What You Need to Know About Houston Texans Training Camp

It’s been a busy few weeks, here and around the country. Hurricanes, an assassination attempt, an inordinate number of celebrity deaths, national and local. It’s been rough, man. Normally, we’d have to wait another ten days or so for Texans training camp to roll around and soothe our psychological wounds. But this summer, Christmas is coming early, and the Texans’ road to the Super Bowl (fingers crossed) begins this week.

Like a gunshot at the start of a long race, ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter sent out this tweet this morning on X:

The Texans’ rookies and veterans report to training camp today, making them the first team to have all of their players in camp, ready to begin preparing for the upcoming season. It’s time to get going. pic.twitter.com/twDsDpNJUf

–Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 17, 2024

It’s time to go, indeed, and if you want to get even more excited, here’s another fact from the old Schefter, regarding Texans QB phenom CJ Stroud:

Last season, CJ Stroud became the eighth starting quarterback since 1950 to win a playoff game. Good news for Houston? Five of the previous seven quarterbacks also won a playoff game in their second season, and two of them, Ben Roethlisberger and Russell Wilson, won the Super Bowl, according to the stats. @EpKap. https://t.co/EqLLpI6fkE

–Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 17, 2024

If that doesn’t excite you, then congratulations on being a corpse who can open a website and read words. If you’re excited enough and want to get the basics of Texans training camp, read on because here are the answers to some frequently asked questions:

When do the festivities begin?
As Schefter pointed out above, the players already returned to the building on Wednesday, but the first practice will be Thursday morning, July 18, starting at 9 a.m. The first practices will likely be without protective gear. SportsRadio 610, which I am a part of, will be covering the practices live for the first two weeks of the preseason.

When will fans be able to experience things in person?
If you are a fan, DO NOT show up on July 18th to attend practice. The first practice open to fans will be Tuesday, July 23rd. Here is another “don’t”: DO NOT show up on July 23rd, or any of the other seven practices open to fans without a ticket in hand. Tickets for the open practices were distributed a few weeks ago and they went quickly. All practices are sold out. All practices open to fans start at 9:00 a.m., except Sunday, August 11th, which will be at 4:30 p.m.

Why is there a HUGE gap in practices here in Houston in early August?
The Texans, as you probably know, will be playing in the annual Hall of Fame Game, which will kick off the NFL preseason, on Thursday, August 1st in Canton, Ohio. The Texans’ next preseason game will be the following Friday in Pittsburgh. Instead of driving all the way back to Texas and then turning around and heading back north, the team plans to stay in Ohio and practice the week of August 4th in the Cleveland area. They will return from Pittsburgh the following weekend and begin practicing in Houston at the aforementioned evening practice on August 11th.

When will the roster be reduced to regular season size?
Once practices and games are complete, with the final event being a home preseason game against the Los Angeles Rams on Saturday, August 24, general manager Nick Caserio and head coach DeMeco Ryans will take the next few days to whittle the roster down to 53 players. The deadline to submit all cuts will be Tuesday, August 27, at 3 p.m. local time.

Listen to Sean Pendergast on SportsRadio 610 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays. Also follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/SeanTPendergaston Instagram at instagram.com/sean.pendergast, and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SeanTPendergast.