Houston Texans 2017 Offseason

The Texans began training camp on Wednesday. I was shocked they began so soon since, in years past, the two teams who play in the Hall of Fame game got to begin camp a week earlier than the rest of the NFL because they have the extra preseason game. Apparently not this year and there is another big change for the Texans, they are not holding training camp at their usual location at the Houston Methodist Training Center across the street from NRG Stadium. At least not for the first 3 weeks. The Texans have headed to The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs West Virginia. To be more specific, practices will be held at The Greenbrier Sports Training Center on The Greenbrier estate. The Greenbrier is a luxury resort that has been in operation since 1778. From the pictures I saw on The Greenbrier website it is a beautiful place and it is now on my bucket list of places to visit.

The Texans will be at The Greenbrier though August 17 with the added feature of two days of joint practices with the New England Patriots prior to their preseason game against one another on August 19th.

Here is a link or two from the Texans first day of training camp starting with Texans.com analyst John Harris’ 31 observations of the first practice.

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/31-observations-from-Day-1-of-TexansCamp/c99db135-ff58-41b2-944e-d3ca130e52bb

JJ Watt’s return to the field for the first time since last September.

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/JJ-Watts-return-to-TexansCamp/7d1b0cd4-5923-432a-8142-90abc9e7352a

And finally, Bill O’Brien’s thoughts about Day 1.

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Bill-O’Brien-Texans-off-to-a-good-start/ea552a03-e669-439e-b309-bfd966df54e2

The Texans just have good news upon good news that far outweighs the little bit of bad news that comes up.

First off, OL Dan Quessenberry is back practicing with the team after battling, and beating, cancer for the past 4 years. As a 2nd year player in 2014 Quessenberry was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma and he began what has turned out to be a 3 year battle with the disease. In mid-2015 the cancer was pronounced as in remission and in April of this year he was declared cancer free. To their credit, the Texans stuck with Quessenberry through the entire ordeal. He was put on waivers in 2016 but after he went unclaimed the Texans resigned him and immediately placed him on the NFI (non-football injury) list. He’s truly an inspirational player and I really hope he succeeds because Houston can use the help on their O-line.

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/O’Brien-Quessenberry-“playing-well”-in-camp/78687356-7650-492e-a049-7a1d26ab8b25

Houston signed veteran WR Devin Street off waivers and the Texans released rookie WR Shaq Hill.

2nd year LB Brennan Scarlett from Stanford made an impact making the Texans final 53 last year but after and up and down year he is hoping to build on the highs in this year’s training camp.

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Brennan-Scarlett-competing-for-OLB-spot/d4f9afb3-1aa4-46eb-b222-08a7671b75d6

Here is Texans.com writer John Harris’ 31 observations from Day 2 of training camp.

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/31-observations-from-day-two-of-TexansCamp/d93bcdad-7d56-40b5-8da9-172c9f82183b

Last week the Texans got some bad news as WR Will Fuller V suffered a broken collarbone. The Texans are saying Fuller will miss 2-3 months. Houston signed WR Marcus Leak, a 2nd year player out of Maryland who split time on the Indianapolis Colts’ practice squad and 53-man roster last season. He made no appearances in a game for the Colts. Last week the Texans also made other roster moves at the WR position. The Texan cut WR’s Deante Gray and Shaq Hill and they added DeAndrew White, a 3rd year player from Alabama and former Cowboy Devin Street who had been waived by the Jets.

Again, no significant injuries except for Fuller’s, no controversies to speak of and the resort location of training camp it seems like Houston is have a training camp made in heaven. The Texans are taking a page out of the Cowboys training camp plan by have camp in a cool location where they don’t have to worry about the heat and humidity of their Houston practice facility.

Houston will have their first preseason game this Wednesday against the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte North Carolina. The game is scheduled to be broadcast on the NFL Network.

The Texans wrap up their stay at The Greenbriar in West Virginia next week with scheduled practices with the New England Patriots. The Texans will break camp after next Thursday’s practice as they return to Houston for preseason game 2 at NRG Stadium a week from Saturday night.

