EDITOR'S NOTE:Tight end **Owen Daniels* will be providing periodic diary entries for HoustonTexans.com to give fans insight into the life of a rookie draft pick.
*During the season there's always gameday to look forward to. During the first couple of days in training camp, the one thing everyone is looking forward to is a day off. I'm very excited about having tomorrow (Sunday) off to rest up because come Monday morning we have to start preparing for our first opponent.
There's a lot of things going on right now and I'm trying to absorb everything. College training camps ease you into the season. You start off with one practice the first couple of days and then you have two-a-days every other day. Not here. I got here and it was right to work twice a day and even when there's only one full-team practice, I'm still doing the second practice with the special teams.
It's hard to get through all that, remain healthy, keep the soreness off and still perform at the NFL level. Coach Kubiak and the rest of the staff expect so much from every single one of us. Everything is so detailed and perfection is always the goal. We are all trying to keep up with those expectations. I'm getting coached on every play, whether I do it right or I do it wrong. That's a good feeling to know someone is paying attention to my progress.
Mistakes happen, and they happen every day on the field. Thankfully, the coaches understand that we're going to make them, of course they expect us to learn from them and not repeat them. Even though I'm a rookie, I've begun practicing with the mentality that I'm a starter. That might seem a little outrageous, but that's what I've been doing in order to keep up with the rest of the guys.
Everybody keeps talking about the tight end competition, but to me it doesn't seem like there is one. I really look up to Jeb (Putzier) and Mark (Bruener). They've been in the league for a while, and they've got a good knowledge of the game. Every time I have a question, they don't hesitate to help me out. If that's competition, then I'm enjoying it because by making each other better, we are making the team better. The ultimate team goal is to win.
Adapting to the scheme hasn't been too difficult. In Wisconsin we used two tight ends and we're doing that here. The only difference is that I have to know what is going on at every position on every play. The coaches are on me about making sure I know what I'm doing. I know they're trying to prepare us for that first game. We just have to continue working hard and let them coach us.
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When I think about how we're coming together as a team, I really like what I've seen. I talked to one of my friends from Wisconsin who is suffering through another NFL training camp, and the rookies worked by themselves for a couple of days before the veterans were brought in. There's no division here at all, and I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we are rebuilding this team and everybody is new to the system.
We're beginning to get tired of banging with each other, though, I know there are a lot of us looking forward to the Chiefs coming in next week. It's going to be exciting to have different competition to go against. On top of that, we'll be in Reliant Stadium and we'll have fans cheering us on.
Speaking of fans, I'm amazed what a great football town Houston is. I wasn't sure how I'd like Texas since I'd only been in San Antonio for the Alamo Bowl in 2002. But Houston is one of the best places to play football. The city is nice, and it's definitely a place I could live in year round.
I'm off now to get some rest and enjoy the rest of my weekend off!
Take care,
Owen
Entry 1: Welcome to training camp (8/1)
