Texans training camp report - Updated Friday Aug 12 (1 Viewer)

Went to the 8 am training camp that was open to the public. Here are some of my observations.

Andre Johnson (finger), Arian Foster (hammy) and Brian Cushing (knee) didn't practice.

QBs:

Schaub looked ok, but a few times I thought he was holding onto the ball a little longer than I might have liked. However on a few of those he completed medium to long passes, so he had protection.

Leinart seemed inaccurate to me. There were a number of catches made only because the receiver reached behind him, jumped up and caught it over his head, or caught it falling to the ground after being underthrown.

Yates looked about how you'd expect a late round rookie to look. He was ok at times, and others not as much. One play he'd have been sacked, the play continued, and then he'd have been sacked a second time before he finally got it away.

RBs

Ward and Tate worked with the 1st and 2nd string. Slaton and Chris Ogbonnaya worked with the 2nd and 3rd string.

Ward looked pretty solid. I didn't get a chance to see any blitz pickup, but he had a few nice runs.

Tate really impressed me today. I went into today thinking that people drafting Tate over Ward are making a mistake. I'm not feeling as confident on that now. He had a nifty pair of jump steps to the side to make tacklers miss at the LOS and then pick up some yards after. He had a number of runs that he broke for good yardage. And he was catching the ball out of the backfield, though one play I watched him split as a wideout with Demeco covering him, I thought he ran a lackadaisical route because he knew it wasn't coming to him. There was a pass play with Schaub where Schaub looped it over a defender that was right behind Tate, and Tate reached out and caught it upfield on his outside shoulder. Beautiful play by both players. I'd really like to see how Tate handles blitz pick up.

Slaton didn't show me much today. His best run was very reminiscent of his big 2008, by which I mean he had a huge hole and no one touched him until he was past the line. He had decent speed, but I thought he looked like the 4th best RB today.

Chris Ogbonnaya I know nothing about, and I made a note during 9 on 9 rushing drills that he wasn't doing much. But then later on he broke a number of nice runs. Not someone I think is likely to have any fantasy relevance anytime soon though.

Vickers (FB) was playing with the 2nd and 3rd strings mostly, and he did have a couple of nice blocks, including one that was pretty jarring compared to the amount of contact going on.

James Casey (FB/TE) looked like he was blocking adequately. But watching Casey block is like watching Kevin Walter block, while watching Vickers block slightly reminded me of Vonta Leach.

WRs

With AJ out, Kevin Walter and Jacoby Jones got the starting reps, with Dorin Dickerson the 3rd WR (not necessarily slot).

I don't have much to say about Walter and Jones. They both made a couple of catches, nothing that I recall standing out. Thought hey did some 11 on 11 passing plays in front of me, a lot of it happened 70 yards upfield so I didn't get as good of a look at what was going on as I'd have liked. Couldn't even tell who the QB was half the time.

Tolliver looked huge. I'd have never guessed he only weighs 203. I saw him run a couple of nice routes on a couple of plays I watched him specifically, and I think he had at least a pair of catches including a Leinart pass that was flying over his head.

Jeff Maehl had a nice catch as well.

Dorin Dickerson had a nice catch on a bad throw (again I think it was Leinart).

TE

Owen Daniels practiced, think he had a stomach bug or something yesterday if I heard right. All four tight ends (Daniels, Dreesen, Graham and Casey) looked pretty good in the passing game and were targeted fairly regularly. Some of that might have been the effect of Andre Johnson not being out there to draw targets. All of them had some nice catches. Graham did a nice job catching one on an in route that Leinart threw behind him.

Defense

Though I watched him on a few plays, didn't really have a lot to say about Jonathan Joseph. There were times receivers got open against him, but they didn't get thrown to the times I was paying attention, so not sure if he could have closed or not.

I really can't say too much about Kareem Jackson's day either. Just didn't get to watch him specifically very often. I was down near field level so had a hard time seeing what was happening on the far side of the field even when they were down at my end.

Brandon Harris had a beaut of a diving interception.

Jason Allen had a great pass defend, reaching around a receiver to knock the ball down.

McMannis also had a really nice pass defense.

I think McCain was possibly the guy working out in the nickel with the 1st string, I didn't think to check until late in practice.

I think Mario and Connor Barwin were perhaps the OLB on the field most with the 1st string. The DL was Smith, Cody and Watts. Earl Mitchell was playing with the 2nd string. Sharpton was filling at ILB for Cushing. I really didn't notice the other LBs much, in part because of my vantage point, and in part because I was watching the RBs, WRs and DBs a lot.

Mario and Earl Mitchell both got some good pressure. There were others too where I was watching downfield and missed who would have gotten the sack.

