The Texans practiced outside late Wednesday morning at the Houston Methodist Training Center. Here are a few items of note from Head Coach DeMeco Ryans' post-practice press conference, as well as the open locker room period that followed with the players and the media.
-STROUD & STARTERS AT SAINTS: Quarterback C.J. Stroud will start at New Orleans this Sunday evening. Ryans described the reps outlook for the rookie, as well as the rest of the squad.
"We'll play everybody in this preseason game," Ryans said. "As of right now, our plan is to get our first guys probably about two series' and see how that goes and allow the younger guys to have a lot of work in the game."
-SPEAKING OF STROUD...: Veteran tight end Dalton Schultz has been mightily impressed with some of the progress Stroud's made since the second overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft has made since joining the team in early May.
"Just coming into the huddle and being able to put a full play call together and make sure everybody's on the same page," Schultz. "(With the) West Coast offense these play calls get wordy. These play calls can get two or three lines long and him being able to step in and confidently say exactly the play call as he hears it and making sure everybody's on the same page has been big for us."
-'COOGS COME BACK: A pair of Houston Cougars were back on the practice field Wednesday. Quarterback Case Keenum and wide receiver Tank Dell worked with the team. Keenum hadn't practice since he played in the New England preseason game. Dell didn't play against the Dolphins on Saturday because of a pregame "tightness".
-MAKING MOVES: The Texans made a few transactions over the last day or so. This morning they announced the signing of rookie free agent safety Darius Joiner, and the waiver-injured of safety Tyree Gillespie. Wide receiver Alex Bachman was waived-injured yesterday, and cornerback Cameron Dantzler signed with Houston. Ryans shared the expectations for Dantzler.
"Adding Cam to our team just adds a little depth at corner," Ryans said. "We'll see where Cam is throughout this week and see how he can help us."
Dantzler was a Vikings' third-round pick out of Mississippi State in 2020. He's started 26 games in his career, and picked off three passes.
-DEFENSE GOALS: Defensively, third-year defensive end Jonathan Greenard shared the defense's goal for the final preseason game.
"Clear up the technique," Greenard. "Just want to definitely make sure I'm still playing fast and physically more comfortable, obviously going into the regular season."
Rookie linebacker Henry To'oTo'o also knows the problems the Texans defense had in Saturday's loss to Miami are fixable.
"We shot ourselves in the foot," To'oTo'o said. "We got away with what got us a win the previous game. It was just a lot of the little things that we were able to fix: our steps, our techniques and stuff like that. But it's nothing major. It's everything that we can fix."
