What did Texans OC Nick Caley say ahead of Week 5 game vs Titans?

Here is everything Houston Texans offensive coordinator Nick Caley said ahead of the Texans’ Week 5 game against the Tennessee Titans, including star receiver Nico Collins getting some snaps in the slot last week against the Dallas Cowboys, defending Titans’ All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons and on how the Houston offense can continue to work on finishing drives with a touchdown.

Question: On the offense’s improvement from Week 3 to Week 4

Nick Caley: “I just think certain operationally from the start it’s been clean. We haven’t had as many issues in terms of getting out of the huddle, getting everybody lined up, getting our feet set, being able to activate motions earlier. You look at a year ago, just being able to move and shift and do some different things. I think becoming more efficient. I think our pass game we’ve had good efficiency at times. The guys overall understanding comprehension of being able to move and get into different spots and give us some position flexibility with the skill group, the receivers, the tight ends, certainly move those guys around. So just collectively, overall knowledge of the system and ability to be able to move guys around and execute, especially in the passing game.”

Q: On installing the hook and ladder play

Caley: “We try to have a bunch of gadgets that we work on starting in the offseason and looking just league wide. You get it from everybody. Different levels of football coming up, things internally guys have experience with prior to here or here. Always try to have a handful of those ready to go where you’re continuously working on them and you have them at your disposal if you need them. Fortunately in that situation, it was an opportune time to call it and our guys went out and executed it. It’s fun to see it come to life.”

Q: On playing WR Nico Collins in the slot

Caley: “Yeah, he plays some in the slot. Nico can move around, we move around. I think that’s the thing. We have the flexibility to be able to move guys around, whether it’s starting them inside, motioning them inside, starting them inside, moving them outside. We definitely have flexibility with Nico.”

Q: On the balance of forcing the run and continuing to do what works in the passing game

Caley: “Balance in general is good. The Cincinnati game, I said we got away from that. I got away from that in the second quarter a little bit. Always want to try to have balance. I do believe what you’re saying, but the volume of runs, I do think to just say, ‘Okay, we got a couple runs off and if the average or we’re not getting hits or there’s a lack of explosives, then you just stay away from it.’ That’s not really what I’ve ever truly adhered to or believe in. I think what you have to do is you have to find improvement. You have to find where you can, in the margins, improve things. Whether that’s from us putting guys in certain spots differently, maybe activating some different schemes. Whether it’s deploying different types of runs or just the improvement of fundamentals and techniques. I think that all collectively goes into it. But I think that you have to continue to try to work the run game. A good run game is going to positively affect early down play action success and just keep you on schedule in situational football as well. There is a balance, you’re not wrong. We’re always striving to have that balance. Is it going to be a 50-50 pass to run ratio? No, I don’t think it really generally ever is. But you want to be efficient in both and have the ability to go forward, especially on early downs. That’s what we’re striving to do and working hard to do in all those areas.”

Q: On how to help the offensive line in the run game

Caley: “It’s multifaceted. I think there are a lot of things. We pull back and see what’s the reason? There are usually reasons for all those things. Whether it’s an issue with the play, maybe an unscouted look, whether it’s a fundamental, whether it’s a technique, whether it’s a matchup issue, et cetera. You try to put guys in the best position. We try to learn from every experience and we try to continue to refine and improve our process relative to the run game and all things. Relative to your question, that’s what we’re always trying to do. I think just continuing to get better, learning from things and being able to develop our guys and work with them to help them be more efficient and have more success collectively. That’s what we’re all trying to do, coaches and players.”

Q: On Tennessee Titans DT Jeffery Simmons

Caley: “He’s a warrior. He plays with his hair on fire. His play energy, his disruptive play style, use of hands, unpredictability in terms of taking his play opportunities. He’s just a dynamic player. He’s a premier player in this game and you have to account for him every single snap. You have to know where he is, you have to get bodies and hats on him. He just, he’s relentless. He never takes his foot off the gas and he’s uber-talented. I think he plays with an elite play style.”

Q: On TE Brevin Jordan

Caley: “Joy and excitement to be back. He’s worked really hard. Just saw a guy getting to go out there and get back into the rhythm again and he’s made strides. He’s worked as hard as you possibly can. I know it wasn’t a ton of snaps, but getting his feet out under him, getting opportunity, he contributes and gets a nice little chunk there on a keeper early in the game. Just continuing to build off it. He’s always got a great attitude with him. I love Brevin, he’s got great joy.”

