Your Houston Texans wrapped up their third day of practice with the Denver Broncos today. Afterward, the general manager of the Texans, the head coach of the Texans, the starting running back for the Texans, the best defensive player on the planet, and DeVier Posey met with the media. Here's a transcript of what was said for your review. In the meantime, I've taken the liberty of highlighting some of the more interesting snippets for your perusal below.
Rick Smith:
(on the report that the Texans have ramped up their contract talks with DE J.J. Watt) "You know I don’t comment at all about any kind of negotiations, so I’ll stay away from that."
(on if he would like to see DE J.J. Watt’s contract extended before the season starts) "I will tell you this without talking about anything publicly, we have made it a practice to take care of all of our players that we consider to be core players. At the appropriate time, when we can do that as we’ve done before, we’ll do that with J.J. as well."
(on how active he expects to be on the final waiver wire) "We’ve always looked at that as an opportunity, so I think you’ll see us do what we have traditionally done. Obviously we’re in a really good situation because we have the first priority, so effectively anybody that we decide that we want to claim, we’ll be awarded that contract. That’s a good position to be in, but we’ve always looked at that as an opportunity. Any time that we can augment and improve our roster, whether that is via waiver wire, via trade, via free agents that are on the street right now, we’ll continue to do that. We are trying to promote and develop the most competitive roster possible and that’s certainly a mechanism for us to do that."
Bill O'Brien:
(on an update to Jadeveon Clowney) "Yeah, he’s doing fine. He just, we just held him out today. He’ll be fine."
(on if Jadeveon Clowney will be able to play Saturday) "Not sure yet. Not sure yet."
(on whether he has decided if Brian Cushing, Andre Johnson, Arian Foster and Johnathan Joseph would play Saturday) "I really haven’t. We’re going to go back to the hotel, we’re going to meet and watch this tape, and then we’ll talk a lot about that and see kind of where we are. I like to get some opinions on that from our trainers and also from our coaching staff. We’ve gotten a lot of work out here in the three days. That’s what’s different then in the past. In the past, when you didn’t work against a team, you would certainly want to probably have your first teams go in the third game of the preseason. But when you come out here, yesterday we ran 60 team plays against each other, the day before the same thing, today about probably 40 team plays against each other. That’s a lot of work. So you’re able to get a lot of work done on the field in these situations, so we’ll determine how much those guys need to play when we sit down tonight."
(on when asking advice about whether guys should play if he asks the veterans) "I certainly do. I talk to all these guys. I try to touch base with all those guys that are banged up a little bit on a daily basis. I follow the lead of Geoff Kaplan and our doctors, but I definitely talk to the vets. Those guys, what I’ve found in pro football is these guys they really know their own bodies very well, especially these guys that have played a lot of football and played at such a high level, like Andre Johnson. So you know, we have a lot of conversation about where he’s at and then we determine, that’s part of the determination of how much to play him."
(on how the kicking battle is shaping up) "I’d say Randy (Bullock) is in the lead. Randy has made some good kicks. He kicked decently in the game last week and made a game winner out here today, so I’d say he’s in the lead right now."
(on what the deal is with Chris Myers) "He’s doing alright. Again, a guy that’s played a lot of football. We’re just trying to manage him and make sure that he’s ready to go for the regular season."
(on if Chris Myers is dealing with something serious) "No, no, definitely nothing serious."
Arian Foster:
(on how he has felt the last three days of practice) "I’m feeling good."
(on if his hamstring or back is bothering him) "I’m feeling good, man."
(on if he would like to play on Saturday) "I’m just going to keep on working, man, and however the chips fall, they will."
(on how beneficial the practices against the Broncos have been for the team) "Extremely beneficial; in all the ways it can be beneficial."
(on what would be at the top of his list of the three practices) "On it being beneficial to the team."
(on practice getting chippy) "That’s just part of the game."
DeVier Posey:
(on the acrobatic catch he made in the end zone in practice) "Case (Keenum) put the ball in a spot where only I could go get it or it was going to go out of bounds. I don’t know. I was just like ‘We’ll see what happens,’ and just try to tap my feet in (inbounds) and learn some stuff from 80 (Andre Johnson). I’m just trying to make sure I put it into play a little bit."
J.J. Watt:
(on the scuffle at practice yesterday) "You guys saw what happened yesterday. You win on the field. You don’t have to fight when you win on the field. When you win the rep, then people tend to get chippy, so that’s fine."
(on if he’s been on the other side and wanted to fight after getting beat) "Like I said, I just don’t really feel the need to do it, you know. I think it’s one of those things where it’s too much to lose. There is no reason for me to fight anybody because I’ll go out there and I’ll talk with my play on the field. That’s the way I’ve always done it, that’s the way I feel like you should do it, so let your play on the field do the talking, unless it gets to some extreme crazy point where I need to, but it hasn’t reached that point yet, so I’m OK."
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