HOUSTON -- The plan began early in practice. I wanted to count drops as a measure of how focused the Houston Texans receivers were today.
The plan ended early. They weren't dropping anything. (By the end of practice there were one or two drops, but the tally remained very low.)
Today, the second day of training camp, was a great day for the Texans' receivers. Perhaps not coincidentally, it was also a good day for quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who was the best I've seen him since he came to Houston.
In an early drill where receivers ran routes against air, the only ball that hit the ground was an overthrow by rookie quarterback Tom Savage. Later, with one-on-one matchups against defensive backs, it took great coverage for the two passes that did to fall incomplete.
One one such play, with Josh Victorian covering him, undrafted rookie Travis Labhart made a leaping grab after running what looked like a very well-executed route. Later, Fitzpatrick completed a perfectly placed ball deep to Keshawn Martin on a post route.
Mike Thomas caught everything that I saw go his way, grabbing one low throw just before it hit the ground.
EZ Nwachukwu is a guy I haven't seen make mistakes at all. Lacoltan Bester had a great day catching passes mostly from current third-string quarterback Savage.
And I can't leave a post about receivers without praising the (two days of) camp second-year receiver DeAndre Hopkins has had. Amid his nice day, Hopkins made an excellent catch up an invisible ladder with Brandon Harris covering him during a 7-on-7 drill.
Really the only player who looked a bit rusty was Andre Johnson, which is probably a result of these being the first days Johnson has caught passes from Fitzpatrick.
