‘First day of pads is always an exciting day,’ Texans in full pads for first time Tuesday, first open to fans

HOUSTON – The intensity is about to ramp up as the Texans hold their fifth training camp practice.

They’re in full pads Tuesday for the first time since camp started.

And Tuesday’s practice is in front of fans, another first since camp opened for the defending AFC South champions.

While the Texans have plenty of rules about contact practices, including not hitting Pro Bowl quarterback C.J. Stroud obviously, there will be the occasional collision outside of the pocket.

“First day of pads is always an exciting day and then after about three days, guys are ready to get out of pads,” Ryans said. “It lasts for a little bit and then guys are tired of it. It’s fun for us, but I don’t know how much fun it is for the players, especially in this humidity.

“It will be fun to see the pads go on tomorrow to see a little bit more contact and a little bit more physicality. You shouldn’t see much change from our practices though. The main thing with how we practice is we want to keep everyone safe and keep everyone off the ground.”

Texans veteran linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair can’t wait for the workout. Especially at his position, this is fun.

“I think, at the end of the day, the game is played with pads on, so of course you’re excited, but it’s all over the place,” Al-Shaair said. “O-line is excited because they could’ve sworn they could’ve blocked you. D-line is excited because they swore they weren’t going to get blocked.

“So. I think, everybody is an intensity level that comes with competing and playing in the NFL where it’s the best of the best. So, everybody thinks they’re the best, otherwise you probably won’t last long enough here. So, it’s going to be good competition just to see how it works.”

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com.