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Texans Training Camp 2008

I just want to add my voice to the chorus of people saying "thanks, guys." I really wish I could be there and see all this. Like GP, I'm like an expectant father waiting for news from the delivery room and I really appreciate all the work you guys are doing bringing that news out to us.
 
toward the end of the day 2 video(about2/3- 3/4 of the way) .. Schaub has a white wrap on his right knee or it was above it as he is throwing a pass to AJ

was a quick clip.. not sure if it was much of anything
 
I noticed the Schaub knee wrap yesterday too. Looked more like a protective thing - like a thin ace-wrap. I didn't notice it this morning but I wasn't looking for it. Andy's pictures should capture it if it's there again. He took his normal amount of reps and was moving around fine so I doubt if it's a major concern.

I am a lttle concerned about Chaun Thompson. He limped off about halfway through practice and later we saw him with a large ice wrap on his left knee. He stayed on the sideline the rest of practice.

There was a lot of hitting today and the defense made up for yesterday. Earl Cochran coming clean and blasting Chris Taylor in the backfield set the tone for the day.

Petey was still out. ND didn't suit up. Colvin was out there. It was full pads today (at least they wore pants). Another very pleasant morning out there with the breeze making it very comfortable.

Someone was asking about 2nd team secondary yesterday. Not sure about yesterday but today it was Ferguson and Earl at the safeties with Molden and Fletcher getting most of the 2nd team CB reps. I recall seeing Harrison get a few second team reps, but not many. Nickel is Fred, Reeves, and Molden. I saw Jimmy Williams in there on 2nd team nickel.

Molden got a little work on first team and Andre made him look pretty bad on one play late in practice. Molden lined up in press and at the snap Andre gave Molden a right hand punch to the chest sending Molden flying backward about 5 yards. AJ did a quick look in and Schaub delivered a strike. Yes, it wasn't fair. I'm very excited about Molden. He's raw but you can tell he has tons of ability. After one particularly bad play, Hoke yelled him off the field but then Rhodes came over and had a nice calming 'good cop' face to face counseling session with him on the sideline. There's the benefit of having a guy like Rhodes around.

Second team OL is Salaam - Studdard - White - Jackson/Weary - Butler. It's amazing to see Weary out there. He looks almost as good as new.

First team LBs were Diles-Ryans-Greenwood. Second team was Adibi-Thompson(until he got hurt) and Bentley. I remember seeing Marcus Richardson get a lot of reps today. Colvin was situational DE.

Ben Moffitt looks like a football player. Eslinger needs to do something about his hair. Frank Okam is huge.

Slaton showed good burst around the corner a few times. I think that will be his niche, along with passes out of the backfield which we haven't see much of in practice thus far.

Someone needs to find out why they changed up their stretching routine and what's behind it.
 
Appreciate the updates.. Has anyone focused at all on Jacoby Jones and how he's looked so far? I read he made a nice grab on Friday, but haven't heard anything since.
 
Forgot to mention Jacoby. He looked a little gimpy after practice this morning. Didn't appear serious but he was walking with a slight limp after they took the pads off. Just getting used to full contact again, I think.

Jacoby hasn't really stood out to me - yesterday or today. He was shagging punts with Fletcher today.

It's still too early to draw any conclusions from any of this stuff.
 
Fox said:
Appreciate the updates.. Has anyone focused at all on Jacoby Jones and how he's looked so far? I read he made a nice grab on Friday, but haven't heard anything since.
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JJ's been doing ok. He hasn't had many balls thrown his way. I think he might have rolled his ankle on a punt return. He seemed to be limping alot afterwards. Probably nothing to be concerned about, but it was noticable towards the end of practice.

There were alot of passes thrown underneath to the TE's and RB's today. Our TE's look good, except Bruener.

IMO, MW was destroying Brown in the 11 on 11 drills. He appeared to handle Rosey decently.

Slaton, Taylor and Green looked good today as well. I've yet to be impressed with Chris Brown.

Fred Bennett had a couple knockdowns against Walter.

Schaub's deep ball wasn't very good today. He seemed to underthrow a few that should've been thrown over the shoulder.

Overall, I think the defense won the battle today. The team looks decent for a 3rd day practice.
 
aj. said:
Molden got a little work on first team and Andre made him look pretty bad on one play late in practice. Molden lined up in press and at the snap Andre gave Molden a right hand punch to the chest sending Molden flying backward about 5 yards. AJ did a quick look in and Schaub delivered a strike. Yes, it wasn't fair. I'm very excited about Molden. He's raw but you can tell he has tons of ability.
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Sounds like Molden got a lil' 'Welcome to the NFL' lesson from AJ. :) Thanks for the update as well as to everyone else. I'll be there next Saturday morning for sure.
 
aj. said:
Someone was asking about 2nd team secondary yesterday. Not sure about yesterday but today it was Ferguson and Earl at the safeties...
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Thanks for the update (and thanks to everyone for sharing their perceptions). It's interesting that the Texans would pair 2 guys at safety who have spent most of their career at SS.

