just listening to 610 am who are at practice

sounds like 86 guys in camp today, any new or FA players can't practice till Thurs. when new NFL year is set to begin, all CBA negotiations done.

Cushing apparently still rehabbing for up to 6 more weeks.

I think Leach will mainly be missed in those off-tackle plays - Example: Foster's long run against Oakland. When Leach blocked a guy, that guy was out of the play. Casey (or Vickers or whomever) will just have to get sufficiently in the way so Foster can use his skills, which are considerable. I think AF is going to be a marked man this year so the Texans will need to spread the runs around (Ward, Tate) and get creative....

LanceZierlein Lance Zierlein
.@jharrisfootball says JJ Watt is KILLIING IT at practice today

Good to hear that JJ is starting things off with a bang. I hope this continues...

Huh? Where'd this come from? 610?

I must have heard wrong, Chron says he is cleared to practice after knee surgery. maybe just coaches working guys in slowly. sorry on confusion, my likely misinterpretation.

OK, no prob..

I look at it like this, Vontae was an excellent lead blocker, a so-so receiver, and a non-existant run threat. Casey (hopefully) will do acceptably as a run blocker, will be an excellent receiver, and quite possibly a threat to run in certain sets. So we give up something in the run game, and get better in the pass game. An acceptable trade-off.

Fullback
 

Other than Casey, we have R UDFA Justin Bartlett, 6-0, 237, Carrol-Montana, and R UDFA Zack Pauga, 6-1, 246, from the obligatory Colorado State. Maybe we will bring in another vet FB for competition.

Pics

Quotes

The RFA's (Joesph, Manning, even Foster, etc.) can't practice until Aug 4 because of a weird league rule.... but they're out there.....

those are some good quotes and pics

probably lots of pics around, here are 54 more
http://houston.cbslocal.com/photo-ga...ns-camp-day-1/

and a day 1 practice wrapup http://www.houstontexans.com/news/ar...b-f8e1a328211f

Atleast I got the part about Cushing a little bit, so he is recovering and likely back to contact practice in a few days, only walk through and running practice for now.

And a good podcast with Pete Priscoe of CBS Sports making training camp rounds at Texans today.
http://houston.cbslocal.com/2011/08/...er-on-defense/

some more photos http://www.nfl.com/photos/09000d5d82...000d5d82126b7c

McClain_on_NFL John McClain
Andre Johnson suffered a dislocated finger. Gary Kubiak said he hopes Johnson will be back on field this afternoon.


Good news after being worried about him the last couple of hours this morning, not knowing how serious it was.

McClain_on_NFL John McClain
Texans have agreed on a two- year contract with FB Lawrence Vickers.


Yea baby!

Just tweeted from SR 610,



fb Lawrence Vickers former Browns FB signed a 2 year contract. No details given.

McClain_on_NFL John McClain
Vickers' deal is two years, $3 million and &500,000 to sign.


Good value IMO.

Good pics and good reads. As always Arky, thanks for your efforts.

From the chron:

Somehow, I think this is already Vicker's job to lose..

Saw this on a PFT post:

"Per a source with knowledge of the cap numbers, here are the seven teams that were in the red:**** Raiders ($17.3 million), Steelers ($11.5 million), Texans ($8.5 million), Vikings ($5.6 million), Lions ($5 million), Cowboys ($3.7 million), and Panthers ($939,000)."

It will be interesting to see how they chop $8.5MM from the payroll.....by tomorrow......

Article states this is thru Tuesday, so Vickers' deal is probably not included in that figure.

AJ, Ryans and smith redid their contracts