Whether it’s a promising season like the upcoming one, or a dismal one like 2021 or 2022, Houston Texans training camp is my favorite time of year on the sports calendar, largely because I am busy virtually every minute of the day. Between my early morning radio show, Texans practices in the morning, media sessions at lunchtime, and articles here and podcast recordings in the afternoon, every minute of the day has something happening. I love it.
This season, we get training camp a week earlier, because of the Texans’ participation in the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, OH, on August 1. The rest of the league, aside from the Texans’ Hall of Fame Game opponent, the Chicago Bears, starts training camp next week. Here, Christmas comes a week early, with the first practice this Thursday, July 18.
With that in mind, here are the four storylines that are most intriguing to me at the outset of Houston Texans Training Camp, 2024 edition:
4. Kenyon Green and the battle at left guard
If there is an Achilles heel on what should be one of the most electric offenses in the league, it’s the interior of the offensive line, where second year center Juice Scruggs will move to his natural center position after a season at left guard, and left guard is open to completion between the remade Kenyon Green, Kendrick Green, and Jarrett Patterson. The headliner in this battle is Kenyon Green, who missed all of last season, so that surgeons could put his body back together again. Green’s had a myriad of injuries since being drafted in 2022 in the first round. More importantly, Green has used the time off to completely reshape his body type, and for the first time since arriving in the NFL, he has the physique of a potential mauling left guard. This will be one of the top position battles to watch.
3. Incorporating new weapons
The Texans made major upgrades at the starting tailback position, with Joe Mixon coming over in a trade from Cincinnati, and at wide receiver, trading for four time Pro Bowler, Stefon Diggs. Watching Mixon do his thing in this offense at training camp should get Texans fans very excited after a training camp of overwhelmed Dameon Pierce last year. Diggs is the interesting one here. If he had been okay with fewer targets, Diggs would likely still be a Buffalo Bill. However, he is very vocal when he’s not getting the ball. Here’s the thing — there is a REALLY good chance he sees the ball less now, on a team with Nico Collins and Tank Dell. How does Diggs handle that, if indeed it plays out that way? So far, everything has been awesome with Diggs and his teammates in offseason workouts, but the rubber meets the road in camp, and REALLY meets the road in September. The pressure is on offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik to make it all work, a challenge he welcomes, I’m sure.
2. What does camp look and feel like?
I don’t think it’s a reach at all to think this Texans training camp will be the biggest circus atmosphere of any Texans camp in team history. The team employs the most popular head coach they’ve ever had, they employ the quarterback who is the envy of practically every fan base in football, and the star power of this team is off the charts. Tickets for the camp sessions where they are allowing fans were gone in an hour. In 2021, you could have stood in the parking lot for an hour with two tickets and a hundred bucks stapled to them, and people would just as soon run you over than accept the tickets and the money.
1. C.J. owns the place
Last season, Stroud was a rookie, who wasn’t officially named the starter until just before the start of the season (even though it was obvious who the best guy was). Stroud was looking to build trust with his teammates, learn the playbook, and get acclimated to life in the NFL. Stroud’s teammates have already said this spring that there is a different edge to Stroud heading into his sophomore year, that he is far more vocal in getting teammates to focus and improve. Get used to this, Texans fans. Good lord willing, training camp is the C.J. Stroud Show for the next decade.
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This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