Q: On the tight end room and deciding which personnel group they go with for a game

Caley: “It depends week-to-week. We have a really deep room, to your point. All those guys have worked hard and they’ve all earned the opportunity to play. You only can make so many guys active based on certain other positions that we need. It’s really week-to-week. It’s packages, it’s how practice has gone. Somebody asked me a couple weeks ago coming out of Training Camp, ‘Does practice matter, essentially?’ That’s how you get an opportunity to go out there. Brevin, last week he had an opportunity. I have a lot of faith inMarlin [Klein]. You look at Foster [Moreau], Cade [Stover], Dalton [Schultz], all those guys have a little different skill sets, but they all positively impact us. You get an opportunity to go take them out there, depending on what packages, how many different multiple tight end groupings. There’s usually a reason why we’re doing everything. Certain 12 groupings may garner this type of defense. If you put 13, they’re usually going to garner this defense, or maybe not. There is reasons for why we do those things and it’s really game plan dependent and opponent specific. Ultimately, how you practice gives you an opportunity to usually translate to how you’re going to play and get an opportunity to get those guys up and try to use them.”

Q: On how to improve finishing drives

Caley: “Finishing with good technique, finishing plays, finishing drives, finishing in the red area with touchdowns, being able to finish from a play-to-play standpoint. Not just to your point, the last handful of minutes in a game. I think the better off your finish is, you talk about finishing plays at practice. You finish drills to finish plays, you finish plays to finish drives and being able to stack those things from a process standpoint. The better overall we can finish in everything we do, I think you’ll see that translate more frequently in all situations. We haven’t finished well enough in other facets, whether that’s, call it short yardage, We’ve made some improvement at times in the red area, but we still need to finish better. Run game, early down success, there are a lot of those things out there that we have a lot of meat on the bone to continue to grow and work as a team and as a coaching staff and as a unit on. It transcends really everything. Finishing how we prepare our day, we were just talking about it today with the guys. Going out and pouring everything you got into it, you’re never going to regret it. We have a hardworking group of guys, but I sit there all the time, I heard this a long time ago. You’re never going to regret one day when you’re 43 or however old you are saying, ‘Man, I wish I wouldn’t have poured everything I had into it.’ It’s about finishing your process, finishing everything that you do. Ultimately, I do believe with every fiber of my being, that carries over to performance. We’re making progress. We just have to keep going at it and keep cleaning things up, keep learning, keep growing, keep pushing ourselves. I think it carries over to a lot of things.”

Q: On utilizing jumbo formations

Caley: “It goes into game plan specific. It’s how we want to utilize things. It might be matchups in certain situations. It might be to manipulate certain things. We’ve got a deep room of tight ends that we feel really good about. We also have some experience with jumbo, especially banked on last year. It just really depends from week to week what we’re going to try to do and what we’re trying to get out of it.”

Q: On WR Tank Dell

Caley: “Just having him out there and seeing the energy he brings to the table. Talking to him today, it’s infectious. You guys have been around him longer than me. The guys have been covering the beat here. There’s an energy that you can feel. You know how much he’s poured into it. You talk about ‘Brev’ and you talk about all the Tank’s done to work himself back. We’ll figure all that out. Again, we’re very flexible with how we can do things. We know what Tank can do. You can do a lot of different things. He’s been working relentlessly. When the time all meshes up, we’ll be ready to roll.”

Q: On WR Jaylin Noel

Caley: “He’s continued to get better and do a great job. I’ve got a lot of faith in Jaylin. He’s made some nice explosive plays for us. The kicking game and the run game with the ball in the hand. He’s just continuing to get better. I feel like in spring, we saw that. It’s not tangible to necessarily see on TV and all those things. Then in Training Camp, missed a little bit of time there, obviously, gets back into the rhythm. He’s just continued to get better and stacking days. Again, that’s all we talk about is just continuing to work and get better. I think he’s confident and he’s fun to go out there and go to battle with. Relative to Nico, I think all those guys mesh well with each other. We’ve got a lot of flexibility. We can move those guys out. We use multiple versions of 11. We can move guys to different positional identities and stuff and flip a Z to an X, X to an F, et cetera. All those guys going out there and contributing, same thing with the tight ends, same thing with the backs. They all have a role and they’re all a part of it and they all invested in this. I’ve been really happy with him specifically, but I think happy with our group as well.”

This article originally appeared on Texans Wire: What did Texans OC Nick Caley say ahead of Week 5 game vs Titans?