Tuesday morning, July 29 camp report
Chris Brown and Roosevelt Colvin were both out today. I believe Chaun Thompson was out as well. Kalu filled in for Colvin and Coley filled in for Thompson.
During 9 on 7 drills (no WRs or CBs, mostly running plays), Duane Brown did a pretty nice job going primarily against Mario, including getting a fist bump from Alex Gibbs on one nice play where he sealed the edge on Mario. Darius Walker is putting together some nice runs but he lacks burst in my opinion, and often seems to have better holes to work with. Slaton had some more of the running into his own players back when he goes between the tackles, though he did have one nice run between the tackles when he had a big hole. He's great when he bounces it outside.
The O-line looked like they were doing a good job opening holes in the running game. Ahman Green had some really nice runs. He isn't showing any signs of last year's injury that I can tell. When it came to rushing, today he was clearly the best back to me with the others not terribly close. Walker had a fumble in goal line drills. All of the RBs got shots in the goal line drills. All of the scored at least once. Slaton and Taylor were both stopped once.
However, he struggled twice on blitz pickup. Once he did manage to make the guy go wide enough the QB had time to get it off, but he didn't actually block him. Another time he kind of looked lost as the rush went by either side of him, and one of the coaches was giving him advice after. I had been trying to watch blitz pickup more closely for Walker and Slaton. But they just didn't keep them in the backfield much on passing plays where I could tell.
The quarterbacks were noticeably hanging onto the ball too long. Schaub was really bad about it at first, then improved, while Sage seemed better at first and then got worse. He had one pretty bad one that prompted Kubiak to yell that they were holding the ball too long, and after that they started getting rid of it quicker.
On one play, WR Tim Carter just tore past the DB and would have had a TD but the ball was a little out of reach. Daniels had a nice diving catch. I felt like Sage was perhaps doing a better job at going through his progressions quickly than Schaub was. Andre Johnson didn't stand out as much as he normally does, but was still the best receiver by far. During goal line 6 on 7 drills, Schaub threw a corner fade to Walters, who bobbled it and might have come down with it. Ref called it incomplete but it would probably have been reviewed in a game.
One corner I'd like to see more on is Derrick Roberson. Though he was the guy that Tim Carter outran, a few times I've noticed him as having some tight coverage on his receiver. Jimmy Williams had an interception.
At one point the offense was just walking through goal line plays without a defense. There were very few formations with WRs... not sure if that is indicative of their goal line plans, or just the plays they were working on.
Slaton and Chris Taylor were in the mix fielding kickoffs. Darius Walker was on the kickoff coverage team. I didn't see Andre Davis in the mix, which was surprising and made me wonder if they were just trying guys out as you'd have to believe he'll be the primary guy.
During the full 11 on 11 scrimmage where the chains would move, the offenses ability to open up holes was what stood out to me. Also I noticed that Mike Bisiel was the 1st string RG. 2nd string was Salaam, Studdard, Eslinger, C. White moved to RG from C, and Butler at RT.
The bleachers face to the west and my neck has gotten fried when I didn't bring a hat that would cover it. The railing behind the top row of the bleachers is high enough that if you bring a towel or something like that, you can hang it over the railing and get some shade from it for much of the practice. It's definitely a big help if the sun is out. Easiest way to spot me will be to look for someone sitting on the top row (hopefully) using a Texans flag for shade. Dark hair, full beard trimmed short, white t-shirt with USA on it.
I agree. Just checking to see if GregR had switched them by mistake or if they were trending more toward a left-right thing. The dime thing is still interesting, though, since the Texans have been looking for an excuse to move Greenwood out on passing downs since last summer.
Most of the news we read here regarding training camps can be found elsewhere at the many fantasy sights on the innerwebs. These in-person training camp reports are one of the things that sets this place apart from the others. 
