Rookie diary: James Casey

EDITOR'S NOTE:

Tight end James Casey, drafted in the fifth round (152nd overall) this April, is a former minor league baseball player who joined the Texans as a 24-year-old rookie from Rice. He has been chronicling his rookie season with weekly diary entries for HoustonTexans.com.

Last week was a tough loss to the Colts. The guys battled really hard. I was in a unique circumstance, something I'd never had to do before: I didn't travel with the team, so I just stayed home in my apartment and watched the game with my wife on the TV just like everybody else.

It was really strange seeing all those guys out there, because we don't really ever watch the TV broadcast of the game. We have all our games filmed from different angles, so it's a lot different watching the TV copy. And it's something I never really want to experience again, because you feel helpless and you can't do anything. All I could do was scream at the TV or cheer at the TV, depending on what was going on.

Of course, when I'm watching the game, I'm not even really following the ball; I'm watching the tight end. It's kind of like when you watch a game and you know somebody, you watch that person and don't even really know what's going on with the ball or the game. So I had my remote for my DVR handy so that I could rewind every play to see what happened.

It was great to see Anthony (Hill) get out there and get his first catch. I know what that feels like, because it just happened to me two weeks ago in Buffalo. To see Anthony catch the ball like that and run some people over, it was exciting, and I was looking forward to talking to him the next day and telling him congratulations. Joel (Dreessen) and Anthony both played really well, and I'm excited to get out there and join that group and try to help us be even better.

This week is our bye week, so we had a short practice on Tuesday and everybody else left to go back to their hometowns or do whatever else they had planned. It's great because it's a nice time for everybody to relax and get focused for this last drive over the last seven games.

{QUOTE}My situation with rehabbing my knee, I've been up at the stadium at 8 a.m. all week, and I'll probably be up there in the morning on Saturday and Sunday rehabbing. But it's not a bad deal, because I'm really motivated about getting back out on the field.

Every day, I'm coming in and feeling a lot better. My knee's doing really well. I'm excited about getting outside and running around and getting to where I can run routes and hopefully be ready to go. I don't know what my role will be or how much playing time I'm going to get, but I'm going to do anything I can to try to help the team out and get us back on a winning streak.

The bye week gives us some time to watch film on ourselves. It's kind of a time to self-scout and get yourself better. Since I'm going to be here rehabbing this week anyway, I plan on getting in there to watch some film to see what Owen (Daniels) and Joel were doing through the first nine games. Owen was having a great season, so I'm going to try to see what I can pick up that was making him so successful.

I'm excited about Monday Night Football in a couple of weeks, the biggest stage in football. It probably shouldn't be anything that motivates me during my rehab, but it does. Hopefully I can come back and, if I do get some chances, go out there and perform well.

I think getting drafted in the fifth round is something that's going to motivate me throughout my career, and playing in front of the whole nation and the rest of the league would be a chance to show all those teams that passed on me what they missed. More than anything, I want to show that I can help this team. I'm really looking forward to getting back on the field and hopefully proving to a lot of people that I can play.

Thanks again to everyone for the well wishes. My knee's doing great, and I'm really excited and motivated about getting back on the field and I can't wait to get out there and start practicing again with the guys and get out there and definitely be out there for the game.