Practice Practice Practice
 

After the morning practice, I only have a few observations to share.

DTs
Look out for Mitchell. He is showing everything he was billed to show. WOW is all I can say.

Sheppard also impressed my with his quickness. He is appearing like a steal.

Okam looks like he is on his way out.

If the guys play like I saw the sacks should be up from last season. The inside guys will be cause enough disruption that the outside should have a huge season.

OL
Studdard has shown even more growth, his anchor has gotten even better.

Brisiel surprised me at LG, he looked quicker than last season.

And I have to add this Myers is looking solid.

RB

Foster is showing a lot. He is looking very explosive in the first 5 yds. Nice.


As for the rookies that every one want to hears about, I was over on the 2nd field and did not get to see a lot of the CBs work, so not much to report.

And a last note, Holiday is like a bug, a super fast bug that you cannot squash.

I'll try to add my few observations, was walking between endzone of first and second fields. First watched DL drill, some TE/OL blocking drills, then WR on DB drills/QB's throwing, some DL on OL drills, then 11 on 11 play(pass and run). Seemed to rotate thru players quickly on each of these drills, more crisply than last year.

DT's -
Mitchell started out real strong, then Brisell and Studdard contained him.
Egboh - DE, rookie FA, 6'6" 287 looked good on several plays.

I agree, seemed to be fairly intense play for a first practice and some good push up the middle from several DT's. Stressing the speed moves today.

DB's - Seemed Quinn, Reeves, Molden did pretty good in coverage, but with no pass rush the WR did well getting open on majority of plays.

OL - as a group looked stronger and quicker, more confident, than last year.
Agree, Brisell and Studdard looked improved, as did Duane Brown. Winston seemed to be leading.

RB - Foster and Slayton looked good to me, and perhaps Henry. Tate maybe had first day jitters.

WR- we got a whole bunch competing well. AJ and JJ stood out to me.
Bobby Williams, FA rookie, 6'4" out of North Alabama had a few nice catches.

Good stuff! Keep 'em coming!

Yeah, nice work, guys, keep it up if you can.

I'm not going back out there until Monday morning, hopefully Keith or one of the other guys will post more for us.

Observations definitely appreciated! Thanks dudes

Thanks guys. I can't make it out this year, so this really helps.

I always recall being more impressed with the DL that first week, so I will try to temper my excitement there at least until August...er, tomorrow. :p

Har, har Keith, me too!

I was at Day two and concur with almost everything you said. Here is a writeup and some pictures we took today:

http://www.texansbullblog.com/
http://www.texansbullblog.com/images/2010training-camp/

Good stuff, there. I bookmarked your website.

Say, I was clicking around and kept getting "ads by Google" right in the middle of pictures and text. I didn't see a way to get rid of it. Perhaps you could contact the webmaster (or whatever) and tell him about it?

Keep up the good work....

Thanks... I appreciate it.

We're working on cleaning up the format. It's coming along.

From Texans Bull Blog:
Ahh, misty-eyed memories of Kailee Wong many, many years ago.

Best of luck on the blog, btw.

Friday Tate and Graham looked shaky to me, but this morning both impressed.
Graham made a sensational one-handed catch over the middle and Tate flashed his quicks as he outran a couple defenders around the edge. He really does have a good burst, especially for a larger back.
But rookie Jackson is still looking foolish trying to cover AJ and Holliday continues to drop lots of balls.

Here's a link to pictures from today's practice followed by a little writeup:

http://www.texansbullblog.com/images...ng-camp-day03/

Great practice this morning. It was fun meeting BigRon from the Chron.com fanblog, Stephanie (TexansChick) http://blogs.chron.com/texanschick/, Chris of http://www.houstondiehards.com/ , and Alan Burge http://www.examiner.com/x-778-Houston-Texans-Examiner.

This morning, the guys were in shoulder pads and did some actual hitting. Bernard Pollard was pumped up! There was a lot more team activities, which I will get to later. I spent half of practice concentrating on the drills between offensive and defensive linemen and the one on one drills between WRs and CBs. Here are some observations:

1. Earl Mitchell looks amazing! He was the most dominate defensive lineman during the drills. On his first attempt, he bullrushed Kasey Studdard right into the QB (played by Bruce Matthews). Shortly afterwards, he ran a twist with Shaun Cody, and absolutely blew up Chris Myers. He isn’t only quick but has great explosion and good balance and leverage. I think he’s going to make an immediate impact in the Dline rotation.

2. Mario sat out practice with a sore hip. Look for Kubiak’s comments about that later. He wasn’t hobbling around on the field but did not do any of the activities.

