With a band aid on his chin, Tank Dell stood at the podium, ready to field questions after his sixth day of training camp.
"Just a scratch, I'm good," he said, waving off any concerns.
Scratched up or not, the rookie wide receiver is hard to miss at camp these days in between his reps on offense or special teams in the return game.
"He's extremely fun to coach," OC Bobby Slowik said. "That would be the first thing I have to say about Tank [Dell] is just he is a joy to coach. He's always listening, he's [intentional], he wants to work. I think I mentioned in the offseason just how hungry he is, how much he prepares, and he knows how much he has to prepare just [in] how different this was in college. And he goes out, and things you talk about he puts on tape, he does. And he's an elite separator and it shows up."
It's hard to not root for Dell.
Houston Cougars head coach, Dana Holgorsen, even stopped by to watch Dell during Tuesday's practice. The Texans third-round pick began his collegiate career at Independence Community College in Kansas before arriving at the University of Houston where racked up 2,904 receiving yards and 28 touchdowns in three seasons under Holgorsen.
Now, the 5-10, 165-pound wide receiver hopes to make the same impact for the Houston Texans. As a rookie, Dell admits the the biggest transition for him has been learning the offense.
"I will say just the playbook and the attention to detail – everything is more detailed than college," Dell said. "Like the splits, alignments, what foot is supposed to be up, blocking techniques and everything. At the end of the day, it's still football and like I said, my teammates helped me, so I was good."
This offseason, Dell dove into the playbook and worked with some of his teammates, including QB C.J. Stroud and the receivers, out in Los Angeles. In training camp, second-year players like Derek Stingley Jr. and Jalen Pitre are communicating with Dell both during and after practice.
"They've been doing an amazing job," Dell said. I don't know if you all have seen, but after practice Sting (Stingley) will come up and tell me somethings that he thinks I should get better at and he'll ask me questions like if I get him on something in practice, then what could help him and things like that. Jalen is an all-out player. He hustles every play, and you can see through his practice like he makes you want to practice hard and every time you catch the ball go sprint up and score a touchdown because of how he carries himself. Then on the field he comes up to me and says things to get me going and I get him going, so it's fun."
The Texans will practice next on Thursday for Day 7 of training camp at the Houston Methodist Training Center.
