Professor

excerpt:

HOUSTON (AP) -- Beads of sweat poured off Mario Williams' head and a small blade of grass sat perched just below his left eye as he mentioned the Houston heat not once or twice - but about seven times.

The Houston Texans' No. 1 draft pick got rave reviews after his first practice of training camp on Friday, but knows that the tempo and climate of practice will take some getting used to.

"It's hot," he said of the 90-degree temperature mixed with stifling humidity. "But it's probably not as hot as it's going to be. Just being out here and getting a taste of it and just trying to get your body back in football shape is pretty tough."

Williams, a defensive end who starred at North Carolina State, said college two-a-days don't even compare to the difficulty of Friday's session.



"The tempo is very high and the coaches keep it high," he said. "If it's down they get on us constantly. In college it wasn't that hard. This is a different level with the tempo and the enthusiasm and intensity."

Williams fit in well with his teammates and didn't seem to be the victim of much rookie hazing. Veteran Robaire Smith handed him his shoulder pads to lug back to the locker room after practice, but a Texans staff member carried them away as Williams met with reporters.

New Texans coach Gary Kubiak was impressed with Williams on Friday and loves his attitude. Williams made his way into the backfield a couple of times in the short time the team ran full-squad drills.

"I know one thing, if you run that ball his way there's a lot of havoc going on over there - there's a lot of guys going backward," Kubiak said. "And that's what he's here for. He's a tremendous young talent, and it's going to be about consistency with him as a pro."

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/sto...07-28-17-03-34

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MattP

I've said it before, this guy is a complete monster

Potatoking

I hope he turns out, because the texans need him, because he's a defensive end, and because he was #1 overall

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Fielding

You cant put any stock on these vanilla reports. At this point all of the football writers are coming out of hibernation and are writing all sorts of non-stories. I have an idea of this williams character but I'll give him a few weeks so he can confirm (or debunk) what i think of him.

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Professor

I can agree with you to a point fielding, but at least there are not reports that he is getting shut down.

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Fielding

You generally dont hear negative reports about training camps, sure there is a few here and there but for the most part they are cookie flavored wire reports that i mostly ignore because, well IT"S PRACTICE!!!

I dont think that anyone really cares that a scout team who-dat got an INT or that so and so that went undrafted is making noise and fighting to get on the third string. I usually wait till the third game of the pre season (the game that most teams use as a dress rehersal) to form a few opinions. This time last year sports writers were going on about Gus Frerotte's surprising progress and Cleo Lemon's impresive foot work and strog arm.

This is just the first of a small wave of sofie-soft reports that you will come across. It's best if you pay no mind to them.

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Professor

True, but I have also heard about cromartie being burned and cutler throwing picks and other draft picks not playing so well early such as people having trouble learning plays. I do agree with you though that right now everybody is undefeated and beat writers are trying to give everybody some sort of hope for the season.

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Potatoking

it's just different when you step out on the field, it's a whole different game you could say

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