The Texans will be playing their first game since they lost to New England in the divisional round of the playoffs this past January. Right around 8 full months without Texans football. I will be excited to see how they do. I want to see JJ Watt back in action as well as CB Kevin Johnson. Both players missed pretty much all of the 2016 to injuries and it will be good to have them both back on the field even though they may not even play or, if they do, it won’t be more than a series or two. The Texans will have an interesting game as they will face the Carolina Panthers. As it is the first preseason game for both teams the starters will not play much, if at all. I would expect that Houston will play both Tom Savage and DeSean Watson at least a quarter each with Brandon Weeden getting most, if not all, of the second half of the game. The Panthers have already ruled Cam Newton out of tonight’s game.

Here’s a First Glance at the game from Texans.com followed by a link to the Panthers website and their 5 Things to Watch article. We will all get our first look at rookie RB Christian McCaffrey and we’ll judge if he’s worth a pick in fantasy drafts.

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/First-Glance-Texans-at-

Panthers/ab5f674f-0ed7-4a37-9df8-44ccff9a4fe9

http://www.panthers.com/news/article-2/Five-Things-to-Watch-Panthers-vs-Texans/160e8ba9-afe1-4478-90c0-3b44e4884af7

The Texans signed OT Terry Poole formerly of the Seattle Seahawks and Miami Dolphins on Monday and today they released him after he failed his physical.

Texans nose tackle Vince Wilfork announced his retirement from the NFL – in a Kingsford Charcoal ad! Pretty unique and totally something you would expect Vince to do. Here’s the article from Bleacher Report about his retirement. In an interview Wilfork admitted that he retired from the NFL because he was just mentally tired.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2683985-vince-wilfork-announces-retirement-after-13-year-career-with-patriots-texans

Finally, Texans radio broadcaster and Texans.com writer Mark Vandermeer gives his take on tonight’s game.

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Vandermeers-View-Time-to-Score/ccac594b-d93a-4d55-a87a-a555271ec206

The Texans lost to Carolina on Wednesday night but Tom Savage looked pretty good, DeSean Watson showed promise, the defensive backs disappointed and they lost the game. The loss doesn’t matter but you would hope that Houston would score more than 17 points. In 2016 Houston tied with Chicago for 28th in the NFL in average points per game with 17.4. You want to see Houston do better than they showed.

The offensive line did a nice job overall which was encouraging. An untimely penalty or a dropped pass or a fumble derailed drives but the O-line gave Savage the rest of the Texans QB’s time to throw or scramble as the case dictated.

DeSean Watson showed promise and justified for one game the decision the Texans front office made trading up in the first round to draft him. He showed poise, pocket presence and elusiveness. What he also showed was a general lack of accuracy especially on his deep throws. Fortunately, that is a skill that can be learned.

There was a guy who made his first appearance on a football field in 1441 days, which translates to just shy of 4 years. David Quessenberry played his first game as an NFL player after he has won a battle with cancer that was found in 2013 following a preseason game against the Cowboys. Check out the link below to get an update about Quessenberry’s return to a football field.

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/David-Quessenberry-makes-triumphant-return/e6a8945d-9dc8-4087-924a-c60aa502e824

Bill O’Brien gives his take on what the team needs to do to improve after Wednesday night’s loss. Houston won just about every statistical category in the game except the score.

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Bill-O’Brien-on-what-offense-needs-to-improve/efc15e49-fb3f-4b9e-b18f-63bb7923648c

The Texans seem to be stacked at the RB position with Lamar Miller, D’onta Foreman, Alfred Blue and Akeem Hunt. All four contributed to the Texans offense and they all looked doing it.

Speaking of players returning to the field, JJ Watt played in his first game since last September when he messed up his back and was lost for the remainder of the season. He only played 5 plays in the game but it was enough to signal the 2-time defensive player of the year happy. Hey, JJ, us fans are happy your back too!

