2020 Houston Texans Training Camp: Texans Sign OT Jerald Hawkins, Antonio Garcia Visits

On Monday, August 10th, the Houston Texans signed OT Jerald Hawkins. Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle had the scoop.

Hawkins was previously drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft. He managed to play in five games for the Steelers in 2017 but missed all of 2018 with a torn quadriceps. His time with Pittsburgh was mostly marked by injury. Hawkins was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2019 and appeared in one game for them.

This has all the makings to be a training camp depth signing. It seems that the Texans may not be fully satisfied with their current group of tackles, as they are also taking a look at another veteran player. According to Texans Wire, Antonio Garcia was also brought in for a visit. No signing has been reported as of yet.

Garcia, a former third round pick in 2017, never played a down for the club. He bounced around with a few teams in the following years but has yet to play in a game. With the current tackle room in Houston consisting of Laremy Tunsil, Tytus Howard, Roderick Johnson, Charlie Heck, Brent Qvale, Rick Leonard, Kyle Murphy, Elijah Nkansah, David Stienmetz, and now Jerald Hawkins, we’ll see some of these bubble guys fighting for a roster spot.

Bill O’Brien mentioned that this year would be very “veteran oriented”, considering the challenges presented by the league’s pandemic policies. Maybe this doesn’t bode well for players like Charlie Heck or Elijah Nkansah. Regardless, what matters is that the team builds enough depth in case of emergency.

Do you think that the OL is just fine as is? Should the team be focusing their attention on something like, I don’t know, the defensive line? Let me know down below.