Day 2 of Texans training camp is in the books and the theme was heavily geared towards “getting better”. After a rough start of camp the offense was given additional emphasis by coach Bill O’Brien and his crew. Here’s a breakdown of observations from day 2:
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Quarterbacks
This time Ryan Mallett took the majority of the first team snaps, and seemed much more confident with the first unit. He completed most of his passes, had great timing and connected well with his receivers. Significant improvement over his performance in the latter portion of day 1.
Brian Hoyer was solid again with the 2nd unit, completing lots of short and intermediate throws with accuracy. He also connected with Jace Davis for a touchdown.
Although both quarterbacks were solid, I don’t think that either guy gained any ground on the other today.
Tom Savage had another very limited day of action. I think that this will be the case for the forseeable future until we get closer to naming a starter. If I had to make an educated guess I would think that at a minimum the first preseason game will weigh heavily in the decision for Bill O’brien and we should see Savage’s workload increase thereafter.
"“You know, I’m not going to really get into evaluations. I will just tell you that they all came out and competed today. They all repped with different groups. I thought as a team, we got better today.”"
In the post-game press conference, coach Bill O’Brien remained non-committal about the quarterback position and simply stated “You know, I’m not going to really get into evaluations. I will just tell you that they all came out and competed today. They all repped with different groups. I thought as a team, we got better today.”
Offensive Line
Not much to observe today as the team spent the majority of practice in 7 on 7 format. Jared Crick did look very dominant in one on one drills versus various offensive linemen. On one drill in particular he blew up center/guard Ben Jones almost immediately after the snap. The true test for this offensive line begins in day 3 of practice when the pads go on. This unit has to get a toughness injection or something, right away.
Running Backs
The backs worked heavily on pass catching out of the backfield. Foster looked good catching basically anything thrown his way. Alfred Blue bobbled a catch that led to a defended pass from Brian Cushing, however at full speed in a game scenario it would have been a de-cleater.
Wide Receivers
DeAndre Hopkins should go ahead and book travel arrangements for Hawaii. He’s in mid-season pro bowl type form. Besides Hopkins though, the battle for the #2 wide receiver position is wide open. Jace Davis and Keith Mumphrey both had catches for touchdowns that will be impressive on film when coaches go back and review. Solid day for Cecil Shorts and Nate Washington. Alan Bonner had another good practice and is definitely starting to get noticed by the quarterbacks. Mallett seems to be really comfortable with him as a target.
Tight Ends
Limited work for them as a group, but Garrett Graham had at least 3 catches in traffic.
Defensive Line
Not much action from this group but the trench drills are always entertaining. Watt continues to embarrass basically any offensive lineman that is placed in front of him and forced both Mallett and Hoyer into some checkdowns and poor throws.
Linebackers
Brian Cushing was all over the field, I counted 4 passes defended. As a group they seemed a little bit less focused today. Jonathan Grimes shook a couple linebackers for a touchdown and Garrett Graham worked the middle of the field pretty easily. Mike Vrabel is going to make these guys work harder, you can bet your rent money on that.
Defensive Backs
Not much to say here because in my opinion 7 on 7 drills are basically the equivalent of playing flag football. Defensive backs don’t cover the same as they would with the entire unit out there. I think that the focus was more on the offense’s execution and not the defense per se. I’ll pass judgement on this entire group for day 2 for that very reason.
Special Teams
A few kickoff practice drills, nothing spectacular. There is one kid, however, named Chandler Worthy who is an absolute blur on the field. He was going so fast that I was expecting him to run over to University of Houston and hand Carl Lewis a baton or something. Can he translate that into something more remains to be seen.
Day 3 will be much more interesting as the pads go on and the simulations will more closely resemble game situations.