Linked below are Texans.com analyst John Harris’ 24 take-aways from the Panthers game.

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/24-observations-from-Texans-at-Panthers/8f7545fd-d681-4878-b546-8f1216388fcd

The Texans have been practicing with the New England Patriots this week and it’s been productive with no news of fights or scuffles between the players. The teams practiced Tuesday and Wednesday and Bill O’Brien said he thought the team got a lot out of those practices.

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/What-Texans-gained-from-Patriots-joint-practices/bccd8979-069a-4923-a55a-39ad29af89fa

The Texans finish up their time at the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia today and they will head back to Houston on Friday to prepare for the Saturday night game against the Patriots.

Below is a link to Texans.com analyst John Harris 24 observations from Wednesday’s practice with New England.

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/24-observations-from-TexansCamp-Day-16/fbb7e510-f92e-4b5b-982e-d9d105805461

Unless Tom Savage just bites the big one he will be the opening day starter for Houston. By all accounts, Savage has been good in practice and in his short stint on the field in the game against Carolina last week he wasn’t great but he didn’t suck. DeSean Watson is going to be the QB of the future. You don’t trade up 15 spots in the draft in the 1st round and NOT make the guy your franchise QB. But, even the draft pundits said Watson wasn’t ready for the Big Show. He was going to need some time to get used to the NFL way of doing things. Taking snaps under center, learning to read defenses, learning to go through his receiver’s progressions, everything he didn’t have to do in college. If Savage can drive the bus and help win games for Houston nobody will mind that Watson is sitting down. On the other hand, if Savage sucks or gets hurt, which is highly likely, Watson could be thrown to the wolves way too early. Or will he? The Texans still have Brandon Weeden and since coming to Houston he’s had some productive games. This will be an interesting situation to watch.

The Texans beat the Patriots on Saturday night and here are a couple of my thoughts followed by a link to John Harris’ column from Texans.com.

1. Tom Savage looked pretty good. I don’t know why the Texans have such a hard time scoring but one reason might be the play calling in the red zone leave something to be desired. A draw play on 4th and 6 inside the 10 yard line was fairly stupid. Even if it had worked I would have thought it was stupid. Obviously, the play didn’t work and the ball went over on downs to the Patriots. All that said, I like the way Savage is playing and he is clearly the best QB Houston has. DeSean Watson isn’t far behind and he will be good in a short amount of time. The only QB Houston played that sort of didn’t play well was Brandon Weeden. He’s not 3rd string for nothing.

2. The Texans defensive backfield is the weak spot on the defense. In two games teams have carved the Texans up in the passing game. The Patriots moved the ball at will against the Texans’ D at times and they put up a lot of passing yardage. Andre Hal almost made a spectacular interception of Tom Brady but he couldn’t get both feet down.

3. The play-by-play on TV by Spencer Tillman and Kevin Kugler was not very good. The actual play-by-play announcer, Kugler, is boring and Tillman makes you wonder sometimes if you and he are watching the same game. Tillman mistakenly called Hal’s almost-interception of Tom Brady no good because Hal did not have control of the ball when he did have control but he did fail to get 2 feet in bounds on the catch. I think the replay official blew the call, he called it lack of control of the ball when I thought Hal had the ball but he did not get both feet down. Either way, Hal did make a heckuva play.

4. I criticized Rick Smith for taking RB D’onta Foreman in this year’s draft but the way the guy has performed in both preseason games has been terrific. Lamar Miller will have to play his ass off or this kid will take his job.

5. The Texans are without WRs Braxton Miller and Will Fuller but there is one rookie who has stood out to me in both of the Texans games so far. That would be #12 Bruce Ellington. The guy just kept making plays whether it was with Tom Savage of DeSean Watson. Ellington might not be as fast as Will Fuller but he definitely has better hands.

I’ll hand things off to John Harris now.