Kicker

Rackers went 12 for 12 on field goals today, all from 37-38 yards.

Planning to attend tomorrow morning's public session, will post again then.

that's for the report. nice to get hear some chatter about the defense.

Good stuff

'GregR said:

Tolliver looked huge. I'd have never guessed he only weighs 203. I saw him run a couple of nice routes on a couple of plays I watched him specifically, and I think he had at least a pair of catches including a Leinart pass that was flying over his head.

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He was 212 at the combine, I think.

'bonesman said:

Good stuff

'GregR said:

Tolliver looked huge. I'd have never guessed he only weighs 203. I saw him run a couple of nice routes on a couple of plays I watched him specifically, and I think he had at least a pair of catches including a Leinart pass that was flying over his head.

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He was 212 at the combine, I think.

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Looks like that's what he was listed as in some scouting reports. But the roster on the Texans website has him as 203.

THANK YOU, these TC reports are the most exciting part of football right now.

Sunday: Foster on the bike. Looks Andre Johnson may play

Hope Foster is back soon and has no lingering effects.

Sunday August 7: Andre Johnson practiced (and was awesome). Cushing was icing his knee. Foster and Paul Williams were on the bike. Ben Tate and Terrence Toliver didn't practice, not sure why.



Personnel: Units were a bit more mixed up today it seemed to me, at least for some of the drills. Derick Ward and Casey got the first reps with 1st unit followed by Slaton and Vickers. On D, Barwin was getting most of the strong side OLB first team reps. Cody started out though I think Mitchell may have gotten some as well. 2nd string defense, Nading was weak side OLB and Brooks Reed was strong side OLB. Bulman was in at DE.



QBs

Schaub looked pretty good. He and Andre were showing good timing. On one play during a 2 minute drill, Schaub threw it before Dre made his break to the sideline on a deep route for a big gain and stopped the clock.

Leinart was fairly effective, but he still had too many inaccurate throws. He under threw Jacoby Jones on a play I'll go into more detail on in the WR section. I think Leinart did a decent job in spotting the open player, but getting it there is more of his problem. Schaub had a nice 15 yard pass with a lot of zip on it to get into an open receiver before the defender closed. I don't think Leinart could have made that throw.

Yates had a few plays where he was either inaccurate, or the receiver and he weren't on the same page on the route, or a combination there of. He overthrew Derrick Ward wide open in the flat and threw behind a receiver on another play. Another I think he expected a shallower slant than the receiver ran.

RB

It wasn't a very noteworthy day at RB. Ward, Slaton and Ogbannaya all looked pretty solid, but none of them did much that stood out enough to make it into my notes. Slaton had a couple of nice runs where he had big holes. I thought he did run a little tougher today than yesterday.

WR/TE

Andre Johnson was pretty hard for anyone to stop, nothing unusual there. Joseph had some good coverage on him a few times but Dre still made the play. He was the main target in the 2 minute drill. Dre beat Kareem Jackson on about a 30 yard pass where I don't think Kareem ever saw the ball until it was in AJ's hands. He did nothing to break it up at all.

I thought Kevin Walter did a nice job of getting into open spaces in a 6 on 7 red zone drill.

Lester Jean had a great day. Several catches including 2 TDs in the red zone drill, though one of them took awhile to happen and would have been a sack in a real game.

Jeff Maehl had a chance for a diving TD but couldn't bring it in.

Jacoby Jones made a beautiful adjustment on a deep under throw by Leinart. Jacoby had a step on Bryce McCain but Leinart under threw it and Jacoby cut back past McCain, who I don't think ever saw the ball. Safety help was late getting there and Jacoby went up and pulled the ball in.

Owen Daniels had a nice catch during the 2 minute drill and was looking like his old self.



Defense

The defense had some lapses but the pass rush and run defense had moments they looked excellent. Mario and JJ Watts both blew up a running play in the backfield, with Casey (I believe) getting beat by Mario. Watts is showing a knack for knocking passes down and getting his hands in the way. he also got a lot of penetration on another running play but I think he'd have missed the RB if it was full tackling.

Barwin didn't impress me much when he had to drop back into coverage. But he did a nice job getting to the QB when he was rushing. He had at least one sure sack with help from Antonio Smith, and had a few pressures. Mario was getting pressure as well with Winston blocking him most of the time.

Bulman had a nice stick on a running play that stood out.

Keo stepped in front of a receiver and had the ball hit him in the hands but couldn't bring it in.

Jonathan Joseph had a nice pick while covering Jacoby Jones during the red zone drill.

One of the red zone plays, the secondary had everyone covered for a really long time. Schaub finally ran it in (no D line in the drill) to laughter and some applause for the defense.

