After 14 days of practices against each other, the Houston Texans will see new faces on Tuesday. The New England Patriots arrive this week for two days of camp in West Virginia.
Under head coach Bill O'Brien, the Texans have scrimmaged against other teams for each year in training camp, but this week marks their first time against the Patriots. The two teams will face each other in Saturday's preseason game in Houston following Tuesday and Wednesday's joint practices at The Greenbrier.
"It will be a very good couple of days for our team to get some great work in," J.J. Watt said. "It's obviously a very good team, an extremely successful franchise, an extremely successful coach, extremely successful quarterback, so it's a really good chance for us to get some great work in and we're looking forward to it. It's always great to practice against somebody that you know can help make you better, and we're looking forward to that practice."
The Patriots held joint practices with the Jacksonville Jaguars last week. O'Brien, who coached under Bill Belichick for five seasons (2007-11), likes the variety that players see when facing another team.
"We see a lot from our defense and then opposite, how does our defense handle the different schemes? They see a lot from us, now they'll see kind of a different scheme relative to the Patriots," O'Brien said. "Different skillsets of players. The Patriots have some different players than we do at different positions, so the matchups on both sides of the ball will be interesting to watch. I think the special teams will be good to watch. They have a really good special teams unit. Just kind of watching everything."
Playes are also looking forward to battling against different jerseys in both one-on-one and team drills this week.
"It's going to be good," Lamar Miller said Monday. "It's going to test us to see where we are as a team. We've been competing against each other since the first day of training camp. Just to go up against the Super Bowl Champions, it'll show where we are."
Check out the best shots from Day 14 of training camp practice at The Greenbrier in West Virginia.
