The NFL preseason could be shortened in 2020 as the league gears up its safety protocols in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
If the NFL decides to cut the preseason in half, it will have an effect on all 32 teams. How would that decision affect the Houston Texans?
Training camp is already confined to NRG Stadium and surrounding facilities, which isn’t any different than virtually every other training camp in team history. However, the Texans will not be able to have joint camps with any other teams. Coach and general manager Bill O’Brien’s love for the joint camps is well documented.
“I think it breaks up the monotony of camp,” O’Brien told reporters on Aug. 3, 2019, ahead of the team’s joint practices with the Green Bay Packers. “This is, I think it’s eight practices now going against each other. Now we get two practices against a great football team up in Green Bay. A historic franchise, great quarterback, new coaching staff up there. We’re looking forward to it. Then, we have a chance to see how they do things and they have a chance to see how we do things, look at the rosters on both teams. I think there’s just a ton you can get out of it.”
That leaves the Texans with preseason games to see how their team fares against other NFL squads. If those get halved, then O’Brien and the coaching staff will have even less material to judge.
What does help the Texans is they still have the same coaching staff from previous years. Even the promotion of defensive line coach Anthony Weaver to defensive coordinator isn’t that big of a shift as he has been with the organization since 2016. Offensive coordinator Tim Kelly will be the play-caller for the first time in his career, but he has overseen the offense since 2019, and has been with O’Brien ever since 2014 when he arrived in Houston.
The players and coaches know how the team is expected to operate.
What could happen is the Texans don’t start to get their football legs under them until midway through October. However, the rest of the league will be in the same boat.