone else for the feedback from TC!

[gary]

Welcome.

[HOU-TEX]

Originally Posted by gary

Welcome.

Gary, it was nice meeting you and your Mother Saturday. Y'all are good people!

Where were y'all yesterday? I was on the far left hand side of the bleachers. I stayed in my seat the entire time because I didn't want to lose my spot.

Again, nice meeting you.

[ObsiWan]

Sorry I couldn't chime in yesterday, but our apt. wireless was down so I'm just now getting web access again. AJ, b0ng, Hou-Tex, Gary, and all the others have pretty much covered everything.

My observations (forgive me if they've been mentioned already):
- Fred Bennett looked READY! I don't think more than 2-3 passes were caught on his side of the field all morning. He was all over everything thrown his way like proverbial "cheap suit".

- Darius Walker looked really good again yesterday. And not due to speed (we all know that's not his strength) but by proper use of his blocking. When the OL flows in the designed direction of the play, he seems to have a knack for knowing when to cut back for good yardage. On one play, the entire defense was flowing right with the blocking. He cutback left, made the backside contain miss, and left the entire D playing catchup.

- Chris Taylor played quite a bit of fullback. He split time with Cook on the 2nd team. But he played tailback in I-formations too. He was probably dragging pretty badly by the end of practice.

- Ahman Green looks like he's still got something left in the tank. He found the crease a couple of time and made some decent gains. He still seems to have good acceleration when he gets to the second level. Chris Brown was not very impressive

- All the QBs seemed to be a little off. Even Schaub's throws were off-target. A.J. and O.D. (I think - I gotta start carrying a clibboard) beat the secondary deep; once he overthrew the WR the other time he underthrew him.

- Boyd got the 3rd team reps yesterday. He's got more velocity on his throws than Brink does. But he's no better from an accuracy standpoint. Both need to work on their timing with the WRs.

- I still haven't seen Okam do anything remarkable. ...or Okoye either for that matter. But it could be I'm comparing them to Mario - who's constantly ending up in the backfield - and that's probably not fair.
Come to think of it, the D-line's performance is probably why the QBs were off all morning.

[J-Russ]

Originally Posted by Texan's Fan

* I've been reserving judgement on the Jacques Reeves signing and trying to overlook what I saw last year after hearing all the Texans' rationale (*sips Kool-aid*). However, seeing him today has me worried already. Kevin Walter worked him over almost every time they were matched up. For every good play, he got beat twice. My boy who was with me, a DB coach that played CB at SMU, is straight-up expecting the worst and hasn't taken a swig of my J.Reeves Kool-aid since day 1. I gotta say it's starting to taste a little sour to me too.

* Fred Bennett, on the other hand, looked ready to go-live today. He's real agile for a guy that rangy. If he stays healthy, he's gonna have a big year.

* NOBODY ON THE FIELD CAN CHECK #80. Only thing that stopped Dre J. was the occasional inaccurate throw.


* Duane Brown is gonna be pretty nice once he gets his feet under him at this level. He pancaked Rosey Colvin once, held up well against Mario, and delivers a pretty good pop when his balance is right. Still needs a ton of polishing, but I see why they liked him.

* I saw exactly what you noted from Chaun Thompson. He was the only one with a burst off the line comparable to Mario. He whooped E.Winston right off the snap on one rep. Then a couple reps later he looked like he blew a wheel and was done for the day. Hope it's nothing serious 'cause he looked really good.

* Amobi got handled by Chris Myers, as did Travis Johnson. Myers looked very good in pass-pro. Our starting DTs couldn't really do anything with him. Chester looked good too and almost had Okoye airborne on one rep. Not quite sure how to feel about those match-ups at this point, but the #1 C/G definitely got the better of the #1 DTs.

* Anthony Weaver is garbage, IMHO. He also could have used some whipped butter & syrup a couple times that I saw. I don't think he'll be starting past the open week, if it's about the play and not the pay. He and his bloated contract look like dead weight to me at this point. Both Cochran and Bullman looked better.

* If Mario ever develops a reliable inside counter move, he'll be pretty much unblockable. That's the only thing I saw that's really missing in his game.

http://blogs.chron.com/fantasyfootba...m_saturda.html

I'm starting to see a trend, the FA we throw the most cash at end up busting.... looks like Reeves is heading into that infamous list of players. Let's hope he break the curse, or else we'll just have another subpar player on a bad contract.

Memo to Smith. Don't buy players anymore draft them.