3. I’m a huge Barwin fan, but I thought he looked raw during the drills. Granted, he was lining up against Winston and Brown, but he didn’t show anything other than a good edge rush. He tried a spin inside but was stoned by Winston. He was also slow running a twist. Kollar jumped all over him for it.

4. Duane Brown looks good. He’s in great shape and was impressive in drills. He went against A.smith an number of times and they both looked pretty good. Brown got bull-rushed by Smith once and driven back, but Brown was able to recover and keep him off of Bruce Matthews.

5. I only saw a couple reps from Shelly Smith, but he didn’t look good. I thought he had a good chance to make the roster but it looks like he’s not there yet.

6. Fred Bennett got burned deep by Dickerson. Then, he was burned deep by A. Davis. Then, he was burned deep by A.Johnson…. then, he was relegated to 4th string.

7. Molden looked good again today. I still think he struggles in press but he seems healthy and confident.

8. Brice McCain looks great! He is always in the WRs hip pocket and often makes a play on the ball. I think he’s destined to play nickel and dime due to his heighth. But, he’s a player. Another note, when the 1st team defense is playing nickel, McCain plays outside and Quin slides into slot.

9. Glover Quin looks great against everybody except Andre Johnson. Quin’s supposed lack of speed doesn’t show up on the field.

10. My personal sleeper to make the roster is Mark Parson. He had another pick today, this time in the one on one drills. I think he may have been flagged by the practice ref for illegal use of hands, but it was a good play. As I said yesterday, he plays very physically without clutching and grabbing (think Al Harris not Courtland Finnegan), and is always glued to the WR.

11. Kareem Jackson is hard to assess. He made some plays and had tight coverage, except when Andre Johnson blew past him for a TD during the drills or when Andre Davis left him for a TD in Saturday’s practice.

12. Ben Tate definitely looked quicker and more decisive. During the 11 on 11’s he had a couple very nice runs. His mediocre showing the first few practices is probably simply a result of his head swimming with information.

13. Jacoby Jones looks very good as a WR. He handled press well and almost always created separation on his routes. He dropped one catchable ball and then also fumbled during a punt return (of course).

14. Trindon Holliday also fumbled during a punt return. He’s so freakin’ quick and fast!! Unfortunately, he is totally useless as a WR right now. He had a drop, his routes are sloppy, and his blocking is a disaster! I still think he makes the team, though. I think his roster spot is tied into how valuable Kubiak deems Jacoby is as a WR. Right now, I’m thinking he’s pretty valuable.

15. Garrett Graham made a great one-handed catch downfield today.

16. Caldwell is clearly the starting RG and there seems to be a battle between Wade Smith and Myers at center and between Studdard and “Biscuit” Brisiel at LG. I’m interested in whether Wade Smith is also a consideration at LG?

17. Sherrick McManis did not participate in the team activities again today and was running conditioning tests with Cedric Smith after practice again when we left at 10:15am.

18. Owen Daniels and Anthony Hill were both doing some ball-catching drills on the side. OD definitely seems further along in his rehab than Hill does.

Well, that is about all I have right now. Barrett and I are loading up and heading back to Austin after our two day training camp. It was a lot of fun. I reccomend coming out and watching one of these if you are able. We are posting another group of pictures in our images section. Also, tonight or tomorrow, I will load a few short videos that I took on my little digital camera.

http://www.texansbullblog.com

Nice write up, thanks.

The chron is doing a blog of short updates from various reporters. They call it Texans Camp Insider. Click at the top of the column for other entries...

Stood in the sun on Field #2 this morning hoping to see some one-on-ones between the the D & O lineman, but not in todays plan.
Rookie Mitchell is stockily, stout and when they did some individual drills including sled-drills, you can see his quickness.
While some of the younger defensive-lineman were doing some drills together, A.Smith & Okoye were off together with their helmets removed practicing their hand-techniques on a one-man blocking sled. They're both very svelte and clearly the Texans are gonna be very fast but also smallish in the DLine at the tackle position led by these 2 and Mitchell. Suppose that works as long as it's not late in the game and your team isn't trailing ?
Today was the first day of full-pads and the D-Coachs took the defensive players (all postiions, all dplayers) and put them all in a large circle in front of the north GPs on the#1 field in full-view of the fans and had a series of very spirited one-on-one tackling drills. One guy simulated a ball-carrier while the other tackled him, head on. As the drills continued the scene got a little mob-like as the guys were obviously excited with the contact and Mano-a-mano competition. The backers led by DeMeco and Cushing were making the fierches hits (hey that's why they're LBs, right ? ), but the best contest of the day was between Barwin vs Bullman (who had to be the tacklee). Highlite of todays practice !
Tate continues to show off his speed and looks good. And Foster & Slaton & Henry also continue to hustle and impress.
I think McCain was the most impressive corner out there - too bad he's not 2 or 3 inches taller but on the other hand he's sure got the speed element covered.
Mario did not suit up - tender hip, but and they say it's no big deal.
Holliday there but not participating. Not a good sign for a late-round rook return/WR guy trying to make this team who's having lots of trouble holding on to the ball. On the other hand another late round pick (Dickerson), continues to look like a steal in the 2010 Draft in the 7th round.

