There was tremendous excitement around these parts when your Houston Texans traded back up into the third round of the 2014 NFL Draft to acquire NT Louis Nix III. Then our hearts all skipped a beat when it was learned he would be placed on the PUP list as training camp opened. You may recall Corzo's article, including an interview with Dr. David Geier, regarding the knee surgery Nix had to repair the meniscus in 2013, which ended his final season while at Notre Dame. That surgery most likely influenced his fall from a potential first-round draft pick in the 2014 NFL Draft to the third-round where the Texans grabbed him.
Following Saturday's practice, Texans head coach Bill O'Brien revealed that Louis Nix III underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on his right knee before the start of training camp, as he was apparently dealing with more knee issues in minicamp and OTAs.
Bill O'Brien says rookie NT Louis Nix III is bouncing back from arthroscopic knee surgery. Nix has been working on the side at practice.
— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) August 2, 2014
Nix was dealing with knee issues in minicamp and OTAs. #Texans
— Deepi Sidhu (@DeepSlant) August 2, 2014
O'Brien said Louis Nix had knee surgery. Said Nix is getting closer to returning.
— Dave Zangaro (@DZangaro) August 2, 2014
O'Brien's exact words, as seen in Zangaro's article on O'Brien's revelation about Nix this morning:
"We felt like that we wanted to make sure that we could have a healthy Louis Nix and not have to manage him throughout the season so as an organization, we decided to do that surgery, arthroscopic surgery before training camp," O’Brien said. "So I believe from what I hear from our medical people that he’s working well and that he’s getting closer and closer to being able to be back out there at some point."
Like most NFL coaches, Bill O'Brien has been taking the conservative stance with respect to talking about player health, so to say Nix is "getting closer and closer" to returning should be taken as a strong indication that we'll see him in the defense soon. That would be GREAT news for the Texans if Nix is in fact close to returning; the rookie needs to get valuable reps in his first NFL training camp. Chime in below with your thoughts on this revealing news by O'Brien today.