"I'm just trying to be the best teammate I can be": Official 2014 Houston Texans Season Thread

polokuo

polokuo

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It's going to break my heart if we squander another year of JJ Watt's prime just to not make the playoffs. There's only so much losing a man can take while bringing it 110% on every single play.

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Rich Spirit

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The Houston Texans had many laudable performances by newcomers in their first win in almost a year. Here are some players who could crack the rotation in the regular season.

Running Backs

With Arian Foster coming of age and injuries becoming frequent, the Texans have found themselves a couple of solid backs in Jonathan Grimes and Alfred Blue. Both fit into O’Brien’s system perfectly just as Arian Foster did with Kubiak’s zone blocking design. Grimes is averaging 4.3 yards per carry while Blue is averaging 4.7.

I personally think Blue should end up with the backup position behind Foster. His 6’1 frame becomes very useful at the goaline and the rookie even looks like Foster in the way he smoothly slithers through defensive holes. O’Brien will have to make a tough decision on which to play, however, both look to be very promising.
Kendrick Lewis

Former Kansas City DB Kendrick Lewis laid the wood a couple of times on Falcons receivers and running backs. If the 5th year veteran can bring that same intensity to the secondary and play just as well in the passing game, the Texans could have a pretty stout defense with the emergence of Clowney and the experience of Joseph, Jackson, Watt, and Cushing.

Andre Hal

Hal also impressed in his second exhibition game in the NFL. The 7th rounder picked off former Texan T.J. Yates and returned it for a touchdown. Houston is need of depth in the secondary and Hal could be extremely useful if he continues to be aggressive on the field.

Max Bullough

The rookie from Michigan State found himself in the right spot at the right time after picking off T.J. Yates in the 4th quarter. Texans will need some help at the linebacker position as Brian Cushing will just be getting back into the swing of things.

Travis Labhart

The chemistry between Case Keenum and Travis Labhart was discovered in the Texans second preseason game against the Falcons. The rookie had a solid outing catching 3 passes for 36 yards and had a decent return of 16 yards as a punt returner. Houston has a nice WR group, nonetheless, depth is always needed with injuries during the season and Labhart could find his way on the field if he keeps putting up respectable numbers.

C.J. Fiedorowicz

During a postgame interview, Ryan Fitzpatrick called the rookie tight end a “reliable” target. Although Fiedorowicz only caught two passes for 14 yards, the coaches and players could see the kid has a good chance of seeing some good minutes on the field this season. With O’Brien coming from a Patriots’ system where tight ends are worshipped, I expect there will be times where both Graham and Fiedorowicz will be one the field at the same time.
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Rich Spirit

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Some observations from the Houston/Denver practices so far

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/a...n-Denver/39451f4d-a08b-43fb-8fd2-5fbb02caffe7

1. The news of the day, though, came before practice started as OG Brandon Brooks was cleared for work after passing his physical. He's not in football shape but to have him back with the team doing any sort of work was a sufficient start.

2. Man, the sight of LB Brian Cushing with his defensive mates today during some team work was a sight for sleepy eyes. He looked fresh and quick to the ball and completes this defense. CB Johnathan Joseph was back today too but didn't do much in the way of team work. The band is nearly back together.

3. Arian Foster and Andre Johnson got in some work in all drills throughout the day. I've made mention of Foster's receiving skills and how they can be such an asset in this offense. Layers to the offense, that's all I'll say.

4. FB Jay Prosch has worn a massive club on his left hand for a couple of weeks. Watching him during individual periods since the Club first arrived, I can't remember him dropping a pass. Today, he caught everything thrown to him, no coverage mind you, but still, that's not an easy feat. Here do this for me if you think it is, go find a boxing glove and put it on one of your hands and tell me how your day goes.

5. One of the most underappreciated aspects of Manning's game is his ball handling and ball faking. He sells play action as well as any QB ever.

6. That said, his furor about his team's workout was valid. But more of his ire was back at himself. He pointed out that he wasn't close to being happy with his performance. He missed open receivers throughout the day, including a deep ball in 1-on-1 to Andre Caldwell who had a half step on a Texans DB.

7. The individual play of the day in my opinion was made by Kareem Jackson. During 1-on-1 DB/WR
drills, he was matched up with Demaryius Thomas. The Broncos receiver ran a deep comeback but he sold the route with a couple of quick changes of direction before he broke the route to the sideline. Jackson stayed in his hip pocket the entire time and when Manning threw to the sideline 25 in white caught the ball as 88 in orange lay prone on the field watching.

