Houston Texans rookies got their first taste of an NFL workday when they reported for minicamp this week. The Texans rookie minicamp kicked off Friday with QB C.J. Stroud taking his first reps with the offense and DE Will Anderson Jr. on defense.
"The most important thing for me is for those guys to have a just a general understanding of the terminology, offense and defense terminology," Head Coach DeMeco Ryans said. "Learning the offense, it's like learning a new language, so then you have to learn how to speak that language and speak it fluently, especially for C.J. stepping in the huddle and making the play calls. How much and how quickly can they grasp the terminology and be able to communicate that effectively on the field."
Ryans, who participated in his own Texans rookie minicamp 17 years ago, wants this year's rookie class to work on executing the basics in the two-day camp. The transition from college to the NFL requires constant and clear communication in the huddle.
"It's the simple things that they have to get used to that's different from the college game where a lot of things are coming from the sideline, a lot of pictures, signal-based things, and they're not used to verbalizing and communicating a lot," Ryans said.
The Texans rookie minicamp roster consisted of nine drafted players, nine college free agents signed, as well as four tryout players. Veterans will join the rookies during organized team activities (OTAs) later this month. Following practice, players had a chance to recover, hydrate and fuel up for an afternoon of meetings.
"We'll have special teams meeting, have individual meetings," Ryans said. "So those guys will come in, be able to watch the film with their coaches, and the coaches will be able to coach them up individually on things they need to improve on. Then we'll have a benchmark for tomorrow to see that actual improvement and show them again after tomorrow's practice."
Texans rookie minicamp wraps up Saturday at the Houston Methodist Training Center.