Both of the 2 minute drills ended with interceptions. Schaub and AJ got to the 5 and then Troy Nolan picked off Schaub at the goal line. The 2nd team O against the first team D, the O ran low on time and threw a hail mary which Danieal Manning intercepted.

Kubiak on Ben Tate: "He came out, warmed up and said his hamstring was tight, so we moved on"

Barwin didn't impress me much when he had to drop back into coverage. But he did a nice job getting to the QB when he was rushing. He had at least one sure sack with help from Antonio Smith, and had a few pressures. Mario was getting pressure as well with Winston blocking him most of the time.

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I think he's going to have problems playing in space, especially in the early going. i suspect he'll have production similar to orakpo, if he's lucky.

Great stuff

How does Ryans look after the achilles injury? Who has been getting work in the return game? How have they used Manning vs Quinn in the defensive backfield?

'ATC1 said:

How does Ryans look after the achilles injury? Who has been getting work in the return game? How have they used Manning vs Quinn in the defensive backfield?

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I didn't really notice the interior LB play much to be able to say. Return game, I believe Manning, Slaton and Holiday were all returning kick offs. I think they did punt returns Saturday at the very end but I had to leave so missed it. I expect Jacoby Jones will be the punt returner though.Quinn has been playing strong safety technically, though Wade Phillips defense uses the safeties more interchangeably than other systems. I wouldn't assume Quinn picks up all of Pollard's tackles in the box. But he is on the strong side though so might see more running plays to his side. He also has Barwin in front of him at OLB while Manning has Mario playing in front of him. So from an IDP standpoint, I could see Quinn getting more opportunities to make tackles not so much because he's SS but because teams may run to his side more.

'Greg Russell said:

'ATC1 said:

How does Ryans look after the achilles injury? Who has been getting work in the return game? How have they used Manning vs Quinn in the defensive backfield?

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I didn't really notice the interior LB play much to be able to say. Return game, I believe Manning, Slaton and Holiday were all returning kick offs. I think they did punt returns Saturday at the very end but I had to leave so missed it. I expect Jacoby Jones will be the punt returner though.Quinn has been playing strong safety technically, though Wade Phillips defense uses the safeties more interchangeably than other systems. I wouldn't assume Quinn picks up all of Pollard's tackles in the box. But he is on the strong side though so might see more running plays to his side. He also has Barwin in front of him at OLB while Manning has Mario playing in front of him. So from an IDP standpoint, I could see Quinn getting more opportunities to make tackles not so much because he's SS but because teams may run to his side more.

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Keep us updated.

Thanks for these Greg! Some of the best preseason reading a Texans fan could ask for.

Not to take away from your topic Greg but I'm putting up the link for Lance Z's blog. He's supposedly going to every AM practice this week and updating his blog daily.

Z Report

great work here Greg!

Ogbannaya was the rare WR-to-RB convert (usually other way around) during his time in college at Texas. He's known mostly as a receiving back. Fails to create space for himself as a runner but good in the open field.

It surprised me that Terrance Toliver went undrafted. Saw him at the Shrine Game and his route running, size/speed combination was impressive. However, as an LSU honk I can tell you his hands/effort are inconsistent as the day is long. If the kid ever 'gets it' he could be very good.

'jamil said:

Not to take away from your topic Greg but I'm putting up the link for Lance Z's blog. He's supposedly going to every AM practice this week and updating his blog daily.

Z Report

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Good idea. There are open practices Tuesday and Wednesday but I can't go because of work. Planning to attend the Friday and Saturday ones, which are the last two open to the public.

Was Foster back practicing?

'Leeroy Jenkins said:

Was Foster back practicing?

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I won't be back at a practice until Friday's public session, but John McClain said Foster was on the bike today.

Friday, August 12 camp report. Buckna was there too so might have some additional insights.

Foster and Slaton didn't practice. Foster was walking with a slight limp. Radio said Tate did a light workout on the side though I didn't notice it. Johnathan Joseph didn't practice, hamstring. Brian Cushing participated for most of it but didn't do the 11-on-11 2 minute drill. Holiday didn't practice.

I'm not going to be quite as detailed this time because there wasn't a lot that really stood out compared to the last couple.

QB

Leinart and Yates looked better today than I thought they did the other two practices I made. Yates had one bad overthrow of a RB but that was mostly it for uncatchable balls. A few others weren't right on the money, but they gave the receivers a chance.



RB

There wasn't a lot that stood out to me here. They each had a few nice runs, and a few they didn't get more than a yard or two. Ogbonnaya continues to look solid. I could see him making the team.

Casey continued to start with the 1st team at FB. He also played TE with the 3rd string and had a momentary scare when he had a collision with a corner after a catch, but he was ok and got back in there.

