Notes and quotes from the Texans' third day of 2012 Training Camp presented by XFINITY at the Methodist Training Center, which drew a team-record 5,715 fans to the morning practice:
*The Texans signed defensive end Mitch King on Monday, bringing their roster count to 89. They released undrafted rookie defense end Tracy Robertson on Sunday. King (6-2, 280 was an All-American at Iowa who went undrafted in 2009. He spent the last two seasons on the New Orleans Saints' practice squad after stints with the Tennessee Titans, Indianapolis Colts and St. Louis Rams. "We liked him coming out of college," Texans head coach Gary Kubiak said. "He's a try-hard player. He reminded us a little bit of Tim Bulman, who we had here for a few years." A new provision of the Collective Bargaining agreement requires players to have a three-day acclimation period before they can practice in pads, so King will not be able to wear pads in practice until Wednesday.
*The setback that linebacker Darryl Sharpton suffered in his rehab on Sunday will keep him out for several weeks. "The news is not good, but it's not totally disappointing," Kubiak said. "He's going to miss some time. He has a hip issue that he kind of developed in his rehab process. He had a problem yesterday. We did a MRI on it and he's got a problem that will take a few weeks to heal. That's not good news from that standpoint. Does it mean that could he still be ready for the start of the season? Yes, he could, so we're going to keep our fingers crossed and put him back to work." Kubiak said the issue cannot be fixed by surgery and will just require time to heal. Tim Dobbins and Mister Alexander are the Texans' top healthy backups at inside linebacker.
*Cornerback Kareem Jackson missed practice with a left hamstring injury that also sidelined him on Sunday afternoon. "He's doing fine," Kubiak said. "I think Kareem is probably a day or two away. I think he's strictly day-to-day, but it gave some other guys a chance." Kubiak said cornerback Sherrick McManis had a "great morning and made some great plays out there" and that cornerbacks Brice McCain and Roc Carmichael also moved up in the pecking order in Jackson's absence. Inside linebacker Greg Williams, an undrafted rookie from Pittsburgh, pulled a hamstring and will miss an undetermined amount of time.
*Monday was the Texans' first practice in pads. They wore shells, shoulder pads with shorts and no leg pads. "We were really good at times and really bad at times," Kubiak said. "You put the pads on for the first time, you get people all over the ground. You get a little sloppy. We had some center exchange issues that we haven't had, but the game is played with pads. A lot of guys are running around in shorts and stuff, but you when you put that pads on, you find out who's going to be on your team. We've got to be a hell of a lot better than we were today."
*Running back Justin Forsett had an excellent morning, breaking off several long runs in the open field. A couple of his plays drew big cheers from the crowd as he displayed explosiveness and excellent vision along with sure hands as a receiver out of the backfield. "It was impressive," Kubiak said. "I told the team. You guys see it. What a pro. He comes out here, he can go all day. Very impressive in his work habits, knows what we're doing. Those are the kind of guys you're looking for to make you better. He let everybody on this team know today he plans on being here. That was an impressive practice." A former Seattle Seahawk, Forsett is competing with undrafted rookies Jonathan Grimes and Davin Meggett to be the Texans' third running back.
Quotes of the Day
"Kevin is a rock. You know what you're going to get every day as a player. Kevin does a lot of dirty work for our offense in the run game and those types of things. We know we can count on Kevin. Like always, he's having a good camp, and he's just a consistent player." – Texans head coach Gary Kubiak, on WR Kevin Walter
"This is a team that's really focused… This is a hungry group."- ILB Brian Cushing
"Physically, I feel great. Everything is going really well." – QB Matt Schaub
"T.J. (Yates) did a great job stepping in last year. He turned a lot of heads and surprised lots of people, but Matt's our guy. We missed him definitely down the stretch a little bit. It's great to have him back in a leadership role and back healthy. We need him if we're going to do some big things this year." – TE Owen Daniels, on Schaub
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