Anyone have some thoughts on Alex Brink? From the clips I've seen in Texans TV (on HT.com), he was throwing wounded ducks. Does Brink look like someone worth a roster spot?
 
aj. said:
Forgot to mention Jacoby. He looked a little gimpy after practice this morning. Didn't appear serious but he was walking with a slight limp after they took the pads off. Just getting used to full contact again, I think.

Jacoby hasn't really stood out to me - yesterday or today. He was shagging punts with Fletcher today.

It's still too early to draw any conclusions from any of this stuff.
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JJ did have a very good PR on one of the plays.

Also aj great report from this morning.
 
Vinny said:
d-like looked fine...there is only so much you can tell when they are in shells this early in camp. Everyone seemed to be in great shape. Okoye is much smaller than Okam. Okam seems big even when standing around the big guys.
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You weren't kidding Vinny

DSC_0002.JPG
 
Some thoughts that I had:

Bennett looked great. Had a knockdown against Walter, and I thought the other one was on AJ, but I guess I could be wrong. Reeves got burned a few times. I'm not too sure about him, I guess he's good but I haven't seen it quite yet.

Adibi looked pretty decent with some nice side to side speed. He took more 2nd team reps today, but he did come out with the 1st team a few times. I'm really liking him as a pick.

Saw Colvin playing and he didn't do anything that was out and out great. Looked like he's got a decent amount of speed (More than Kalu has in past seasons).

Alex Gibbs is constantly on the offensive lines ass, and specifically Brown. Brown took snaps with all 3 teams and basically looks like they are just trying to wear him out. Seems to have a lot of heart and always gets back up no matter how tired he is. Doesn't look that great right now, hopefully Alex Gibbs magic works with Brown. Me and my dad were calling him the "little general".

John McClain looked fat as ever. I don't know if he was able to actually watch anything other than the 11 on 11 drills.

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.

AJ was definitely being AJ out there. Couldn't tell that he has had 2 knee surgeries in the past year. I think McCoy made some decent grabs. He could push Anderson who dropped some balls. Jacoby had only a few balls thrown his way.

Noticed Dunta basically mentoring Molden when the 1st team was on the field, liked that. He was showing him where to put his hands and some other things, talking to him a lot. Dunta didn't run (used the bikes) so I couldn't tell if he was limping at all or not.

That's about all I got. It was real nice outside today. Perfect day to watch football.
 
I saw CT walk off the field it made me worry just a little bit I'm hoping it's not too bad. Leach has good hands. Green had some more good runs today. McCoy had some nice grabs watch out Anderson. AJ had some nice plays along with AD. Matt was under throwing the ball somewhat and a couple were over thrown. Fred B. had a couple of really nice blows on KW.
 
I appreciate all of you who are atattended to this year camp. Great stuff to read and very nice information for me who really never had the opportunity to went to Houston and watch the TC.

Please continue to report stuff!
:thisbig:
 
Lucky said:
It's interesting that the Texans would pair 2 guys at safety who have spent most of their career at SS.
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It wasn't an isolated case either - that was the alignment on almost every second team rep. I was expecting to see more of Harrison. But you never know how the coaches might be distributing reps. Pecking order will become clearer when the preseason games begin.

I didn't see Brink throw this morning. Boyd had most if not all the 3rd team reps. Too early to tell on Brink. Yesterday he showed pretty good arm strength on some short pops over the middle but you could time his 15 yard out with a sundial.
 
It would not shock me at all if with in the next few years or so to see Brink as at least a number two guy in the NFL.
 
aj. said:
Boyd had most if not all the 3rd team reps. Too early to tell on Brink. Yesterday he showed pretty good arm strength on some short pops over the middle but you could time his 15 yard out with a sundial.
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How did Boyd look with the 3rd string guys?

P.S. Thanks guys for keeping us informed!:fans:
 
b0ng said:
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.
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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.
 
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Austrian said:
How did Boyd look with the 3rd string guys?
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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.
 
I haven't really watched Molden yet but I'm going to. From what I've been reading here he sounds really good.
 
"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.
 
Thanks to all who've posted their observations here. This is beginning to be my favorite information thread.
 
aj. said:
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/showpost.php?p=125139&postcount=170

More fuel for the Riley debate.
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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.
 
The Pencil Neck said:
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.
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Thank you because I did not know this.
 
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 said:
Welcome.
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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. :fans:
 
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.
 