Two guys I watched were the backup QBs. Booty is looking better that Dan O, IMO. Booty appears to be quicker with his reads and more decisive with his throws. Dan O seemed to stand around forever then dump the ball off or take off at what appeared to be a run, not a pretty site.

Jacoby Jones made some nice catches and then dropped what would have been a nice catch.

The RBs are deep. They are going to have a hard time making the cuts here. Henry continues to look solid, he is big and fast. Johnson maybe lost in a numbers game, but he had some nice inside runs.

There was a fight. Myers and Pollard started it off, and Pollard threw a punch, Winston came in and took Pollard down, and A.Smith body slammed Winston, and the pile up was on. The fans loved it. Finally some fire when a guy gets a cheap shot.

Ol Glass Half-full says, "perhaps we ought to wait till Dan O and Booty have done it in game type situations before we make our judgments."

By then it will be to late.

Unless you are talking about preseason...

Orlovsky has the arm of an NFL starter, and good enough accuracy to be at least a solid NFL backup. But he may not have it between the ears. When it comes to Qbs, I think the ability to quickly make good decisions is underapreciated by most fans. That's why a great pass rush is so important. You cut down a passer's time to make decisions, increasing poor reads.

David Carr has a stronger arm than Peyton Manning and is pretty accurate too. But his decision making is horrible, so he's practically out of the league. When Kubiak got Orlovsky, he knew DanO made too many bad decisions but gambled that he could improve him.

I am anxiously awaiting the preseason games, hoping to see that Dan has made improvement. If he hasn't, I'd say the odds are that he never will get much better than he was last year, which will definately not be good enough. I'm a bit afraid we may have another David Carr. But at least we will have gotten him at a much cheaper price.

Good post. I think Orlovsky needs some real time/pre-season reps more than anything. Should the #1 go down due to injury (knock on wood), I think he could come in and do an OK job.... I think Kubes would revert to the "David Carr offense" - lots of handoffs with dink and dunk passes and Orlovsky should be able to handle that well enough.....

On another note, I remember one of my gripes a few years ago about the Texans is that they didn't take enough shots down field on the deep pass or even 20+ yards. Sure is nice not to have *that* anymore...

So a minor question, how many picks have each quarterback thrown so far, or perhaps as a ratio of passes. Could be Orlasky is avoiding the turnover? other QB are throwing into tighter coverage? But giving up turnovers? just asking.

Chron pics from training camp:

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

The last group has some humorous pics of Holliday on a tricycle...:p

I went to the Thursday nighttime practice, lot's of other people and a band were there too. I sat in north end of seats by first field, a good place to be tonight. It was a lot cooler than the morning practices.

DB's came out early and did some DB coverage and interception type drills. McCain looked quick. We are definitely getting bigger, faster, stronger and I think better at DB positions.

Then they did some 8 offense on 8 defense drills. Defense backs starting to look better in coverage. Casey and Dreesen both had some nice catches.

Next came Kick off to kick return drills. In addition to JJ and AD who did real well on returns, Slayton and Anderson took kick returns.

Then they did some scripted play drives like 9 on 9 rotating through all the players. AJ looked good and JJ made some very good catches. All the RB are running hard.

Switched to goal line practice from 5 yard line. Schaub ran this really well.

Then did the field goal competition between Ruekers and Brown. moved from like 40 yard field goals out to what looked like 53 yard field goals. both did pretty good, perhaps missing one each. Roekers made one good one where Turk bobbled the snap onto the ground and Roekers made it anyway.

Finished with two minute drill , like 10 on 10, first with first team then second team. I have to say Okam and Mitchell, maybe first team on this drill, did pretty good as a team. Okam got a lot of push drawing a double team. He looked much more active than previous times seen him. Adrian Davis made some nice receptions.

No pads and all the guys looked like playing with some urgency. Looked like Anderson got an ankle sprain during one of the drives, but came back, likely sore tomorrow. Mario was exercising but not in the plays. Overall quite a bit of progress from the first mornings practice seemed like.

