Texans<\/p>\n
Texans OL coach Cole Popovich detailed what he\u2019s looking for in his offensive line and wants them to be intelligent and tough.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe two main things are tough and smart, I just want to see tough and physical play,\u201d Popovich said, via Click2Houston<\/a>. \u201cWhen you\u2019re watching the tape, you\u2019re really looking for awareness. Does the guy communicate with other people? That\u2019s kind of like the smart piece of it. How does this guy learn? What does he know? What doesn\u2019t he know? Does he have an ability to learn new stuff or not? Those two traits stand out more than anything else. They\u2019ve got to be tough and they\u2019ve got to be smart. I\u2019m happy with all the additions. We don\u2019t even have any pads on right now. So, they\u2019ve got a long way to go. Once we get to camp, we\u2019ll really see what we\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n Texans HC\u00a0DeMeco Ryans<\/a> raved about Popovich and how good a coach he believes Popovich is.<\/p>\n \u201cCole is a brilliant coach,\u201d Ryans said. \u201cHe\u2019s a very smart guy, and he\u2019s not just offensive line driven. He\u2019s very thoughtful and seeing the entire picture of the offensive line, and how it all fits together. He\u2019s very thoughtful in making sure, which guys do I need, what do they do well, and he does a really good job. If you guys ever get the opportunity to see him work with his individuals and how he takes the time to coach the guys up on all the fine, small details, that\u2019s really important for an offensive lineman. It\u2019s him being detailed, being thorough as a coach and never stuck on what he\u2019s always done. He\u2019s always trying to help his players, always trying to improve his players. To me that\u2019s the sign of a really good coach. He is an excellent communicator. Does a really great job on gameday as well. We need to make adjustments. Cole is the guy who sees it, can make the adjustments and get us in the right situations. He\u2019s all the things you want in a coach.\u201d<\/p>\n ESPN\u2019s Jeremy Fowler<\/a> polled coaches and execs around the league for the top-10 safeties in football, with Texans S Calen Bullock<\/a> landing at number 10: \u201cHe\u2019s probably an adequate-to-average tackler, but his range is elite,\u201d an NFL coordinator said. \u201cSo I value that superpower. I\u2019d rather you take the ball away and just be an adequate tackler than the other way around.\u201d\u00a0 Texans OC Nick Caley said he sees the team playing much faster offensively and that the players have a much better understanding of the system in his second year as the play-caller.<\/p>\n \u201cSure, it\u2019s growth,\u201d Caley said, via Click2Houston. \u201cIt\u2019s year two. We should be further along. You talk about just overall understanding of the offense. Last year, we\u2019re teaching the language for the first time at this time of the year. It\u2019s the what is this concept? What\u2019s it called? What are the details of it? I think last year there\u2019s things we did this time of the year that we ended up getting away from for a variety of reasons, whether that was not really fitting what we wanted to do, personnel. You have guys that have experience in the system, in the verbiage, and now we\u2019re a step ahead. Things are processing faster. How can we make them better? How can we learn from things last year good and bad? The best thing I\u2019ve taken from this spring is just a hungry, ambitious group. It\u2019s been a good progression. Got a ways to go, but I\u2019ve been very, very pleased with where we\u2019re at year two as opposed to a year ago.\u201d<\/p>\n Texans HC DeMeco Ryans<\/a> added that he sees a distinct improvement in his offense this year.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I go back and look at film from our last year practices, we had trouble just snapping the football, getting plays started,\u201d Ryans said. \u201cCommunication, the play clock going down in last year\u2019s practice. When I say we\u2019re ahead, we\u2019re ahead. We\u2019re doing a better job with our cadence from the quarterback position. All three guys are using voice inflection really well. They\u2019re getting our defensive line to jump offsides several times. They\u2019re using their snap points, the cadence, the rhythm and timing, they\u2019re changing it up a lot, which does wonders for an offense when you talk about operating fast and you operate at your pace. You control the tempo and our offense is doing a better job at controlling the tempo this year. I\u2019m excited to see how we keep going with it. We\u2019re light years ahead of where we were last year.\u201d<\/p>\n Texans WR Nico Collins<\/a> added that the team being more comfortable in the offense and a faster tempo allows for more thorough pre-snap reads.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I feel like it\u2019s really just getting the play call, getting in the huddle, hear it, and running out of the huddle, getting lined up and seeing where the defense is,\u201d Collins said. \u201cThat\u2019s pretty much the pre-snap situation. As an offense you want to hurry up because the play clock is going and you\u2019ve got 25 seconds and it\u2019s clicking by the time they roll it in. By the time you get to play, it\u2019s about 15 seconds. That\u2019s the pre-snap urgency we need. Go out, get lined up, see what the defense is in, wide outs, see who the safeties are, if you\u2019re hot or not, communicate that with C.J., the quarterback. A lot goes on before you say hike, before you call snap. I feel like that\u2019s things we\u2019re working on now in two-minute, just hurry-up offense so on Sundays we\u2019re not thinking about it. If we say we want to change the play, put you on this route, it\u2019s natural.\u201d<\/p>\n Caley added that he and QB C.J. Stroud<\/a> have a great relationship and highlighted their communication.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always had a good relationship with C.J.,\u201d Caley said. \u201cWe always have transparent and honest conversations, but you\u2019re always trying to dive deeper, to continue to expand those finer points of the relationship. It\u2019s great. We get to talk ball. We\u2019re highly collaborative. He has great perspective on it. He sees the game really, really well. So I\u2019ve had a blast being around him every single day, just like last year. And we\u2019ve gotten to take it a step further, just more time on task, more time in the film room, more opportunities to evolve and do some different things here from an offensive standpoint. It\u2019s been a hell of a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking for the latest NFL Insider News & Rumors?<\/p>\n Be sure to follow NFL Trade Rumors<\/a> on X.com<\/a>\u00a0and FACEBOOK<\/a>\u00a0for breaking NFL News and Rumors for all 32 teams!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texans Texans OL coach Cole Popovich detailed what he\u2019s looking for in his offensive line and wants them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":950070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[15930,1028,7578,28133,3607,7,221,253,2368,8322,6,15986,533,222],"class_list":["post-950069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-texans","tag-azeez-al-shaair","tag-c-j-stroud","tag-calen-bullock","tag-cole-popovich","tag-demeco-ryans","tag-football","tag-houston","tag-houston-texans","tag-houstontexans","tag-jalen-pitre","tag-nfl","tag-nick-caley","tag-nico-collins","tag-texans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116948635711811956","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nTexans S Jalen Pitre<\/a> received an honorable mention on this list as well: \u201cHe\u2019s a nickel but can play safety. Don\u2019t think he gets nearly enough credit. Would love to have him,\u201d an NFC scout said. (Fowler)
\nHouston LB Azeez Al-Shaair<\/a> came in at number six on the off-ball linebacker version of the ranking: \u201cHe\u2019s the Dennis Rodman of linebackers,\u201d an NFL personnel evaluator said. \u201cHe gets in everyone\u2019s head. He can run all day and can play every down.\u201d (Fowler<\/a>)
\n\u201cHe\u2019s specialized by scheme a bit, but he\u2019s explosive and good in coverage,\u201d an NFL coordinator said. (Fowler)<\/p>\n