Houston Texans Roundup: Training camp starts this week
The Houston Texans will start training camp this upcoming week as the defending AFC South champions.
On Thursday, July 25 the Houston Texans begin their 2019 training camp, as they work to not only defend their AFC South championship, but work to be a better team than how they ended last season where they lost in the Wild Card round of the AFC playoffs.
The Texans not only open their training camp this upcoming Thursday, but they have announced their open practices to the fans on the following dates as the Texans also announced that the practices will begin at 9:10 a.m. CT. For more details on the training camp practices, click here.
• Thursday, Aug. 1
• Saturday, Aug. 3
• Saturday, Aug. 10
• Wednesday, Aug. 14
• Thursday, Aug. 15
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As for the actual training camp itself, this will be the sixth season the Texans will be led into a training camp by head coach Bill O’Brien. Since he’s became the head coach of the Texans in 2014, the franchise has made the playoffs three times, won three AFC South championships, and he has an overall record of 42-38, with a 1-3 record in the playoffs.
The 2019 season for O’Brien and the Texans is the most important to date because, once again, he’s on the hot seat. Most likely with a new general manager arriving next season, O’Brien must have the best coaching job of his career with the Texans to stick around.
Another part of the Texans entering training camp is the Jadeveon Clowney situation, because by all accounts we won’t be seeing Clowney anytime soon when it comes to his participation this training camp and preseason.
It has been reported on many occasions that Clowney will eventually report to training camp towards the very end after he signs his franchise tenure, but that won’t be for a little while longer.
Listed below are some more Texans headlines going into the start of training camp:
• Jordan Thomas needs to be a big contributor to the Texans this upcoming season, and according to the Houston Chronicle he’s “gaining confidence” in his overall game entering his second season in the league.
Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle wrote about how Thomas had to adjust and adapt to the NFL as a rookie last season, even quoting Thomas about how the tight end situation will work at least early on:
"“For now,” Thomas said. “We’ve got a rotation going. So, you never know until you get into training camp. It’s going to be a great competition. All of us are great athletes and we bring different things to the table, so I think that all of us will get some time but we’ll see.”"
The tight end by committee is okay for now, but eventually the Texans are going to have to settle on at someone to be the top guys as not only Thomas is available, but the there is also Jordan Akins and rookie Kahale Warring, plus veteran Darren Fells.
Houston, I believe, is in a good situation at tight end, and Thomas will bring a lot of value to their roster. Overall all of us should see improved production from the tight ends in 2019, and Thomas is the most intriguing.
• Cody Benjamin of CBSSports.com looked at some training camp battles for the Texans, and one of the was at left tackle, stating why the battle “was key” for the franchise:
"“The way edge rushers line up these days, some would argue that LT and RT are equally important, but there’s still something extra important about keeping your quarterback’s blind side clean, and the Texans have had lots of trouble doing exactly that.”"
Players to watch in this camp battle for the left tackle spot are Julién Davenport, Matt Kalil and Tytus Howard according to the article. The player that interest me the most in this is Howard, because there is so much unknown about the rookie and how he’ll adapt to the NFL.
Howard has a lot of work ahead of him. He draws a lot of interest and if the first round pick is able to jump ahead of a few veterans the Texans would at least know they’d be improved at the position from a season ago.
• Coty Davis of Texans Wire asked if the Texans wide receiver duo of DeAndre Hopkins and Will Fuller can be a Top 5 duo in the NFL. Davis wrote the following:
"“After playing three seasons together, it is safe to say that the Texans have one of the best WR tandems in the league heading into the 2019 season.”"
The toughest part about the duo of Hopkins and Fuller being in any Top 5 is health, because last season Fuller failed to play a complete season as he tore his ACL midway through the season.
Next. Texans pass defense has high expectations in 2019. dark
That said, then the two wide receivers were on the field together they were dynamic to watch. With a quarterback like Deshaun Watson they will be a tough duo to be if they can stay on the field together at the same time for an extended period of time in 2019.