Houston Texans Media Conference

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

Houston, Texas, USA

Coach Pep Hamilton

Draft Press Conference


COACH HAMILTON: The plan was for us to come out and really try and establish just the physicality, the physical nature and how we want to approach the game.

We feel like, for the most part, our guys came out they played hard for four quarters.

Q. 4-3-1?

COACH HAMILTON: Sure.

Q. When you were all evaluating Dameon Pierce before you drafted him, considering what his workload was in college, it wasn't like a heavy workload, was that a good sign or a bad sign? How did you all take in that information? How did you all take that into account in your evaluation?

COACH HAMILTON: I think the focus was more so -- this was a decision that Nick Caserio and our personnel staff made, you're looking at what players can do.

There's a ton of different offenses in college football and it's hard to, at times, try and predict how a player that plays within a scheme is going to be able to adjust and adapt to the pro game. But we do know that certain skill sets have a better chance of adapting to our game.

Q. Skill sets, vision, foot speed, cutting ability, are those things you think he possesses?

COACH HAMILTON: You said it. You knocked it out of the park. Exactly. That's what we saw the other night. Just a guy who can create his own yards. And he's a tough runner.

Q. Do you see his vision on film when you studied him before he got here?

COACH HAMILTON: Absolutely.

Q. What did you see of them, positives and negatives?

COACH HAMILTON: I feel like we have a chance to be a tough unit but we have to be tough, smart and disciplined at the same time. There were way too many times where we put ourselves behind the chains. I think we had more than five situations where we had over third and 10. And that's not winning football.

We've got to do a better job that way. But at the end of the day, for the first opportunity to go out and play in a real football environment, our guys showed that we have the potential to be tough.

Q. Week one, week two, what do you see?

COACH HAMILTON: I think we have to mitigate the mistakes. We have to do a better job of not putting ourselves behind the chain and just maintain a certain level of focus throughout the entire game.

Q. (Indiscernible) were you encouraged by what you saw from Marlon Mack and (indiscernible) --

COACH HAMILTON: Yes, I was excited to see him bounce back from the very first play of the game where the linebacker ran through the A gap and tackled us in the backfield. But nevertheless, he's had a good camp, and we're excited to see him continue to develop in our system.

Q. (Question off microphone).

COACH HAMILTON: I think Jeff is more than a hybrid quarterback. I think Jeff has shown, even in that last drive, that he can play from the pocket. He can make all the throws from the pocket. And he has the poise and the savvy to lead us to a win regardless of the circumstances, regardless of the fact that it was preseason.

He just showed a lot of good attributes you look for in your quarterbacks.

Q. With another year of comfortability between Davis Mills and Nico Collins, what do you expect from them to take from last season?

COACH HAMILTON: I expect that between Davis and Nico and the time that they'll put in out here on the practice field, that there should be a high level of trust between the two. And we should be able to feature Nico in situations where his man coverage, where he can use his body his size his God-given ability to make plays.

Q. Jalen Camp has a really good practice. You see him every single day, big game, showing off that vertical speed. What does that do to help boost his chances?

COACH HAMILTON: What you put on tape, it's who you are. He showed he can be a playmaker for us.

Q. Not just as a coach, offensive coordinator, but as a person how did it make you feel to see what Jalen Camp did to honor John Metchie III after he scored the touchdown?

COACH HAMILTON: It's just a testament to our locker room and just the environment that we're hoping to continue to cultivate here at the Texans. Guys care about each other.

Q. Davis Mills recently said we're ready to shock the world. When you hear something like that, the confidence that Davis has, what do you think about that? Do you feel like you guys have that temperament?

COACH HAMILTON: I think we have to focus on winning each day. I do think there's a lot of times between now and our first, our regular season football game, and we have a lot to work on and improve. And we'll do just that.

Q. What have you seen from that left guard competition?

COACH HAMILTON: You saw Justin McCray and Max Scharping both step in this week and play a physical brand of football. They did a lot of things well.

Q. (Question about intangibles).

COACH HAMILTON: The intangibles are already established. We're just looking for just our quarterbacks to execute the offense and to manage bad plays, protect the football and score the ball. That's their job.

Q. When you look, 11 penalties in this last game, are you trying to turn that down? Do you think this is pregame jitters?

COACH HAMILTON: I think we have to start in practice. We have to turn it down in practice and just make sure, as we said, initially just to focus and focus on doing our job each play.

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