Houston Texans 2024 Training Camp Report, Practice No. 7

An entire NFL training camp consists of 21 total practices, so the Houston Texans hit the one third marker of the preseason amidst serious downpours of rain on Friday morning at the Methodist Training Center across the street from NRG Stadium. Thus, sloppiness and mistakes were, unfortunately, kind of a theme on Friday.

Your practice report starts NOW…

Rainy day equals Friday sloppiness
There has been rainy weather practically every practice morning since training camp began over a week ago, but generally speaking, the rain has subsided by around 8:30 a.m., and the Texans have gotten in work with relatively dry conditions. Friday, this was not the case. Flood warning-level downpours occurred all morning long, including during practice, and it led to sloppy conditions, which lent itself to overall sloppy play. There were a slew of pre-snap penalties on Friday, and at one point, left guard Kenyon Green had to run a lap after a false start, which leads me to believe that he was a multiple time offender. The Texans will not play an outdoor game until Week 6, but it’s still productive to get bad weather work in. The most important things — (1) the soggy conditions don’t appear to have caused any injuries, and (2) the fans didn’t care about the rain, they showed up in droves again. It is a VERY lively camp with fans there.

Tough cuts shaping up
A third of the way into training camp, there are already some interesting roster decisions shaping up at the skill positions on the depth chart. Let’s take them one at a time:

WIDE RECEIVER

LOCKS: Nico Collins, Tank Dell, Stefon Diggs
NEAR LOCKS: John Metchie
OTHERS: Noah Brown, Robert Woods, Ben Skowronek, Xavier Hutchinson, Steven Sims

Typically, a team carries five, maybe six receivers. If the Texans roll with six, which I think they will, I would guess that Collins, Dell, Diggs, Metchie, and Brown, if all healthy, make the team, and that multiple guys out of Woods, Skowronek (who they traded for), Hutchinson (who showed promise as a rookie in 2023), and Sims (their best return guy) will be on the street. Deep group.

RUNNING BACK

LOCKS: Joe Mixon, Dameon Pierce
NEAR LOCKS: Dare Ogunbowale
OTHERS: Cam Akers, Jahwar Jordan, JJ Taylor, British Brooks

I have Ogunbowale making the team based on (1) special teams/emergency kicker chops and (2) he’s been getting reps with the first team in Mixon’s absence due to injury. Akers brings some veteran savvy, but is coming off a second Achilles tear. Jordan is a sixth round rookie, who’s shown some pop in camp. Brooks and Taylor have also flashed at times. They need to factor in a fullback here, as well, and if they overload at wide receiver or tight end, then there likely isn’t room for a fourth tailback.

TIGHT END

LOCKS: Dalton Schultz, Cade Stover
NEAR LOCK: Brevin Jordan
OTHER: Teagan Quitoriano

This likely comes down to a simple choice — do they keep three tight ends or four? If they keep three, I think it’s a virtual lock that it’ll be Schultz, Stover, and Jordan. Jordan’s had a nice camp, so far, and I could see them moving him for a draft pick in a trade, if they trust Quitoriano’s health. Quatrain is a talented kid, but he’s had injury issues in both of his NFL seasons.

Other notes and observations

* Joe Mixon was back out at practice, but in T-shirt and shorts. He appeared to be moving okay. Metchie was back at practice after missing two days, and Laremy Tunsil was out again on Friday. Rookie Blake Fisher continued to get all the reps at first team left tackle.

* Ka’imi Fairbairn had another stellar practice, making field goals from 53 and 60 yards. He did miss a 36 yarder.

* If you’re going to any Texans practices over the next few days, go out of your way to watch receiver versus defensive back drills. The top three wide receivers for the Texans are cooking. Tank Dell does change-of-direction things that are not human. He puts guys into the figurative blender.

* Best play of practice that I saw was a stretched out Ben Skowronek coming down with a Tim Boyle pass. Later in practice, Skowronek was in the middle of a skirmish with linebacker Max Tooley, making this the second straight Texans practice with some sort of dustup or kerfuffle.

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