WR

Andre had a little bit of a quiet day compared to normal. The defense had some good coverage on him more often than they normally do. There was one play it looked like he could have easily come down on Jackson's foot and rolled an ankle but he landed fine. Walter and J. Jones both had a couple of catches.

Walter got most of the 1st team reps. Jacoby was in the slot some. Dickerson was often the third receiver, though Derrick Touwnsel played at times with all three units. Touwnsel was, IIRC, one of the WRs who was active at game time last year. He had a number of catches today and given how he did and what units he played on, I'd have to think he's in the running for the 5th WR slot.

There has been some talk about Jeff Maehl lately. Columnist Lance Zierlein made a comment that the way Kubiak was talking about him, Maehl might have a shot at making the team. I didn't hear Kubiak's comments myself. In any event, Maehl got a LOT of targets today, with some good catches, and some he probably should have caught but didn't. I thought he caught with his body a little too much, and just checked the Scouts Inc report on him from draft time and they say the same thing.

Dorin Dickerson and Lester Jean both had a couple of catches. Toliver had at least a pair of catches that I recall.

TE

Owen Daniels and Joel Dreessen both looked good. Daniels looked really good to me. I think he's going to prove to be a value play this year.

Defense

The front 7 continued to play well. They generated a fair amount of pressure and would have had a couple of sacks. I thought Cushing looked decent the plays I watched him on. Demeco once or twice I was disappointed with his coverage, but then I don't think he's ever been a top notch cover linebacker to start with.

With Joseph resting, Jason Allen and Kareem Jackson were the starting corners. Kareem actually had a pretty good practice... if he got burnt I didn't notice it was him on the coverage, and he had decent coverage a few times. Jason Allen made a few nice plays and almost came up with a diving pick on what might have been a pass tipped at the line, but couldn't catch it as he hit the ground. If Gary Kubiak wants my two cents, Jason Allen should start. I don't think Bryce McCain had a very good practice.

I noticed on a couple of nickel formations that Mario and Connor Barwin dropped to become defensive ends, and JJ Watts and Antonio Smith moved inside to play DT.

Kicker

Rackers had 3 chances at long field goals at the end of drives by the offense doing a 1 minute drill. He missed wide left from 52 yards and had plenty of leg. I think the snap was pretty high, the long snapper is injured right now and TE Joel Dreessen was snapping. Then Rackers missed wide right from again around 50 something. Then on the 3rd string offense's turn, Rackers made a 52 yarder.

Kickoff return

With Trindon Holliday out, it was Derrick Touwnsel and recently signed Davard Darling returning kick offs. Danieal Manning went and sat back by them in the end zone but didn't return any of the kicks.

All in all, just not a lot that stood out to me. The two biggest things I'd say are that Owen Daniels looks fully healed to me... and that Jeff Maehl and Derrick Touwnsel bear watching in the actual preseason games as I think they are both in the running for the WR5 slot that a lot of us figured would go to Toliver. I think Lestar Jean is also in the running. Jean is another big red zone target like Toliver is.

Foster (and others) were on sirius radio yesterday. He sounds confident and os lobbyIng to be on the field in empty sets as a wr.

I missed talk of the hammy though. How's that looking?

Also, owen daniels seems to be camp star.

'Leeroy Jenkins said:

Foster (and others) were on sirius radio yesterday. He sounds confident and os lobbyIng to be on the field in empty sets as a wr. I missed talk of the hammy though. How's that looking?Also, owen daniels seems to be camp star.

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Foster had a noticeable limp yesterday when he walked, so I don't know that we'll see him practicing for a few days at least still. I didn't make it to this morning's public practice unfortunately, but the local media should have an update on it in a few hours.

Great stuff. Man, I sure hope Shaub can make the whole season. I've been a leinart hater since his days in USC. Always thought he was overrated.

I was there Friday morning as well, and we were pretty sure we saw Foster doing some running (straight line drills) in the far field at the beginning of practice ... I

He came back over towards the sidelines near the grandstand in sweats, walking but I couldn't recall the limp. Did you happen to se Foster running earlier GregR? I'm certain we saw #23 because it sort of surprised us to see him running and not just on the bike.

Great reports man, thank you.

'Boulder Toads said:

I was there Friday morning as well, and we were pretty sure we saw Foster doing some running (straight line drills) in the far field at the beginning of practice ... IHe came back over towards the sidelines near the grandstand in sweats, walking but I couldn't recall the limp. Did you happen to se Foster running earlier GregR? I'm certain we saw #23 because it sort of surprised us to see him running and not just on the bike.Great reports man, thank you.

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I just noticed him on the bike, but I didn't really look much past the near field where the drills were going on. The limping was nearer to the end, when he was on the main field and they moved from the north of the field further down to start the 1 minute drill.