Here’s everything Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said following Day 2 of training camp, including his thoughts on the young receivers, tight end Foster Moreau and the relationship with running back David Montgomery.
Question: On his evaluation process for the punting competition
DeMeco Ryans: “Our punting competition is hot and heavy right now. Both Kai [Kroeger] and [Jack] Stonehouse have both had really good springs. Coming out, seeing both guys today, they’re picking up right where they left off. It’s going to be a really tight competition. What you look for at that spot, you’re looking for consistency. That’s what both guys are working towards: getting consistency on ball placement. Especially when we have plus 50, ‘how are you executing those plus 50 punts?’ We know those are huge for us when we can get backed up opportunities. We’re seeing how both guys compete out here in practice and also we have the evaluation of the preseason games. We’ll go through that and see which way we’ll go and which guy will win. Both guys have done an outstanding job so far.”
Q: On LB Jake Hansen getting injured in practice
Ryans: “Jake Hansen went down. It seems to be a foot injury. We don’t know the extent of it, it just happened. We’ll evaluate him and see how he progresses towards getting back healthy.”
Q: On what he likes most about RB David Montgomery
Ryans: “What I like best about David is his approach. You talk about a true professional. He shows up every day, prepared and ready to go. He’s very attentive in meetings. Seeing his demeanor in on the field, it’s a business-like approach. From my first call, I remember calling him when we first traded for him, that was the same call that I had, it was the same guy. He hasn’t changed from day one. It’s a business-like approach. He was that way when I saw him play in different places, in Chicago and in Detroit. He’s a very productive player. When he touches the football, he’s going to gain yards. He’s very productive and a very selfless player. He has shared the backfield in multiple spots. He’s not accustomed to that, but when he touches it, he’s going to bring some power. He’s going to bring some juice to our offense. Every run he gets, you see the force at which he runs with. He’s just a really great person to have on our team.”
Q: On what he has seen from RB Woody Marks’ development
Ryans: “Woody is that year two player where I see the jump happening. I saw it in the spring and I’m seeing it now in Training Camp. Woody has put the work in and he looks more confident. He looks more relaxed being in his second year, he’s confident in what he’s doing. I see a guy that is playing faster, making great decisions and I see a guy that is going to thrive and make some big plays for us.”
Q: On WR Jayden Higgins’ development.
Ryans: “Jayden, I put him in the same category as Woody [Marks]. He’s taken that year-two jump. You’re seeing a guy who we’re able to move around the formation a little bit more, get him inside the formation. He’s making some plays everywhere we put him. On the first play of practice today, he ran a great route and C.J. [Stroud] gave him a great ball. It just shows his growth, shows a guy you can rely on. A guy you can count on in those crunch situations and we’re going to need him. We need a guy to step up opposite of Nico [Collins] and be a threat. Jayden can be that guy for us.”
Q: On what stood out to him during the team period of practice
Ryans: “The one thing that stood out to me is we had some poor pre-snap penalties. We went backwards offensively. Those are some things that stood out where we can clean those things up. Defensively, we got to finish on a football better. We had a couple opportunities to take the football away and we didn’t. On both sides we have things we can clean up on coming back tomorrow.”
Q: On ‘precision’ being a key during Training Camp
Ryans: “Precision is always key for me. Precision starts with football IQ. Knowing what to do, knowing how to do it, but it’s also knowing how to adjust. Every time you line up, it’s never going to be exactly how you draw it up in your playbook. Can players handle motions? Can they adjust and adapt? Can they be precise with exactly what they’re supposed to do when it comes to communicating? Are you so confident to where when you line up, it doesn’t matter what an offense does or what a defense does? I’m preparing for that adjustment. I’m precise in how I approach the game. That’s been a key for me when I look back on last year. I look back at our first three games; we lose our first three games not on play style, not on effort, not on physicality. We lose those games on precision. Not being exactly where we’re supposed to be, not putting the football away in a precise manner in the fourth quarter. Those are the little things that cost you games that a lot of times they go unnoticed, but they show up in the biggest moments. We’re attacking that right now in Training Camp: precision, precision, precision. Are you on the details?”
Q: On how much he trust Offensive Line/ Offensive Run Game Coordinator Cole Popovich to develop offensive linemen
Ryans: “Cole Popovich has done a really good job when it comes to teaching. I think he has a unique style of teaching and getting it across to his guys. When you see their drill work, it’s the consistency at which he operates. It’s the same message over and over again. It’s the little precise details on foot placement. ‘How’s your angle? Where’s your backside hand?’ All of those little fine details that most of us have no idea about when we talk about offensive line play. We just see a guy get beat and we want to criticize him, but it’s those little fine details that allow you to be a really great offensive lineman. It can get boring, it can get monotonous, but as soon as you’re not on those small details that Coach Cole is teaching, that’s when you give up a big play. The veteran guys who come in, they have to do a really great job of unlearning a lot of things because they have been in other systems where they teach it one way. When you come here, we teach it another way. It’s how quickly you can unlearn what you’ve been doing, which is extremely hard. When you’ve done something for so long, it’s hard to unlearn it, but our guys are working at it. Cole’s doing a great job of taking time with those guys. He understands that it’s going to take a little bit of time for those guys to get caught up in how we do things. They’re moving in the right direction, improving daily; that’s all we ask.”
