Bill O'Brien revealed on Monday what he wants from his safeties.
The two starters from 2014 are gone, but Rahim Moore and Stevie Brown were signed in the offseason. Both have started in the NFL: Moore with Denver and Brown with the Giants.
O'Brien was asked about the idea of safeties being able to play free safety and strong safety, and vice versa. He acknowledged that it would be nice, but not a necessity.
"Ideally, you'd want them to be interchangeable," O'Brien said. "Ideally you would, but they don't necessarily have to be interchangeable."
Instead, O'Brien peeled off five traits his safeties need to have to be successful.
- "They have to be good communicators..."
- "and they have to be smart."
- "They have to be able to play man coverage,"
- "they've got to be good blitzers,"
- "and they've got to be good in zone coverage, as far as understanding pattern reads and where they are in the zone and what they're assignment is in the zone."
The head coach likes what Moore, Browna and the players behind those two bring to the safety spot.
"We have a lot of good competition at that position," O'Brien said. "You just look out there today, a lot of those guys made plays today and it was good to see."
The second week of OTAs continues this afternoon and tomorrow at the Houston Methodist Training Center.
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Take a look at photos from the Houston Texans' fourth day of OTAs.
