The Houston Texans have met with scores of prospects at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.
With the Texans having their first and second-round selections for the first time 2019, Houston’s personnel department is attempting to get their hands on as many of the prospects as possible and glean information.
When general manager Nick Caserio met with reporters on March 1, he provided some insight as to what the Texans are looking for when they meet with prospects in Indianapolis.
“I’d say philosophically in terms of players, like competitiveness, toughness, I would say consistency and grit, and a certain level of aptitude or intelligence, so when you have a one-on-one conversation, those are some of the things you might be able to glean,” Caserio said. “The way we’re set up is try to steer it towards football as much as possible, so let them kind of teach us what they know because everybody’s baseline of understanding what they were asked to do is different.”
Caserio used the example of a receiver and how they must have an understanding of their job running a pattern as it relates to the rest of the receivers.
Said Caserio: “What one receiver is asked to do at one place is different than another receiver and when you’re just watching them play, you don’t really have an understanding of what they’re asked to do. You just try to ascertain some of that information, try to get a baseline of understanding. The reality is the baseline of where they’re starting when they walk in our building is pretty low, so then it’s going to be a matter of how quickly are they going to be able to make progress and learn.”
Even though the Texans are getting their hands on some underclassmen who didn’t have the advantage of going to the Senior Bowl or another college all-star game, they don’t want to make hasty judgments based on 20-minute discussions.
“Let’s do a deeper dive, maybe there’s something that we have to find out a little bit more as we go,” said Caserio. “But I’d say some of the intangible elements and what we look for in players in terms of what we want in the building on a day-to-day basis, those are the things that are going to be important to us.”
Houston picks No. 3 overall in Round 1 and No. 37 overall in Round 2. The Texans also have two selections in Round 3, giving the team four top-100 picks for the first time since 2019.