<\/p>\n
Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans, left, talks with Las Vegas Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak during a joint practice at the NFL football training camp Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, in Houston.<\/p>\n
Ashley Landis\/AP Photo\/Ashley Landis<\/p>\n
Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza (15) and quarterback Kirk Cousins (8) work out during a joint practice with the Houston Texans at the NFL football training camp Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, in Houston.<\/p>\n
Ashley Landis\/AP Photo\/Ashley Landis<\/p>\n
Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud (7) and quarterback Davis Mills (10) work out during a joint practice with the Las Vegas Raiders at the NFL football training camp Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, in Houston.<\/p>\n
Ashley Landis\/AP Photo\/Ashley Landis<\/p>\n
Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud works out during a joint practice with the Las Vegas Raiders at the NFL football training camp Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, in Houston.<\/p>\n
Ashley Landis\/AP Photo\/Ashley Landis<\/p>\n
HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 Two decades ago, DeMeco Ryans and Gary and Klint Kubiak spent a lot of time together on the Houston Texans practice fields when Ryans was the team\u2019s star linebacker and Klint\u2019s dad coached the team.<\/p>\n
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On Tuesday, the three were all back on those same practice fields with Ryans coaching the Texans, Klint coaching Las Vegas and Gary looking on as Houston and the Raiders held a joint practice ahead of Thursday\u2019s preseason game.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt was real easy working with Klint,\u201d Ryans said. \u201cI\u2019ve known Klint since he was a teenager when he was out here with his dad at practices\u2026 so just really cool talking to him, catching up. It was easy to schedule practice. Very like-minded in our approach to the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kubiak, who is in his first season as the Raiders\u2019 coach, acknowledged Tuesday\u2019s full circle moment but didn\u2019t allow himself much time to think about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s such a blessing to get to coach in the NFL and to come back here where my dad coached and where I saw so many practices it was a really cool feeling,\u201d he said. \u201cBut very quickly erased all those feelings and just got right to practice. So, I\u2019ll think of the warm and fuzzy stuff later.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also watching the two-hour practice in Houston was Raiders\u2019 minority owner Tom Brady and Texans\u2019 Hall of Fame receiver Andre Johnson.<\/p>\n
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It was a big practice for No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza, who got extensive work with the first-team offense against Houston\u2019s starters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to see him going against the Texans 1s,\u201d Kubiak said. \u201cThat was our plan all along. I thought he did some good things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mendoza had a great long throw to Brock Bowers early in practice but also had an interception returned for a touchdown by Jalen Pitre.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, it was a positive day,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cThere were plays that I loved and plays that I wish I had back. But in reality, that\u2019s a lie I don\u2019t wish I had them back because it\u2019s a growing experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Houston star defensive end Will Anderson was impressed with Mendoza.<\/p>\n
\u201cA ton of respect for him,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cI loved his energy. I loved the way he was cheering his O-line on, cheering his team on. He\u2019s going to be a really great quarterback in this league.\u201d<\/p>\n
Starting quarterback Kirk Cousins got plenty of work in too and also had an interception returned for a touchdown by a Houston defense that was among the best in the league last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good challenge,\u201d he said. \u201cYou feel their rush. They do a good job pursuing and playing fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
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There was a small dustup involving Las Vegas defensive end Maxx Crosby and some Texans but other than that the teams got along Tuesday, which both coaches were thankful for.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, with joint practices, the main thing is you\u2019re just trying to get work in and get each other better without it turning into a melee,\u201d Kubiak said. \u201cI thought our guys were very mature. \u201c<\/p>\n
The Texans had a good showing from their running backs on Tuesday with Ryans raving about their work after Woody Marks scored two touchdowns.<\/p>\n
Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud was happy with the work of his team against the Raiders.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt went great,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought we made a lot of plays. Of course there\u2019s always things to clean up. We moved the ball very well, ran the ball great, threw the ball great. Overall we had a really good day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Las Vegas offensive lineman Jackson Powers-Johnson didn\u2019t practice Tuesday and Kubiak said he doesn\u2019t expect him to play Thursday after he left Monday\u2019s practice with an injury.<\/p>\n
Houston receiver Jayden Higgins left practice Tuesday with an injury and Ryans said he was being evaluated for a leg injury.<\/p>\n
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See AP\u2019s full NFL coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans, left, talks with Las Vegas Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak during a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":976782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[31056,797,1028,3607,3619,7,221,10370,8322,569,294,8357,1744,393,2455,2454,6563,6,27878,27876,122515,116404,525,128310,1369,13122,2931],"class_list":["post-976781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-las-vegas-raiders","tag-andre-johnson","tag-brock-bowers","tag-c-j-stroud","tag-demeco-ryans","tag-fernando-mendoza","tag-football","tag-houston","tag-jackson-powers-johnson","tag-jalen-pitre","tag-jayden-higgins","tag-kirk-cousins","tag-klint-kubiak","tag-las-vegas","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-lasvegas","tag-lasvegasraiders","tag-maxx-crosby","tag-nfl","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-40798-ap-nevada-sports-only","tag-product-40815-ap-texas-sports-only","tag-raiders","tag-texans-raiders-kubiak-mendoza","tag-tom-brady","tag-will-anderson","tag-woody-marks"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976781","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=976781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/976782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=976781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=976781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=976781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}