2019 Texans Training Camp / Preseason

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.c...t-raiders-training-camp-tour-fmia-peter-king/

Camp: Texans
Three Things I Think
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Three quick thoughts:

1. I think my everlasting memory of this trip will be watching J.J. Watt steam in from Aaron Rodgers’ left side on a live pass-rush drill (well, full-speed, but no hitting the quarterback in a camp practice) in the Texans-Packers joint practices. He jousted with left tackle David Bakhtiari, dipped to the outside, got half a step on the left tackle, and sprinted at Rodgers. Watt meant it. As did Rodgers, who sprinted up the right side and evaded Watt. First time Watt ever stepped foot in Wisconsin to play pro football (though a practice), and he got emotional about it, and it meant a lot to him. Two Hall of Fame players going at it on a Monday morning in northeast Wisconsin. Loved it.

2. I think the Texans need to trade for Washington left tackle Trent Williams, who is unhappy in Washington and threatening to not play this year. Houston’s time is now. Watt turns 30 this year. So much of this team is in its prime. They could get three or four more years out of Williams, who turns 31 next Monday, and he’d strengthen the only true weak point of this team.

3. I think I marvel at DeAndre Hopkins and found it compelling to just watch him practice in Green Bay. He even dropped a pass over the middle. Consider that last year he became the first receiver since drop stats were kept—at least 13 years—to catch at least 110 balls without a drop. “Why do you think people don’t really know that?” he asked me after practice, a bit annoyed. I don’t know, but I do know Hopkins is the best wideout in football by almost any measure. “There are games, like against Philly last year, when he gets his jersey ripped off,” coach Bill O’Brien said. “Teams are so physical with him. What makes him special is so many plays are contested. People are draped on him, and he comes down with it.” With wideout injuries last year, Houston saw a weird three-man coverage at times on Hopkins, “cut coverage,” O’Brien called it, with a linebacker undercutting him near the line of scrimmage before he would get out in the open field and face two cover guys. I asked Hopkins how he worked on his hands as a kid. Jerry Rice tossed and caught bricks with his dad, a mason. Hopkins: “This is something I haven’t told many people, because it’s embarrassing,” he said. “We always used to catch flies with our hands. I was the only one who could catch ‘em. One-handed, two-handed. I actually studied flies. I’d watch ‘em. How do you catch flies? They fly up. If I can catch that, I can catch anything.”
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Factoidness
Monday, 6:55 a.m. KI Convention Center, Green Bay; Houston Texans breakfast room:

Player after player, coach after coach, pick up two-ounce yellow bottles, the size of a prescription bottle, with orange caps. They open the caps and chug the shot of liquid.



Lumi Gold Rush is the product, instant energy the reason, a strong and wake-you-right-up taste combining turmeric, lemon, ginger, pear and cayenne.

All organic too. The Texans use it, a club official told me, as an energy supplement and anti-inflammatory (turmeric is the big thing there) to support join health and muscle recovery.
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3. I think this was the coolest story of the week that I saw on the camp trail: You may have seen that J.J. Watt, native of Wisconsin, was back in the state, practicing or playing in his homeland for the first time when the Texans scrimmaged the Packers in Green Bay on Monday. You may have seen the cute video of Watt choosing a kid from the crowd of youngsters proffering bikes to players to ride to practice from their locker room, which is a Packer camp tradition. Among the 125 to 150 kids, Watt chose one at random. Turns out the kid, unbeknownst to Watt, had just been diagnosed with Type I Diabetes and it was a tough time for the family. Then Watt got on the bike. He snapped the seat off. He rode it anyway, talking to the kid as he wheeled. When he was finished, he told Texans VP of Communications Amy Palcic to get the mom’s information so he could send her money to get a new bike. No, no, no, she said, you definitely don’t need to do that—this has been a life highlight for us. Palcic got the mom’s Venmo information and Venmoed her $150. The dad wrote Palcic to thank her and Watt, saying it was a particularly good day in light of the recent health problems of the boy. Just a nice moment.