The Houston Texans will hold their 2021 rookie minicamp this weekend. The three-day minicamp is a chance for rookies, undrafted college free agents, tryout players and other eligible roster players to apply their knowledge to the practice field.
"It's an opportunity for them, quite frankly, to take some of the stuff they've been doing in the classroom and then maybe get on the field and apply cadence, snap count, blocking technique, go this way on this play, just to hear the play call in the huddle," general manager Nick Caserio said Monday. "Again, you're talking about maybe a couple hours over the course of two days. It's not going to be like a full-fledged practice, but again it's kind of to start the process of taking what you learned in the classroom and start to put it on the field in terms of a real live application."
Around the league, rookie minicamps, like much of the offseason program, were cancelled due to COVID-19 last year. This year's program will be the first minicamp under new head coach David Culley and his staff. Currently, Culley and the coaches have been holding virtual meetings with players to teach terminology and help install their system. While the offseason program is optional, it gives younger players a chance to practice without veterans present.
"These players are, like, honestly, really behind our players," Caserio said. "Our players have been training for call it three or four weeks. Some players have been training actually two or three months. Again, they have a long way to go. The expectation is just let's have a good Friday. Let's go out there, let's have a good whatever we're going to do on the field, which I would say is probably not going to be that much because we've got a long way to go. The big thing is giving them a foundation about our program and then ultimately just getting ready for training camp because that's really the next true test of what we're actually going to see relative to football."
Following Sunday's conclusion of rookie minicamp, players will arrive on Monday to begin Phase Two of the offseason workout program with the veterans.