Texan's Fan said:
* 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.
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http://blogs.chron.com/fantasyfootball/2008/07/five_observations_from_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.
 
J-Russ said:
http://blogs.chron.com/fantasyfootball/2008/07/five_observations_from_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.
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addendum to memo:
If you MUST shop (because you only have so many picks); browse the bargain racks. Those guys - Anthony Maddox, Bulman, Andre Davis, Kevin Walter, etc. - are more often much hungrier.
 
I'm not sure this has been posted yet or not. Kieth (InTheBullseye) had a few comments on Saturdays practice. The portion about Gibbs is hilarious. :spit:

When I arrived at Reliant Park and finally saw Gibbs, I thought, my what a fresh face on the field, a true visage of wisdom and warmth. Then practice started, and HOLY MOTHER OF GOD he ripped into fullback Jameel Cook for whoknowswhat. I heard maybe ten words come out of his mouth and at least four of them were "ass". I can only assume the other six were nuggets of his genius, like rainbows of love shone across a golden dewy meadow, but all I kept hearing was "ASSASSASSASS".
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http://www.inthebullseye.com/archive/2008/20080726.html
 
By MEGAN MANFULL and JOHN McCLAIN
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Hot times for Brown

Rookie Duane Brown got his wake-up moment of training camp just two days into it. He struggled to deal with the heat during the morning practice, and had to leave the field before it was over. He returned to participate in all of the afternoon session inside the bubble.

“Ah, man, it was terrible,” Brown said. “It didn’t get this hot in Virginia. Me, being young, I thought I could just come out there and do my thing, but there’s a lot more to it.”

The Texans are giving Brown a lot of repetitions at left tackle, and Saturday was the first day they donned shells under their jerseys. The coaches are also working with Brown to lose about 10 pounds. He said he hopes to get down to 315 pounds soon.

“(He) just got gassed,” coach Gary Kubiak said. “Taking a lot of reps, which he’s going to do, and he’s a little bit overweight right now. ... In this business, you’ve got to be able to go all day, and he’s figuring that out, and we’ve got to catch him up with everybody else.”
No help needed

Second-year defensive tackle Amobi Okoye is enjoying walking off the practice field with just his helmet and his pads. A year ago, his hands were filled as veterans dumped their gear on him.

“I just watch as the veterans ask the rookies to carry their helmets and I think, ‘Ha ha ha. That was me last year,’ ” Okoye said.

He hasn’t gotten up the nerve to ask anyone to carry his gear though. And he has no intention of asking fellow defensive tackle Frank Okam to do it down the road.

“I’ll just carry mine,” Okoye said. “If they volunteer to carry it then I’ll give it to them. But I’ll keep mine for another three or four years, because those guys are all still older than me.”

Okoye is 21 years old, Okam 22.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/fb/texansfront/5909464.html
 
Sights and sounds of the Texans' reporting day

I've covered the NFL in four decades, and Thursday was the first time I've seen a player pushing his baby in a stroller after he reported for duty. But there was defensive tackle Travis Johnson pushing seven-month-old Travis Andre "Duece" Johnson II in and out of Reliant Stadium.

While daddy was being interviewed, Duece was sucking on his bottle as flashbulbs went off, video and television cameras clicked and reporters - this one included - made faces to try to get his attention. But Duece didn't flinch. Even when daddy took him out of the stroller and held him high in the air, Duece didn't bat an eye, yawn or make a sound.

Johnson and Johnson provided the most interesting visual Thursday, the day before the Texans begin two-a-day drills at their practice facility. The best sounds came from all those players who spoke seriously about making the playoffs for the first time.

Considering how tough the AFC South was last season and how tough it should be this season, it's difficult seeing the Texans having a record good enough to move up and make the playoffs.

Think about it: They're 1-11 against the Colts and 2-10 against the Titans, including 0-3 against You Know Who. If they weren't 7-5 against the Jaguars, the Texans would be an abomination in the AFC South.
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http://blogs.chron.com/nfl/2008/07/sights_and_sounds_of_the_texan.html
 
Just a note to the guys about the deep balls being underthrown. Sometimes the underthrow is by design. When you have a WR like Andre that is such a beast, most DBs do not have a chance going up for a ball against him.

When the DBs have deep position, the QB will underthrow the ball so the WR can try to out jump the DB or knock the ball to the ground. I know Kubiak uses this method, because he was trying to teach it to Carr.
 
painekiller said:
Just a note to the guys about the deep balls being underthrown. Sometimes the underthrow is by design. When you have a WR like Andre that is such a beast, most DBs do not have a chance going up for a ball against him.

When the DBs have deep position, the QB will underthrow the ball so the WR can try to out jump the DB or knock the ball to the ground. I know Kubiak uses this method, because he was trying to teach it to Carr.
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We know how that went.
 
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