Monday morning, Aug 9 has been added to the open/public practices.

More chron photos of camp:

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

I was there Thursday night. Dan O..... looked like crap. JDB .... just a bit less crappy. We ALL need to go to Temple/Church and fervently beseech the great God of the universe that Matt has a clean jersey ALL season. If not, we are in BIG trouble based on what I saw. Every team has a drop off from the starter to the back up, but we are talking over a cliff drop off in this case.

Got my ticket.

Made it out there this morning and finally got a chance to check out some one-on-ones between the Olinemen and DLinemen and let me tell you, Mitch is everything they say he is and the other rook DT (Sheppard) isn't too shabby either.
But Mitch is so quick: hands, feet, and he's obviously strong. This may the best player the Texans drafted this year, of any round. But I admit it's very early, and we'll see more as time passes beginning with this weekends first preseason game in Arizona.

I went to Mondays practice but have not found time to get this up. Sorry.

Arian Foster is really looking solid as the top back, he really hits the backside hole well.

Henry is still flashing, I want to see him do that in a game. But he is looks to be playing his way onto the roster.

Tate had a fumble at the goal line were there was a scrum for the ball. Which the defense won, this prompted Schaub to shout out "Get in the F$*King huddle" to the whole offense. The man is a leader. BTW Tate is showing flashes of being a stud RB. He is just not consistent yet. I have noticed the improvement in him since day 1, so I am not going to worry.

Not that I think it will happen, but Henry maybe be practicing his way ahead of Slaton.

Mitchell is still a beast in practice. No one can stop him in one on one drills. He is not as noticeable in the group drills, I believe that will come with experience.

I want to point out I am seeing improvement in Dan Orlovski, he had a nice deep throw to a WR for long TD. Forgotten which WR it was. He still has his bad plays, but he is getting better.

Jacoby Jones had another very good day IMO. Made a great catch over the middle that was off target, which prompted a hand thump from Kubiak.

Dickerson is improving very fast, Day 1, I was not very impressed, but he has really jumped his level of play. I think we will see a lot of plays from him Saturday, as he should be working with the 2s.

Torri Williams SS has had a very solid camp, and he flashed on some plays in during the goal line drills. On one play he knocked the ball away and landed hard, tangled up with the WR. He was down for a few minutes, trainers came over and talked to him. When they were done with, Pollard came over and talked him, as Pollard was walking away from him he yelled back " you owe 25 bucks for that." I guess kangaroo court is alive and well and Pollard is the judge, I can see that. In regards to Williams, at worse he is a practice squad guy. He has potential, plus those Purdue safeties seem to be pretty good. Pollard, Rick Smith, and HOFer Rod Woodson all played there.

Jackson was not out there on Monday, which I have now learned was due to his hammy being tight.

I am so glade we went and got Schaub. He is at the top of the heap, and he is so comfortable in the system. it really shows.

And finally my Mr. Obvious point, AJ is a man among boys. he makes it look so easy, and yet supply WOW Moments all the time.

Based upon what I've seen so far, I really doubt that rookie Jackson will start in the season opener and that's before missing time this week for family business and hamstring issues.
I don't think he'll be as ready to go as other CBs on our roster for the NFL spotlite. So if this is the case, who would start across from Quin among McCain, Molden, and Reeves ?

Your kidding....right? He walked in as a "1", and will be a "1" come 9/12. If you name isn't Revis or Ashi........whatever, AJ makes all DB's look sick. It happens.

They drafted this kid for a reason, and I don't think a little hammy issue coupled with family needs will send this guy to the pine.

More photos from the chron:

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Day 14

Based upon what I've seen at practices I've been attending, AJ isn't the only receiver who's been getting the best of Jackson.

WMH, 7th round pick, Dorin Dickerson is one of those guys who has been schooling Jackson. So has undrafted FA Bobby Williams. It has not been just AJ schooling the kid.

That said, I did see Jackson start to show recognition and flashes. He is a rookie with a ton being thrown at him. I am not sure if his gradmother was ill and he knew she was going to pass, if so this also could have been a factor in his slow start.

I think Jackson will be a solid player, and making him work the the ones in camp will accelerate his development. Will he start day 1? I don't know. If he doesn't start, does that mean he is a wasted pick? Not at all. Most CB have an adjustment period in the NFL. The coaches are handling him the best way they should.

I have serious doubts about him starting in the season opener, but I will be disappointed in him if he's not starting by midseason. Afterall Quin, a rookie himself and a mere 4th round pick last year, was starting by the 3rd or 4th game of the season and held down that starting-position the rest of the season IIRC ?