Three may not necessarily be a crowd in the Texans quarterback meeting room.
"I would say more than likely there will be three quarterbacks on the roster to start the season," head coach Bill O'Brien said Tuesday.
League-wide roster cuts are underway with teams trimming down to 53 players by August 30. The trio of Ryan Fitzpatrick, Case Keenum and Tom Savage look to be safe and will "more than likely" be the three on the Texans roster, according to O'Brien.
After working all offseason to learn a complex offense and undergoing a long, arduous playbook install, the three quarterbacks have all made consistent progress. While Fitzpatrick, Keenum, and Savage are all at different points in their careers and in their grasp of the system, O'Brien values the work the trio has put into learning his offense.
"All three of these guys have an understanding of the system," O'Brien said. "They've all had their share of decent moments. Like all of us, they've had their share of not so good moments. But they've improved every week, and so you definitely take that into account. You also take into account that you're always going to try to do whatever is best for the football team because you owe that to the other 53, 52 guys or however many it is. You do what's best for the team, but at the end of the day these three guys certainly, you take that into account that they've put a lot of work in."
Keenum, who will start on Thursday, will share a bulk of the reps with Savage in the preseason finale against San Francisco.
The Texans and 49ers kick off Thursday, August 28 at 7 p.m. CT on KTRK ABC-13 and SportsRadio 610.