Q: On whether Offensive Line/ Offensive Run Game Coordinator Cole Popovich’s development speaks to the theme of ‘precision’
Ryans: “No doubt. It’s every position, no matter what position you play. It’ll always come down to how precise you are on the details.”
Q: On what DT Kayden McDonald has shown as a young defensive tackle
Ryans: “Kayden has really shown how strong he is. He’s probably one of the stronger guys that we have. When you see him doing drills, he’s knocking the coaches back a lot. Coaches are trying to hold bags and be tough guys, but Kayden is doing a great job of showing the strength that he has. Now it’s, ‘Can he pull it all in and consistently play with the proper hand placement, the proper footwork every single rep?’”
On what allows Offensive Line/ Offensive Run Game Coordinator Cole Popovich to be a tough coach and deliver his message to players
“To be a hard coach and to be on guys, it’s really behind the scenes. You really have to show guys that you care about them. Nobody’s going to listen to you if you come out, you’re barking at guys, you’re giving forceful commands and you don’t have a true relationship with that person. What you’re saying just doesn’t fall on the ear the right way. When you build the right relationship with guys, you can coach them hard and they’ll go that extra mile for you. The relationship building piece will never change in coaching. [Offensive Line/ Offensive Run Game Coordinator] Cole [Popovich], all of our coaches are doing a really great job of connecting. That’s what camp is about as well. In Training Camp, you spend a lot more time with your guys and it’s where you can truly build those connections to where you can coach them and know that, ‘My coach has my best interest in heart. He wants to see me succeed. He wants to see me be successful. I’m going to listen to everything that he tells me.’”
Q: On what he likes about TE Foster Moreau
Ryans: “Foster has done a great job in his career playing on the line of scrimmage. When it comes to blocking, he’s a tough player. I saw that in his tape in New Orleans. also back when he played with the Raiders, he brings that. Foster brings something you just can’t coach. He has a very fun personality, I really enjoy being around him. I talk about bringing joy every day, enjoying the day no matter the circumstance. Foster brings that type of joy. He always has a smile on his face, always working hard, but he knows how to keep it light as well. That’s needed when you go through a grueling camp as we go through. We need that joy from Foster and he brings it every day.”
Q: On whether the coaching staff understands his emphasis of being detailed
Ryans: “The detailed message, the precision message, the staff gets it. I’m really hard on the staff and ask them challenging questions when it comes to what they’re teaching the guys. It’s not about what our coaches know, but about what do the players know. It’s about what did they hear when you taught them that particular technique. Did they hear it exactly how you wanted it to be taught? There are details in coaching. There is also some humility that comes with coaching because you have to reach, maybe ten different guys in a room. You have to be able to reach all those guys and everybody receives the message in a different way. You have to be very detailed and thoughtful as you coach.”
Q: On how he evaluates the defenses depth
Ryans: “To evaluate the depth in camp is easy because we get a ton of reps. All these guys get a lot of reps in camp. All the guys are put in a lot of different positions. The guys who thrive, you see the depth shows up really in Training Camp when they get an opportunity to play a lot in the preseason games. A guy might be here on the practice field; he may be looking average, but then you put him in a game, put him in live action, he shows up and makes those plays. A lot of our depth will be decided when it comes to those preseason games, which we’re all excited to see.”
Q: On seeing WR Tank Dell working out
Ryans: “The daily Tank Dell question. Tank is out here and he’s working. He’s very eager, I would say. He’s eager to get back out there. It’s not from Tank, it’s me. I’m holding Tank back a little bit to make sure when he’s ready to go, he’s able to stay out there.”
Q: On how much he factors in time to throw for quarterbacks during practice
Ryans: “Factoring in time to throw with the quarterback, it’s really based on what’s the play concept that we have called. As we know, there’s quick game concepts, there’s seven step concepts. Depending on the concept, it depends on the defense and how quickly the ball needs to be delivered. It depends on what the quarterback has seen. One thing I’ve been harping on with our quarterbacks is, let’s be elite decision makers. You touch the football every single snap. As the quarterback, you have to make great decisions with the football. Sometimes a great decision, it may not be throwing a football. It may be tucking it, it may be running it, it may be throwing the ball in the dirt, but just make great decisions and know we always have that next play mentality.”
This article originally appeared on Texans Wire: Everything Texans HC DeMeco Ryans said after Day 2 of training camp
Reporting by Cole Thompson, Texans Wire / Texans Wire
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By Cole Thompson, Texans Wire | USA TODAY Network
