Texans OC addresses how team will handle Collins absence

Pep Hamilton discussed how the Houston Texans will adjust to the loss of WR Nico Collins.

In his scheduled weekly meeting with the media Thursday, Houston Texans offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton discussed some different ways the team will attempt to overcome the loss of WR Nico Collins.

Hamilton thinks his group is mostly interchangeable:

“I feel like Nico (Collins), our entire receiving group, those guys are somewhat interchangeable. Whoever’s called up to duty will be ready to go.”

The Texans signed WR Tyron Johnson this week, in anticipation of Collins being out. Johnson played for Hamilton with the Chargers. Pep remembered one very specific thing about Johnson:

“Play speed. He’s a guy that can run the route tree, but the one thing we can’t coach is speed. He has outstanding play speed.”

Hamilton said the Texans will work on getting Johnson up to speed as fast as possible:

“We’re just excited to add another guy to that group that we feel like can run by people. He is going to acclimate himself to our system and to the guys in that receiving room. Coach (Ben) McDaniels and Tyron (Johnson) will spend a lot of time together as he gets acclimated to what we are doing here.”

Hamilton divulged that Philip Dorsett is going to get first crack at starting in Collins’ absence:

“Phillip (Dorsett) has been working hard throughout the offseason, training camp, into the season, it hasn’t changed. He understands that he has a great opportunity to show that he is an every-down player. It was important for our offense for him to make that play down in the red zone, and we expect that he’ll be able to make more plays.”

The Texans OC also explained how the team intends to utilize the tight ends:

“Ultimately, we like giving the presentation to the defense that we can run and or pass the ball.  The biggest challenge for any offense and for the quarterback specifically is for the defense to really hunker down and defend one thing. When they put extra hats in the box to defend the run, we want to have the ability to attack them with the passing game. Be it the play action passing game, quarterback movements, whatever it is. It’s also the same concept when you talk about two safety coverages, middle open coverages as we call it, just having the ability in that situation to feel good about those guys who are pass receivers being able to play without the ball and win their matchup. Blocking really good defense ends that we face in this league play after play.”

However, he added he doesn’t expect the tight ends to take on a larger role in the passing game with Collins out.