STOOTS ON TEXANS
Texans OTAs: 11 observations you need to know about from Texans first June practice
Jun 1, 2022, 9:27 pm
File photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images
The Houston Texans had another open practice as the early stages of their 2022 campaign get off the ground. Here are 11 observations about the first practice of June.
1. We start at the end of practice. The Houston Texans wore orange shirts with a message of support for the victims in the tragic shooting of Uvalde. Lovie Smith opened his post-practice press conference speaking on the violence in our country. Smith said the Texans' players organized a donation of $200,000 which the McNair family will match.
2. Derek Stingley Jr. did very little work today with the team. I would characterize it as a mental rep day as he participated in walkthroughs. Lovie Smith spoke glowingly after the practice about his defensive back room and said he expects Stingley Jr. to play in training camp. I would not be concerned with Stingley Jr.'s load management at this point.
3. Speaking of the new defensive backs, Steven Nelson showed up big in the workout. Nelson had a diving pass breakup and was constantly around the play as the veteran outside cornerback. He was covering well underneath and deep all day. He is ahead of where previous veteran corners have been in this defense.
4. Desmond King is flying around the field. King darted into a nearly completed pass and batted it away. It was as clean as clean could be from a timing standpoint. It will be interesting to see how King develops with an additional year in Lovie Smith's defense.
5. It wasn't a great day for the wideouts. There were a few drops, and no deep completions seemed to materialize. Brandin Cooks is quick in finding space and being available for a pass. No other wideouts stood out today.
6. Rookie wide receiver John Metchie's recovery is hard to pinpoint. He doesn't stretch with the team in team stretch and hardly does anything resembling a drill. Metchie though is not working out on other fields with players working back from injury. He does catch balls from time to time though. Lovie Smith simply said the expectation is for Metchie to improve each day and he's doing well in that regard. The head coach refused to put a timetable on Metchie's workout debut but did praise players who amassed mental reps when they couldn't work out.
7. Veteran wideout Chris Conley had a ball bounce off his hands for a near interception. The near interception was almost made by rookie linebacker Christian Harris. Harris was distraught that he couldn't reel in the ball, but it was fun to see the linebacker cover a wide receiver.
8. While the wideouts didn't stand out today, the tight ends did, but in a bad way. I will have to go look, and maybe I am being too harsh through just two practices, but this is one of the more unimpressive tight end groups in recent memory for the Texans.
9. The offensive linemen had a few rough moments. Rookie Austin Deculus had multiple "welcome to the NFL moments" when speed and what contact is allowed forced him to miss some blocks. Maliek Collins, who was absent last week from the open workout, diced through the line for what would have been a massive negative play. Rasheem Green had a nice play that would have been a big tackle for a loss in a live rep. Charlie Heck played some left tackle today. Tytus Howard was out today as he and his wife welcomed a son into the world. Laremy Tunsil is still not at the optional portion of the preseason.
10. Dameon Pierce should excite fans of the team. The fourth-round rookie flashed a few times in this workout. Once he beat a linebacker to the sidelines, planted, and turned around for an easy catch and nice gain. Later in running drills, Pierce's rep looked among the most successful in gaining yards. Pierce is fighting for opportunities, but fighting for more chances with the ball in his hand is a great sign for the future of the rushing attack.
11. Rex Burkhead was asked about Pep Hamilton's offensive system and somehow morphed his answer into praise of starting quarterback Davis Mills. "I think Davis (Mills) has done a great job making sure that we're all in the right place. He's so comfortable this year and in the spring and really with the playbook." Burkhead went on to detail how Mills was instructing players where to be on newly installed plays and called that "pretty awesome" for a second-year quarterback.