8. CB Elbert Mack returned this week and made two tremendous pass break ups on consecutive plays. First, he ran with a post route and went over the top of the receiver to break up one play. Then, on the very next down, he broke on a flat route and knocked that away too.

9. Speaking of the deep ball, Manning and the Broncos quarterbacks didn't hit the deep ball much throughout the day.

10. During one of the last team periods, Manning noticed the Texans in dime man coverage. Just prior to the snap, he yelled out a one word call. I'm not sure if that then alerted the offense where he was going with the ball, but he eyed Welker in the slot on a seam route against Jackson. The pass fell incomplete and was the symbol of a tough day of practice.

11. After practice, I saw Broncos WR Wes Welker talking at length with Bill O'Brien, forgetting how much time those two spent together in New England. Welker is just so difficult to cover in the slot. In

12. On the other field, Texans WR Travis Labhart continued to channel his inner Welker, making a couple of catches in 1-on-1 against Broncos DB. QB Case Keenum fit both balls into him beautifully.

13. Keenum is a backshoulder throwing wizard and he stuck one to Lacoltan Bester for another completion later in the same drill.

14. I did see one rep of Andre Johnson during 1-on-1 vs. Omar Bolden. As with his counterpart Thomas, the vet Johnson knows the subtle ways to get open and did against Bolden, who held Dre for a flag.

15. I spent a ton of time watching the Texans defensive linemen and outside linebackers in 1-on-1s against the Broncos offensive linemen.

16. I would love to have every tackle in the league mic'd up when he faces Clowney. On his first rep, Clowney pressured Winston Justice, the USC veteran. The Texan shocked him with his power then ripped inside to win. I saw Justice sort of shake his head afterward as if to say "wow, that guy's a beast". Or something like that.

17. OLB Whitney Mercilus continues to improve, in my opinion. He's playing with a ton more confidence and fared well in his reps against the Broncos LTs. On one rep, he "stabbed" the tackle with a hard one arm shot to get separation and then ripped free to the inside late to get to the "QB". There's no time clock, but that rush would've gotten Mercilus there in time for sack or hurry. His second rep, he rocked tackle Paul Cornick with a stab move then ripped outside to get free. I sensed the former first rounder lost his confidence a bit after the Arizona loss but he's a different player since Atlanta arrived in Houston. He needs another solid performance on Saturday night, no question.

18. The Broncos' Manny Ramirez and Louis Vasquez are as good a pair on the interior as the Texans are going to face. Ramirez more than held his own against powerful Jerrell Powe, not giving much ground and holding the point of attack.

19. During those pass rush 1-on-1s Chris Clark did a solid job on J.J. Watt on the first rep. Well, Watt isn't the best defensive player in the NFL for nothing...he beat Clark on the next rep rather handily.

20. DE Tim Jamison is going to be a vital piece in this defense. There are times when he just embarrasses offensive linemen and he did that in the pass rush 1-on-1s against OL Ben Garland.

21. During team drills, I tried to see as much of S D.J. Swearinger in coverage as I could. Knowing how much Manning likes to utilize his tight ends Jacob Tamme and Julius Thomas, I thought this was a massively important week for the Texans safety. He made a number of plays during the workout, especially in coverage on Tamme.

22. When the Texans second offense came on the field, Alfred Blue ran hard, even in shorts and jerseys. He's got some juice and people are seeing what a few of us knew heading into training camp - this young man is the deal. Again, with running backs, doing it in pads is the key and that full pads day will be tomorrow.

23. During that same series of plays, Keenum found TE Ryan Griffin wide open on the bootleg for a significant gain.

24. The first offense ran the same bootleg prior to the twos coming on the field but wily, cagey vet Demarcus Ware was waiting for Fitzpatrick on the backside. Ware and Von Miller, Miller and Ware, huh? Very intriguing pair of edge guys to say the least. I didn't get to see much of Miller today but I'll move around to see him on Wednesday.

25. Having refs out to practice is becoming a much needed asset to be honest. As Marc Vandermeer and I were finishing the last segment for Texans All-Access, I looked out to the field and saw a ref talking with Hal. It wasn't hard to decipher the ref's point as he grabbed Hal's shirt, as if to say "you can't do this; you'll get a flag every time".

26. The last drill of the day was an interesting one. Both teams were given one late game two minute drive, heading into the end zone where all of us media were standing. I had a perfect view and could hear nearly everything, which is important for a couple of these clips.

27. The Broncos started the drill with a completion from Manning to Caldwell. As the Broncos were in hurry-up mode, they all sprinted to the line of scrimmage. Except Clowney. The refs hired to work the practice threw a flag on Broncos T Chris Clark for holding the Texans rookie. With no one really sure what to do, Texans head coach Bill O'Brien yelled out "play on, keep it going".

