Ten years ago, an excited Johnathan Joseph lined up for his NFL debut in Week 1 of the preseason.
Wearing No. 22 for the Bengals, the rookie cornerback found himself face to face with Washington's Santana Moss, a wide receiver fresh off of an All-Pro season.
It was a play Joseph would rather forget.
"I remember the first play of the game I was up against Santana Moss and I was like 'Man, goodness' because first play I went up there and pressed him, he just shot right by me," Joseph said. "I was going back to the sideline, I didn't know if I was cut out for it."
Joseph knew he needed to calm his nerves. It didn't take long. On the same drive, he deflected Mark Brunell's pass that resulted in an interception caught by teammate Keiwan Ratliff.
"I was the youngest guy on the team back then and I had a lot of growing pains to go through but I was just excited to be out there with the guys and just wanted to compete," Joseph said.
That first preseason game was definitely a welcome-to-the-NFL moment, but Joseph would go on to record 20 passes defensed in the regular season.
Now in his 11th season, the two-time Pro Bowler uses his experience as a lesson to rookies.
"Like I tell these guys, it's not like a practice where you can chatter all day and talk and you can get your emotions caught up in it a lot because the game is a long game and sometimes the emotions run high," Joseph said. "It tends to take some of your energy and zap your energy away from you so I just try to preach that to those young guys that are out here in practice doing those things."
The Texans will travel to Santa Clara for their first preseason game on Sunday, Aug. 14 with kickoff set for 6 p.m. CT.
Former star WR Randy Moss stopped by #TexansCamp practice on Tuesday.
