"It's like the first day of school," Justin Reid said.
After five days of training camp in shorts and shells, the Houston Texans will hold their first padded practices on Tuesday.
"The significance of that is now we start to play football," head coach David Culley said. "Guys right now won't be as hesitant as they have been because when you're in shells and you're in shorts, you hold back when you get to the ball. Once you get pads on, we're running through things, finishing things a lot better. We have pads on and we're protected and that's football."
The Texans have an estimated 50 new players on the field that did not play for the team last season. Culley and general manager Nick Caserio will get their first look at the 2021 roster at work in full pads. Tuesday marks the first real test for players as they get to work at the Houston Methodist Training Center.
"That's when real football is played, you know what I mean," Reid said. "This is all very pretty and it's nice to play without pads and we got a lot of valuable reps in and lot of valuable work in to start learning the defense and the system. But the real football is played when the pads get put on. So that's when we're going to see what we really got. We're actually going to be able to play the run and we're actually going to be able to fit and see who can play ball and who can't."
Next week, the Texans will open their 2021 preseason when they travel to Green Bay. Kickoff against the Packers is Saturday, August 14 at 7 p.m. CDT.
Check out the best photos from the fifth day of Texans Training Camp.