28. So, Manning got back under center and eyed Thomas in the back of the end zone. Manning lofted the ball over Hal's head to Thomas who toe-tapped for a touchdown. The score unleashed the Broncos' sideline with some words for the "young buck" Hal who got beat. The Broncos defensive backs were louder than most of the others but then again, last I saw that group was in the Super...okay, I'll stop.

29. Prior to the Texans first snap, I looked over near the Broncos sideline where DB Aqib Talib and DeAndre Hopkins were in a, say, discussion. Talib, as usual, was doing most of the talking and at some point he tried to get Hopkins attention. But, Hop ignored him and as he did, the Broncos on the sideline voiced their opinion, loud and clear. On the snap, Hop drew a flag on Talib for holding which ended up negating an interception.

30. That kept the drive alive. A few plays later QB Ryan Fitzpatrick threw a pass intended for DeVier Posey but it was batted down. Right then, NT Terrence "Pot Roast" Knighton, one of the vocal ringleaders on the Broncos sideline yelled out "Hey JJ, we can bat passes too" or something to that extent. Of course, Knighton was on the sideline because it was a "No Pot Roast allowed on the field" drill.

31. A few plays later, Foster made a brilliant catch on a pass downfield to set up one final play at the goal line.

32. I knew that with one final play left in the scrimmage that one sideline would erupt after the play. Alas, neither one did. Fitzpatrick attempted a throw to Hop at the goal line that was incomplete but Hop drew another penalty on the Broncos' secondary. That drew the ire of Broncos safety TJ Ward who had a rather forceful conversation with the officiating crew on hand. I completely saw his point that Hop pushed off to get separation and they missed that but then called Ward for contacting Hop at the goal line.

33. That last drill was as intense a non-game, non-padded scrimmage portion of practice as I've seen since I've been covering the Texans. I wanted so bad for Hop to score the TD and then...see, I'm getting fired up just writing about it. See ya tomorrow with some more from Denver.
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Rich Spirit

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Some roster cuts:

Texans waived/released RB William Powell, WR Joe Adams, WR Alec Lemon, NT David Hunter, NT Austin Brown, OLB Terrance Lloyd, OLB Lawrence Sidbury, CB Junior Mertile and G Sam Longo.
 
Rich Spirit

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Roster cuts so far (as of 8/30):

FB Toben Opurum
K Chris Boswell
FS Jawanza Starling
WR Travis Labhart
TE Zach Potter
TE Anthony Denham
TE Zach Potter
OLB Quentin Groves
T Mike Farrell
ILB Chris Young
CB Brandon Harris
OLB Chris McAllister
DT Ricardo Mathews
DE Keith Browner
DE Julius Warmsley
CB Marcus Williams
G Alex Kupper
G Bronson Irwin
C James Ferentz
ILB Max Bullough
LB Paul Hazel
T Matt Feiler
WR Lacoltan Bester
WR Uzoma Nwachukwu

Current Houston Texans depth chart:

OFFENSE

QB: Ryan Fitzpatrick, Tom Savage, Case Keenum

RB: Arian Foster, Jonathan Grimes, Alfred Blue, Ronnie Brown

WR: Andre Johnson, DeAndre Hopkins, Devier Posey, Mike Thomas, Keshawn Martin

TE: Garrett Graham, C.J Fiedorowicz, Ryan Griffin

FB: Jay Prosch

LT: Duane Brown, Will Yeatman

LG: Ben Jones, Xavier Su’a-Filo

C: Chris Myers

RG: Brandon Brooks

RT: Derek Newton, Tyson Clabo

DEFENSE

RDE: J.J. Watt, Tim Jamison

NT: Jerrell Powe, Louis Nix III

LDE: Jared Crick, Jeoffrey Pagan

SLB: Brooks Reed, Jason Ankrah

ILB: Brian Cushing, Justin Tuggle

ILB: Jeff Tarpinian, Mike Mohamed, Akeem Dent

JLB: Jadeveon Clowney, Whitney Mercilus

LCB: Kareem Jackson, A.J. Boye, Josh Victorian

RCB: Johnathan Joseph, Elbert Mack, Andre Hal

SS: D.J. Swearinger, Shiloh Keo, Eddie Pleasant

FS: Kendrick Lewis, Chris Clemons

SPECIAL TEAMS
PK: Randy Bullock

P: Shane Lechler

LS: Jon Weeks

​
 
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