The Houston Texans have had to battle positive results for COVID-19 as they gear up to take on the Los Angeles Chargers Sunday at 12:00 p.m. Central Time at NRG Stadium.
The Texans will be without starting center Justin Britt as he has been added to the COVID-19 reserve. The absence gives an opportunity for rookie Jimmy Morrissey to return to the starting lineup for the first time since Week 12.
Even though Morrissey hasn’t been the starter for the past three weeks, he has nevertheless prepared to take over as the starter.
“My preparation throughout the week stays the same whether it’s virtual or not,” Morrissey said. “It’s just a little bit different watching it on an iPad than actually being able to watch film in the facility on the monitor with the clicker in my hand. The way I’m going to approach it is the same as I approached my other three starts and how I approached playing in college, too, making sure I watch all of the certain third down packages, short yardage goal line and doing my own scouting report. It stays the status quo. It just stinks that this is where we’re at and we have to do it on virtual, but it is what it is and we’ve got to make sure we can play on Sunday.”
Morrissey has three career starts logged from Weeks 9-12. The Texans signed the Las Vegas Raiders sixth-round pick from Pitt off their practice squad in Week 7 as they worked through injuries to the offensive line at that time.
Since Morrissey’s last start, the 6-3, 305-pound offensive lineman has become more familiar with the playbook.
Said Morrissey: “I got comfortable once the third game came around with the playbook, really. I have been with the team for longer than a couple weeks now. I feel confident out there and my relationship with all the guys on the offense has been great so far. Really, the key takeaways from those games were little techniques, things that I need to tweak a little bit that got me beat a couple times when I was playing.”
If Morrissey starts, it will give Houston a rookie duo at quarterback and center as Davis Mills will make his ninth start at signal caller.