* Horsing around:* A good NFL offense usually begins and ends with a strong running game. The Texans used much of their team period Friday working on the run and the play action passing attack--two staples of the Denver Broncos' offense that head coach Gary Kubiak has brought to Houston.
The running backs received a lot of work, and at least one wide receiver was happy to help out blocking.
"That's just part of the offense," Andre Johnson said of the run game. "In a good offense, you have to be able to run the ball and the counter off the run is play action. So if you have a good run game, the play action works real well and it keeps the defense off-balance."
Johnson added that he is enjoying learning a new system and thinks this year's offense will be the best since he has arrived in
.
"I like it," Johnson said. "It's something new. Right now everyone is just trying to get everything down pat. Everything's going good. I like it and I'm excited about it."
After an injury-plagued 2005 season, Johnson has more to worry about than just learning a new offensive system. While he'd like to return to his Pro Bowl form of 2004, his goals for 2006 are pretty simple.
"The biggest thing is winning," Johnson said. "Since I've been here, we haven't had a winning season. My biggest thing is just wanting to win games. I'm just going to go out and do everything I can to get as many wins as possible."
Conductor Rosenfels:
but he's not stopping there.
For those of you in attendance, Rosenfels will be riding the Astros train in left field around the fifth inning Friday night when the Astros host the Cincinnati Reds.
Whistle up: The Texans hosted more than 250 high school coaches at their annual coaches clinic Friday. Many were from the
.
Visiting coaches observed practice and were given a quick clinic following Friday's workout courtesy of
special teams coach Joe Marciano. Marciano, along with some help from long snapper Bryan Pittman and kicker Kris Brown, demonstrated several fundamentals and techniques that are critical to the kicking game.
Texans All Access:While the players will be enjoying some time off from the field this weekend, they will still be engaging in a team activity. Texans season ticket holders and some lucky VIP guests will be treated to an unprecedented experience Saturday at Reliant Stadium.
Guests will get a chance to interact with all the newest Texans on Saturday and have an opportunity to get autographs. It's rare in professional sports that teams make their athletes available in the offseason, but the Texans are continuing to reach out to the
community and, in this case, their loyal fans.
Injury update:With Kubiak's first mini-camp less than a week away, some key players remain a question mark not only for Wednesday, but for the start of training camp at the end of July. After practicing Thursday, linebacker Shantee Orr became the latest victim of the injury bug today.
"Shantee (Orr sitting out), that's precautionary," Kubiak said Friday. "He practiced yesterday. I didn't want to be out here long today. We've had three good weeks, so if anything we just want to error on the side of caution, so we just decided to hold him out. But we're expecting everyone back. The big questions are Todd Wade, Kailee (Wong) and of course, now Jerome (Mathis) with his situation. We're hoping that Wade will be ready to go at training camp and we're hoping the other two won't be too long, but we're optimistic that they will play a big role for us this season at some point."
Things seem to be improving for running back Domanick Davis.
's backfield workhorse will be back in action soon.
"I'm hoping Domanick does something next week," Kubiak said. "We're actually just going to do a walk-through on Monday and Tuesday, and I hope he's going to be a part of that. I would actually like to see him get a few reps before we call it a summer, so I'm hoping everything will work out."
