The good news with preseason football is that it means regular season football is right around the corner. The bad news with preseason football is that it can get to be quite the grind, as the dog days of August roll on. Fortunately, for the first time since 2019, we detour favorite flavor of preseason football game on Saturday at NRG Stadium — a preseason football game following two spirited days of joint practices between the two opponents.
The practices between the Miami Dolphins and Houston Texans had some moments for both teams, and for the Texans, that constitutes progress. Now, on Saturday afternoon, we will get these two teams in a game situation. So let’s lay out a few things to watch for in the Texans’ only home game of the 2023 preseason slate. Here we go:
Old friends, new enemies
The two head coaches in this game, the Texans’ DeMeco Ryans and the Dolphins’ Mike McDaniel, are both branches off of the coaching tree of San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan, having been on the staff there together for several seasons. For their respective teams now, while each has the title of “head coach,” they are the straw that stirs the drink on one particular side of the football. McDaniel is the brains behind the Dolphin offense and Ryans, likewise, is the architect of an improved Texans defense. It’s just a preseason game, but hopefully both guys have a chess move or two that they’ve been saving for the other. Pride has no “preseason” designation.
Texans secondary gets tested
While the Houston Texans’ wide receiver room is probably better than the NFL experts are giving it credit for, it still doesn’t have a weapon like the Dolphins’ Tyreek Hill. This will be a fantastic test for second year cornerback Derek Stingley, Jr. who has had a good camp, so good that the Texans’ quarterbacks seem to avoid throwing at him. Jalen Pitre closed out the first joint practice with a pick six of Tua Tagovailoa, as he looks to take the next step from “promising rookie” to Pro Bowler.
C.J. Stroud, Chapter Two
On the other side of the football, this will be Texan fans’ first chance to get a look at C.J. Stroud in a home game. Hopefully, it will be a longer look than we all got in the first preseason game in New England. This “what to watch for” bullet point is as much about the texans’ offensive line as it is Stroud. Against New England, Stroud was pressured on virtually every drop back. In practice this week, Stroud was again being flushed out of the pocket quite a bit, forcing him to tuck the ball away and run (on the bright side, he seems good at it!), or improvise and throw on the run (again, bright side, good at that, too!). A couple quarters worth of smooth running offense and no big hits on Stroud would be huge progress.
The Tank Dell Phenomenon
Dell, the third round rookie wide receiver out of the University of Houston, has been the biggest revelation in camp, thus far. All the things that were on display in the win over New England (5 coaches, 65 yards, touchdown catch) were a microcosm of what we’ve seen throughout camp. In the first joint practice on Wednesday, Dell had three touchdown catches in a 15 play stretch during the second 11-on-11 session. The bottom line is that Dell gets open against EVERYBODY who tries to cover him. If the Texans receiver group is going to surprise people this season, Dell projects to be a huge part of the improvement.
Listen to Sean Pendergast on SportsRadio 610 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays. Also, follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/SeanTPendergast, on Instagram at instagram.com/sean.pendergast, and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SeanTPendergast.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