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/29-observations-from-Texans-vs-Patriots/9682666f-7344-420f-814a-0d6f73046653

The Texans returned to Houston for the first time since Hurricane/Tropical Storm Harvey devastated the Houston metroplex with wind and rain and flooding beyond anything ever seen before. The Texans went to New Orleans last Week to practice one day with the Saints as they prepared for their 3rd preseason game in New Orleans last Saturday. As the Texans and Saints played the weather was kicking the slats out of Houston. After the game the Texans could not go home so they went to Dallas where the Cowboys welcomed them with open arms. The shared their practice facility and offered to play their scheduled game in Dallas because they couldn't go back to Houston to play the game. The area of Dallas opened their arms to, not just the Texans, but all of the people who evacuated. The Dallas Mavericks and Stars both offered their facilities for refugee shelters and even the Dallas area schools opened their doors to kids displaced by the storm. They were able to join classes in their age groups to continue their schooling. Pretty nice. The Cowboys hosted a telethon to raise money for the Salvation Army relief fund which garnered 2.3 million dollars, 1 million coming from Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. I don't know how there can be any animosity between Houston and Dallas given how the Dallas Metroplex has stepped up to help out the people in Houston and SE Texas.

JJ Watt began a fund to raise money for Houston and he started the deal out by donating 100K of his own money. I can't believe he got bashed for not giving more. Pathetic how some people can be sometimes. To date Watt's fund has raised over $10MM dollars and counting. This includes $1MM from Patriots owner Robert Kraft and a $1MM donation by Ellen DeGeneres in partnership with Walmart. Yesterday Watt and many Texans players were at relief stations handing out water and essentials right out of the back of trucks. Watt has pledged that all the money raised will all go directly to the people who are in need. Watt is the real deal and he's using his fame and notoriety to the benefit of the community. Good job JJ.

There is still a football season coming. Today is September 1st and the first game of the season is September 10th. Nine days. The Texans coaching staff and GM Rick Smith have to figure out who out of their current 90 man roster will make the final 53 man roster and they will have to have it done by Saturday afternoon. Monday will be the first day of practice for the regular season. Training camp is over and it's time to think football. Actually being home and having seen their families has to have unburdened the coaches, staff and players of the Texans organization of a lot of worry and doubt they had to be feeling not being able to be with their families during the crisis. Seeing is believing and actually getting to see and hug and kiss their families was the best therapy ever for all involved. Football is going to be a trivial issue given what is still ahead of the people in Houston and now the people of the Golden Triangle and SE Texas in general but everyone is going to need it to help in the healing of the area in much the same way the games played by the Yankees, Mets, Giants and Jets after 9-11 helped in the healing process.

The sun is out, college football has begun (did anyone realize that?), and pro football is around the corner. Add to that the fact that the Astros have acquired Justin Verlander and September is looking like it could be a very special month, indeed.

All prayers to the people of the Golden Triangle especially in Beaumont where they have lost their drinking water and Port Arthur because it seems the whole city is under water. God be with us as we recover from Harvey and God give us patience in our dealings with stressed out and exhausted people who need the same things we do. Texas proud, and Texas strong regardless of race, creed or religion. We are all people and we all want the same things in life; To have a safe and secure home, to have our families safe and happy, and a good job to go to every day.

The Senior Bowl was played last Saturday with the South winning in easy fashion by a score of 45-16 over the North squad. The score is just an afterthought because the real value of the game was to showcase a big chunk of the college seniors that will be a part of this year’s NFL draft class.

I am including links to impressions from DallasCowboys.com writer Bryan Broaddus who points out some of the best players from the game as well as some disappointing performances. Also linked are the 22 observations made by Texans.com writer John Harris on Day 3 of the Senior Bowl practice. These links give a nice perspective from two guys who are first and foremost football analysts.

http://www.dallascowboys.com/news/2018/01/29/scout%E2%80%99s-notebook-standouts-surprises-breaking-down-senior-bowl

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/22-observations-from-Senior-Bowl-Day-3/335bfa40-e3b4-46ea-9b90-6fe9893ed05e