HOUSTON – Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who's set to enter his second year in the NFL, didn't want to come off as a drooling fan.
The South Carolina native had a chance to tell Falcons wide receiver Roddy White that he’d been watching him since his days at Alabama-Birmingham. He had a chance to tell Julio Jones that he admires he work.
But Hopkins remained calm and took care of his business.
Credit: D. Orlando Ledbetter
Credit: D. Orlando Ledbetter
“Roddy is from South Carolina, so he’s one of the guys that I’ve been watching since he was in college,” said Hopkins, who had 52 catches for 802 yards and two touchdowns last season. “Julio is one of the best to play at this position, so of course I watched him.”
He didn’t approach either player on the first day of the joint practices.
“I didn’t,” said Hopkins, who played at Clemson. “I had the chance to, but I didn’t want to go over there and be like a fan.”
Hopkins has enjoyed working against the Falcons cornerbacks.
“They have two good defensive backs,” Hopkins said. “They came out with me. I trained with (Robert) Alford before the combine. I knew that he was going to be good even though people didn’t know about him. Once I started out there going against him, I was like this is a good DB. I really didn’t know much about (Desmond) Trufant, but out here he showed that he was worthy of that first-round pick.”
Hopkins wants to make strides in his second season.
“I just want to try to be as complete of a player as I can be in all aspects of the game,” Hopkins said. “I have a great mentor for me on the other side in Andre (Johnson) to help me learn those things. I just want to come out and be a complete player overall.”
TRAINING CAMP SCHEDULE
Date Practice Times (public availability)
Thursday, August 14 Combined Practice w/ Houston Texans (Houston, TX), 9 a.m. ET
Friday, August 15 Pregame Walkthrough (No Media Availability)
Saturday, August 16 Falcons at Houston Texans, NRG Stadium, 8 p.m. ET – CW69
Sunday, August 17 Players’ Day Off (No Media Availability)
Monday, August 18 Practice 10:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. (closed to the public)
