Notes and quotes from the Texans' final day of 2012 Training Camp presented by XFINITY at the Methodist Training Center:
Newton to start
Second-year pro Derek Newton will start at right tackle on Saturday against the San Francisco 49ers. Seventh-year pro Rashad Butler, who started last week against the Carolina Panthers, will come off the bench.
Fourth-year pro Antoine Caldwell will continue to start at right guard over rookie third-round pick Brandon Brooks. All four players, who are competing for starting jobs, will play an equal number of reps in the first three quarters.
"It's just rotation," Texans coach Gary Kubiak said Thursday morning. "I think Newton deserves a chance to go out there as starter this week. It's not nothing Butler did. The young guard (Brooks)'s not ready to go do that or I'd put him in there right now. We'll give Newton a chance, but between him and Butler, they're going to play the same amount of plays. It's still a hell of a battle going on."
Newton became the Texans' swing tackle as a rookie last year after Butler went down with a triceps injury early in the season.
"Derek's got a lot of ability," Kubiak said. "He needs to get more consistent in his play. He's very young but he's powerful, and he's got the ability to do it. The question is, is he going to be able to do it on a consistent basis?"
Extra work
Thirty minutes after practiced ended on Thursday morning, rookie wide receiver DeVier Posey was still on the field, with no other Texans players in sight, catching passes from a JUGS machine. It's a daily routine for the third-round draft pick from Ohio State, who catches approximately 1,000 passes a week from the machine.
"I try to catch about like 250-300 a day, like maybe 100 before (practice), maybe 150 after and then 100 after the walkthrough," Posey said. "I just try to stay up on it as much as I can."
Does the extra work tire Posey out?
"Nah," he said. "Even though I don't want to do it, I have to. That's just like that little voice inside: 'You got to do it.' I ain't trying to brag or anything, but that's just how I work. I kind of picked up this habit at Ohio State. (Wide receivers coach) Stan Drayton, he used to make me stay out because I was suspended and I really wasn't getting too many reps. He was like, 'Man, you've got to make sure you get your catches in.' So I kind of developed that habit of staying after and doing all that, and it kind of just carried over to here."
Posey credited Texans equipment intern Spencer Pullen and athletic training intern Andrew Crane for helping him work after practice.
Health check
Starting nose tackle Shaun Cody (lower back) and undrafted rookie wide receiver Jerrell Jackson (quad) will not play against the 49ers. The Texans are otherwise healthy.
Cody has not practiced this week after suffering a disc issue in the preseason opener.
"It's a process," he said Thursday. "I got an epidural, like Coach (Kubiak) said, to calm things down. Everything's starting to tighten up and calm down in there. It's going to be a process, of course, but I start feeling better every day. I'm starting to do some rehab stuff from tightening my core and getting that stuff ready, so it's going in the right direction."
Earl Mitchell will start at nose tackle in Cody's place on Saturday.
Quotes of the Day
"Just congratulating me. Everyone's happy. Everyone knows how hard I work and how serious I take my job. The O-line is letting me have it, of course; it's their job. I got to thank those guys, too, because without those hogs up front, I wouldn't be successful as I am." – LT Duane Brown, on his teammates' reaction to the contract extension he signed on Thursday
"You go from marriage to honeymoon, coming to training camp and get a new deal – it's awesome. And my birthday is coming up. So, yeah, it's been an awesome year for me." – Brown, on signing his new contract after getting married on July 14
"That's important for your whole team. I tell them all the time, 'If you're waiting on me every day to police you and to get mad when things aren't right, then we don't have a good team. When you start policing each other and your expectations of each other are that way each and every day, then we got a heck of chance to be a great football team.' I like the way we go about our business." – Texans head coach Gary Kubiak, on LG Wade Smith and C Chris Myers calling an informal meeting on the field with the rest of the offensive line after the morning practice to express their displeasure with the group's lack of energy and focus
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