The Houston Texans and the rest of the NFL were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically in how the offseason would transpire.
Normally, teams would get to use private workouts and visits with prospects to get a better profile of the type of player of they wanted. That was nixed due to the NFL barring teams from their own facilities to enforce social distancing per the Centers for Disease Control’s guidelines.
Similarly, in regular times, the Texans and other NFL teams would have a three-day rookie minicamp the very next weekend after the draft to get rookies up to speed with the club’s nine-week offseason program. That, too, was nixed, as was the entire offseason program.
So, the Texans, like every NFL team, had to draft players they couldn’t fully evaluate and not have an opportunity to fully integrate them into the team until training camp in July.
Houston coach and general manager Bill O’Brien had to be especially prudent with the team’s seven draft choices, which he traded and selected five players: TCU DT Ross Blacklock, Florida OLB Jonathan Greenard, North Carolina OT Charlie Heck, Penn State CB John Reid, and Rhode Island WR Isaiah Coulter.
“When you look at Ross and Jon and Charlie (Heck) and John Reid and Isaiah Coulter, you’re talking about mature guys, guys that have overcome adversity in their lives, guys that understand work ethic, guys that understand how important practice is, guys that understand what it means to be a good teammate and be hungry and humble,” O’Brien told reporters on April 25. “I think we got those type of guys with all these guys.”
In adding players who are self-starters and of high character, the Texans can trust their five-man draft class to be ready to hit the ground running when they can finally practice with the team.
The five-man class, which is the smallest in team history, also speaks to O’Brien’s philosophy that the 2020 offseason would favor veterans more than rookies due to the lost evaluation time and practice time.