Texans’ Charlie Heck: Most ‘improved’ player on roster
By Aaron WilsonAug 20, 2021
Charlie Heck, the Texans’ towering offensive tackle, arrived at training camp with a new body and a different mentality.
At 6-foot-8, 308 pounds, Heck has restructured his body and added a lot of lean muscle through long hours in the weight room with Texans strength and conditioning coach Mike Eubanks. Heck supplemented that with extra workouts with Billy Voltaire of Volt PT, doing Olympic lifts at Kinitro Fitness alongside veteran center Justin Britt and offensive tackle-guard Tytus Howard.
After struggling with the speed of the game as a rookie, Heck has improved dramatically and is playing with better movement, technique and confidence. Heck is a strong candidate to be the Texans’ starting right tackle when the season opens against the Jacksonville Jaguars, and coach David Culley called him the most improved player on the roster.
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“When I came here and this staff came here, and we went in to our OTAs and went into our offseason program, I don’t know if there is a player on the team who improved as much as Charlie did from the start to this point right now,” Culley said. “And that’s not surprising because he has a great work ethic. He’s going into that year now where you want to see that progress made, and we’re starting to see that. And that’s what happens when you do what he did to be in the position that he’s in right now.”
Heck winning the starting job depends partially on a scenario where Howard could stay at his natural right tackle spot if Lane Taylor recovers in time from a torn ACL to play right guard and have Max Scharping play left guard with Pro Bowl left tackle Laremy Tunsil slated to return later this month from the reserve-COVID-19 list after testing positive. Or the Texans could go with Tunsil and Howard on the left side, Britt at center, Scharping at right guard and Heck at right tackle, especially since right tackle Marcus Cannon is still on the active-physically unable to perform list after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery in the offseason and injuring his calf.
The current configuration is Geron Christian at left tackle again against the Dallas Cowboyson Saturday nightat AT&T Stadium with Scharping at right guard, Justin McCray at left guard and Heck again at right tackle after starting against the Green Bay Packers.