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How mounting mistakes make Astros setbacks harder to ignore
Jul 10, 2025, 3:10 pm
The late ex-catcher and longtime broadcaster Joe Garagiola wrote a book called “Baseball is a Funny Game.” He wasn’t kidding, whether he meant funny as amusing, peculiar, or both (he meant both). The Astros lived it this past week, following a very satisfying three-game slap down of a previously red-hot Dodgers team in Los Angeles by having a Cleveland Guardians squad that staggered into Houston on a 10-game losing streak sweep the Astros three straight. As I put it during one of our “Stone Cold ‘Stros” podcast episodes this week: baseball, like a word that rhymes with spit, happens. The Astros try to clean it up this weekend with a chance to kick dirt on the Texas Rangers’ presently extremely faint American League West hopes. While no fun to endure, the Astros getting swept is no big deal. They weren’t going the rest of the season without any more bumps in the road. Unless they falter badly and/or Seattle has a huge rest of the way, the Astros' 29-10 surge before the Cleveland series is the stretch that will most define them making the playoffs for the ninth year in a row. The Astros hadn’t lost a home series since early April. Their longest losing streak all season remains just three games. They have to beat the Rangers Friday night to keep it that way.
Erratic starting pitchers Lance McCullers and Jack Leiter match up in the series opener, then it’s a pair of humdinger matchups. Saturday Framber Valdez goes to battle opposite Jacob deGrom. Sunday Hunter Brown starts on four days rest for just the second time this season countering the Arlington team’s Nathan Eovaldi. Framber tries to bounce back from his worst showing in over two months. Brown tries to rebound from his worst start since July 6 of last year. deGrom is quite a story. There has been no more dominant starting pitcher in his generation. It’s just that deGrom almost makes McCullers’s injury history look not so bad. Jacob deGrom won National League Rookie of the Year in 2014. He won back-to-back NL Cy Young Awards in 2018 and 2019, then finished third in the short 2020 COVID season. In 2021 he was off to what if maintained would have been one of the greatest seasons ever. 15 starts with a 1.08 earned run average. 92 innings pitched, a comical total of just 40 hits allowed, with only 11 walks, and 146 strikeouts. Sicko stuff. Then his shoulder fell off. deGrom missed over a year, came back and made 11 starts in 2022. All of that as a New York Met. The Rangers then crossed their fingers and gave him a five-year 185-million dollar free agent contract. DeGrom lasted six starts in 2023 before needing his second Tommy John surgery. The Rangers of course went on to win the World Series without him. deGrom returned to throw 10 innings late last season and looked good. With everyone around the Rangers holding their breath, deGrom has not missed a start this season. While not striking out batters near his rate in the past, deGrom has been fabulous. He’ll take the mound against the Astros sporting a 9-2 record (for a losing team) and 2.29 ERA. deGrom's career ERA is 2.50. He is 37 years old.
Options dwindling
All you can ask of players is that they prepare well, be mentally focused, and play their best. There is only so much juice to be squeezed from lemons. Zack Short, Cooper Hummel, and Taylor Trammell each played every inning of the Guardians series. They are 30, 30, and 27 years old respectively. Short has the highest career big league batting average of the three. That average is .169. Hummel sits at .167, Trammell at .165. Short went zero for 11 with seven strikeouts. Hummel went one for eleven and struck out in his last six at bats. Trammell actually had a good series going three for eleven including a three-run homer and a double. Bigger picture, manager Joe Espada is filling out a lineup card with one hand tied behind his back.
Espada’s task got no easier with the latest seemingly Astros-nomically inept medical work. It is mind-blowingly ridiculous that Jake Meyers further damaged a calf muscle while taking the field Wednesday night, just three days after he left a game with that calf ailing him. Organizationally the Astros look like a clown show on this (pretty sure Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez would co-sign). At least the All-Star break arriving after play Sunday will cover four days of Meyers’s absence, which is a good bet to extend beyond that, maybe well beyond that. That absence will be sorely felt. Beyond his elite patrol work in center field, Meyers’s offense this season made the leap from atrocious to well above average. About to come off the injured list, Chas McCormick gets one last chance to revive his Astros’ career. Decent prospect Jacob Melton is a center fielder who remains out injured. Kenedy Corona was called up this week when Christian Walker went on paternity leave. Corona also plays center field but is not a meaningful prospect. If Meyers is to miss months not weeks, general manager Dana Brown almost has to pursue an outfielder via trade.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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