On Thursday, the San Francisco 49ers concluded their final of two joint practices with the Houston Texans ahead of their exhibition contest on Saturday. Here's a look at what members of the Texans had to say about the 49ers at the conclusion of practice from the Houston Methodist Training Center.
Head coach Bill O'Brien on the benefits of the Texans and 49ers joint practices:
"Good work. It's a good team to work with, very similar practice schedules. Kyle's (Shanahan) a great guy, very easy to work with and got a lot of good things done."
O'Brien on working with Kyle Shanahan on player safety during practice:
"He's great to work with. We both preach, in practices like that, 'thud', no live tackling, just be in the proper position to make the tackle, to make the block. They do a good job of trying to strip the ball, so we're working on fundamentals there. I think guys really tried to stay on their feet. We both preach staying on your feet. Really good guy to work with."
O'Brien on what he's seen from Jimmy Garoppolo:
"Good player. Really quick release, good leader. I was mostly over on our offensive field, but accurate guy, really good guy, good person. It's what you're looking for at that position, just guys that are easy to coach, that want to be coached, that are obviously good players. It makes it a lot of fun to coach that position."
O'Brien on DeAndre Hopkins and Richard Sherman going against each other at practice:
"Yeah, I think any time you get veteran players that have seen a lot of different schemes, a lot of different skillsets and they can talk about it on the side and things like that, I think it's really good. That's one of the many things that's good about a joint practice."
QB Deshaun Watson on what he took from his joint practice with the 49ers:
"Just find some new ways to get better. Seeing different looks, going against different competition, different guys that are showing different techniques and just try to improve as an offense and build our chemistry going against other guys."
Watson's assessment of Garoppolo's skillset:
"He's a great professional quarterback. He's a quarterback for a great organization, for the great coach, Kyle (Shanahan), and being able to be successful like he's doing, is great."
WR DeAndre Hopkins on working across from the 49ers defensive backs:
"You can't complain when you're going up against a bunch of guys that are hungry. Young guys that are competing out there. I got a little work with Sherman at the end, just kind of go over some stuff that I need to work on."
Hopkins on going up against Sherman:
"It's always good to go up against a veteran guy because he can tell your weaknesses, he's going to tell you after what you need to work on. So, going up against guys like that, it helps me stay on top of my game."
Hopkins on offering guidance to 49ers receivers:
"I'm going into my sixth year, so I've played a lot of football. I missed one game, so my record speaks for itself. I was like that with guys that were older than me when I was young. So, you kind of expect that and you just want to give them good advice on what they can do."
DB Aaron Colvin on practicing against the 49ers receivers:
"It felt good. It felt good to go out here and try to work technique against another team. This is a really good football team. Anytime we can perform against a team like this is good for our organization."
Colvin on facing a receiver like Marquise Goodwin:
"It's amazing because at the end of the day, you want to be able to test what you know and what you can do against other guys. When you go against an Olympic track star like that, it's always good for you to work your technique and for you just to trust yourself. And that's all you have to do against a guy like that."
