Houston Texans Media Conference

Wednesday, July 28, 2021

Houston, Texas, USA

David Culley

Press Conference


DAVID CULLEY: I know it's been awhile since I've talked to you all, glad to be back, I'm just as excited being out here today as I was when I first got hired. I feel so rejuvenated now having actually been here. Just want to say welcome and here we go.

Q. Your thoughts on DeShaun being here?

DAVID CULLEY: We expected him to be here, just like all the other people that was here and there was no surprise. It was just business as usual with everybody here.

Q. Are you sure about the distraction --

DAVID CULLEY: Has not been a distraction at awe. Been very professional about everything just like all the guys that have been here. It's just been business as usual.

Q. What if he wants to be traded and doesn't want to play with you guys, why practice with you?

DAVID CULLEY: DeShaun is a Texan and basically he's here, everybody's here and everybody is required to be here, everybody that's under contract is here and they are all here and basically what training camp is for right now is for us to find out, I've got 50 different guys on this football team that wasn't here last year and when we come in here and to focus on what we need to do during training camp then that's what we are doing and everybody is here and that's how we are approaching it.

Q. What's the thinking behind him participating in positional drills but not 11-on-11?

DAVID CULLEY: He was not here during any of our off-season program at all. When he came in we basically decided that we wanted to -- when he's ready to do what we feel like he need to do from a standpoint of this is a ramp-up period, we don't want to get to the situation where we're having him do something that he's not ready to do right now and we decided that the individual period was the periods that we could get him in where nothing happens and moving forward and we'll make a decision on that.

Q. Does he know the offense --

DAVID CULLEY: It's just that he hasn't been our system, and so now we feel like when we will feel like he's ready, we'll give him more reps.

Q. He's a franchise quarterback; are you saying he needs to learn to run the scout team?

DAVID CULLEY: No, what I'm saying right now is that this is training camp. We've gone through an off-season, the good thing about this past off-season is we at least had to go for four weeks of guys going through the off-season and getting ready to play, so when you come back in, the league now has got us doing a ramp-up period, no pads, we have to go for four or five days without pads to make sure that we get guys ready for camp and basically that's what we're doing right now with him because he didn't go through anything.

Q. How does this help him today using him the way that you're using him?

DAVID CULLEY: He's healthy right now. We know a little bit more right now and when we come back and watch the video of where he's at, we want to make sure tomorrow when we come back out, if we need to give him some more reps, we'll give him more reps.

Q. Could he start for you this year?

DAVID CULLEY: Right now we're this training camp and that's what we're trying to do. There is no starters right now. Everybody is competing for a job right now.

Q. Do you expect him to be on the team?

DAVID CULLEY: I expect out here that's competing right now -- everybody out here that's here during training camp has an opportunity to make this football team and that's what training camp is all about and that's what we're doing right now.

Q. What's the significance of putting him --

DAVID CULLEY: That was part of the individual stuff that we decided that he was going to do.

Q. Are you expecting DeShaun to start the season?

DAVID CULLEY: Right now we are in training camp and we are going to go through this process. I haven't seen these guys in pads yet. So we need to -- once I get into next week and once we get to see these guys, and like I said, again, we have 50 guys on this football team that we have to decide to see who we are and what our team is going to be all about and that's what training camp is all about. And I've been so excited about that to this point just to get them to this point because this is the first time we've had everybody, everybody here on the football team, and now we get to see.

Q. First day of camp?

DAVID CULLEY: First day of camp, the enthusiasm was unbelievable and let me tell where you that started from, that started last night when I walked into that meeting they wanted to know why I'm so happy. I said I'm not happy because I see all your faces, but simply because all of you are here. Some of you the way you came in with beards and I wouldn't want to look at you, but I was so glad that you all are here, and I was excited about that last night. And today we had a team meeting before we came on the football field, I felt a buzz, I felt that, my first time being here, my first time being a head coach, I felt like I was getting ready to play a game, but understand this is training camp and we're trying to find out who we are.

Q. Is your plan for DeShaun during training camp to compete and take reps?

DAVID CULLEY: Our plan right now is to go day-to-day. We'll look at the video today, see what we're doing, see what we got going into tomorrow and we'll see from that standpoint what we need to do moving forward.

Q. Can you describe how he's interacted with you and his teammates?

DAVID CULLEY: He's been just like everybody else. He's been strictly a pro in everything that we doing, just like everybody else on our team has been. I mean, no distraction at all. You know, again, we have a saying in there right now on that wall that we put. It's got team, team, team on it. It's got nobody's name on it and in the very back we have got the Texas emblem, the Texans emblem back there and basically when we are talking about what we are trying it accomplish in trying and what we want to do right now, it's about the Texans and it's about team, team, team. And that's all. And everybody understands that we're in training camp.

Training camp is a time where you create camaraderie, where the guys get to learn how to trust each other and that's what we are focusing on right now and after the first day, I feel great about that.

Q. He's communicated more than once a trade request, do you attempt to reconcile with these interactions --

DAVID CULLEY: Right now in training camp the only thing we are focusing right now is getting this football team ready and everybody here has been doing everything that we've asked them to do to get this football team ready.

Q. Have you ever seen a top quarterback --

DAVID CULLEY: I've never been in a situation where I've had a quarterback did not go through the off-season, so the point is, not going through the off-season, especially with the nature of the way the league is right now with the limited reps and the limited things that we can do during the off-season, is that we want to make sure during this ramp-up period that nothing happens, you know. I mean, guys throw too much, guys' arms get sore and we want to make sure none of those things happen.

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110772-1-1003 2021-07-28 18:07:00 GMT

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