The Houston Texans will hold their second intra-squad scrimmage this week, head coach and general manager Bill O'Brien announced Saturday.
"We'll have another scrimmage similar to the way we did the scrimmage the other night, but it'll be on Wednesday," O'Brien said. "I believe we've got to get the roster down on Thursday, but it'll be basically like last week."
The Texans held their first scrimmage inside NRG Stadium on Thursday night, two weeks ahead of their regular season opener at Kansas City. With no preseason games, the team hoped to get additional film on players trying to make the roster. This year, the league has expanded the practice squad from 12 to 16 players with the active roster set at 53.
"I think because we watch so much film and we study it together as a staff, we have a pretty good feel of the depth in each position," O'Brien said. "I do think every day you're learning something because somebody – like the other night, anybody that was at that scrimmage that knows anything about football saw A.J. Moore (Jr.). A.J. Moore did a lot of good things in that scrimmage, right? Jacob Martin. Now it's more about how you use guys. How would you deploy these guys from week to week because of their unique skill sets. Lonnie Johnson (Jr.), the receivers. I think that's more about what we're looking at. I think we have a good feel for each position."
Houston began padded practices on August 14 at the Houston Methodist Training Center with roughly 80 players. After two weeks of practices and one scrimmage, O'Brien feels good about the state of the team. With the exception of possible free agent moves, he doesn't expect too many major shakeups before the final roster cuts next week.
"This is a different year and just really for me, there's definitely an attachment to a lot of these guys because I believe that they've done everything that I've asked them to do," O'Brien said. "So I think when you're out there at practice, I know you are every day, you're looking at our team. Now, how we use guys and do different things, that will be game plan wise. But of course we could always do – obviously we've done some things over the last couple years. Brought some guys in, moved some guys out, but I think you're looking at the majority of the players on our practice field, that's our team."
The Texans kick off their 2020 regular season on Thursday, September 10 against the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7:20 p.m. CT on NBC and SportsRadio 610.
Check out some photos from the Houston Texans first Thursday night scrimmage.