Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson made national headlines on Tuesday morning after leaving practice with a dislocated finger.
In the end, it was much ado about nothing.
"He's fine," Texans coach Gary Kubiak said after the Texans' Tuesday afternoon practice. "He dislocated his finger, obviously, so we took him to the hospital this morning. He's back, has it bandaged up and probably is going to miss a day or two of practice until we make sure there's no infection and it calms down. He's fine. He's going to be OK."
Johnson was injured in the morning when a pass from rookie quarterback T.J. Yates hit the tip of his finger. He attended the Texans' indoor afternoon practice but did not participate.
"It'll just be a couple of days, because my bone broke the skin," Johnson said. "I didn't have to get any stitches or anything like that. (As) soon as I felt it pop, I felt it out of place and I popped it right back in. I didn't know the bone had broke the skin until I took my glove off, so I really wasn't in a lot of pain or anything like that. It was just more concern about the bleeding."
Johnson chuckled when asked about the stir that his injury caused in the media.
"I heard about that," he said. "When I got back to the stadium, I was eating lunch and saw it on ESPN that I was carted off the field and stuff like that. I had a lot of text messages and people asking me if I was OK. I'm fine; it's just a finger. I've played with a bum ankle, so I don't think a finger will keep me out."
Free agent update
On Tuesday morning, Kubiak and general manager Rick Smith confirmed that the Texans are pursuing fullback Lawrence Vickers and defensive end Ty Warren. Kubiak was asked for an update on the two free agents in the afternoon.
"Vickers is here," Kubiak said. "We had him here today, and he visited with me at lunch and visited with Rick. As we came out to practice, we were talking to him. He's a good player. There are other people talking to him, but we have some interest in him, so we'll see.
"Ty Warren, same thing. It's our understanding that he's making a trip as we speak. I think he's in Kansas City, but we have interest in Ty. I actually talked to him at lunch today too, so we'll see how it goes."
Health check
Inside linebacker Brian Cushing sat out of Tuesday's morning practice but was a full participant in the afternoon walkthrough inside the Methodist Training Center. Cushing, who's still on the mend from offseason knee surgery, followed the same schedule on Monday.
"Brian's taking all the walkthrough sessions right now," Kubiak said. "He's a few days away. I'll just have to let you know day-to-day. He's the one guy that we had that wasn't quite ready to go on the field, so we're just trying to take our time."
Cushing, Johnson and a host of other players missed time on Tuesday.
"Like I tell the players all the time, you're one play away from getting a chance to be a starter in this league," Kubiak said. "(Dorin) Dickerson worked as a starter today. Jason Allen got sick. (Sherrick) McManis worked as a starter today. Wade Smith got sick on us last night. We've got a little bug going around. Shelley Smith is starting at left guard. That's the NFL. We'll go back and see how they did, but it was a great opportunity for those guys today."
Quotable
"I feel better. I feel natural back there. I just feel like that's what I was born to do."
-FS Glover Quin, on his transition from cornerback to safety
"I'm able to see things that I wasn't seeing last year. The game's kind of slowed down for me. Once we break out of the huddle, I'm taking things into consideration and I'm seeing things a lot more. So it's slowed down a lot for me."
-CB Kareem Jackson, on the differences in camp compared to his rookie season in 2010
