Coach Gary Kubiak wants to use mini-camp to focus on working with his younger players.
The Texans held their last day of OTAs on Thursday and will begin mini-camp on Monday. Head coach Gary Kubiak said that he is changing the format this year and holding out about 30 veteran players from practice.
Head coach Gary Kubiak
(on the next steps for DE Mario Williams) "Well I think Mario's got one of those opportunities in his career to be a Pro Bowl player for a long time. You know, defensive player of the year, those type of things. He's got that ability. That's a lot to ask, but that's where he's at. This defense will go the way he plays, the way (LB) DeMeco (Ryans) plays; it always has. So the sky's the limit for him, but he's working towards getting that done."
(on what they worked on at practice today) "You know, it's kind of a boring practice, actually. They enjoyed it. The last one of OTAs. We're going through just some crazy situations that happen during the season—maybe once, sometimes they never happen—but we just got to cover them, be able to teach off of film, and make sure that in certain situations at a game, you don't give games away. It was more of a teaching today than getting physical."
{QUOTE}(on if today's OTAs are like training camps of a long time ago) "Yeah, it really is. Again, I told the players the other day, the game's changed so much. When I played the rosters were so big—120. Training camp was so long. You came to camp to get in shape. Nowadays, your numbers are down, you're expected to be ready to go the day you walk in the door and camp's a lot shorter. So it's a total difference; it's kind of like having spring ball with college in a lot of ways, but it's more teaching than anything else. Our guys have been great. They've all been here, except for a couple, and we've gotten a lot of work done."
(on the mentality of DE Antonio Smith) "Well first off, I love his personality. He brings a lot of personality to our group. He's a very outgoing young man, has a lot of fun playing the game. But he's a physical player, and one of the things we've got to do is continue to get more physical as a football team so the defense has got their part of the bargain to uphold from that standpoint. He keeps us from having a big end and a small end."
(on if next week's mini-camp will be different from OTAs) "I made a decision in the last couple of days. There are about 30 veteran players that are going to be here working out with (head strength and conditioning coach) Ray (Wright) and not practice. I'm going to practice all the young players. We are going to go back and start over from Day 1 when we came out here and really catch these young men up – catch (Connor) Barwin up; catch (Jeremiah) Johnson up. All the players will be here, but only certain guys will be on the field."
(on what the veteran players will be doing during OTAs) "They are going to get to work out with Ray, and I'm going to get them out of these young guys' hair. We're going to get them more teaching and more classroom time."
