Stanford’s defensive back Justin Reid runs a drill during Pro Day in Stanford, Calif. Reid of the Houston Texans used to frequent his older brothers house to watch NFL game film and study game preparations. The visits while he was at Stanford gave him a behind-the-scenes look at the NFL life of his older brother, Eric Reid, who was thriving with the San Francisco 49ers. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File More HOUSTON (AP) — Justin Reid used to frequent his older brother’s house to watch NFL game film and study game preparations.
The Texans rookie safety was at Stanford then, and the visits gave him a behind-the-scenes look at the NFL life of his older brother, Eric Reid, who was thriving with the San Francisco 49ers. On Friday afternoon, Justin Reid was looking forward to calling his brother back in the Bay Area to talk about Day 1 of his own NFL journey with Houston.
He is expected to compete with Andre Hal at free safety next to strong safety Tyrann Mathieu, who played alongside Eric Reid at LSU. Coach Bill O’Brien praised Justin Reid for his size, speed and smarts. Reid raised eyebrows at the NFL combine with a 40-yard dash time of 4.40 seconds, second-fastest among safeties.
Instead, the Saints want to be smart about utilizing the NFL’s reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year.
The mistake would be that Alvin gets 15 more carries and that’s not the direction we would expect to go, coach Sean Payton said Saturday at the team’s rookie minicamp. I don’t think that is wise.
Saints running backs coach Joel Thomas echoed Payton on the dangers of projecting more carries for Kamara during the first four games of the season.
I think it would be a disservice to him, Thomas said. Let’s be honest here — he’s excelled with the ratio he’s had, whether it’s the carries or the combination with the catches, as well.
It’s almost a number that you want to get to that he’s still getting the touches that he’s had in the past. But maybe they occur through two, three or four more carries, and two or three less receptions. By all means, we don’t want to sit there and run the tread off the back with him early in the season because this thing it’s a marathon, 16 games. Four games there, I think we’ve got the talent — offensively and in the backfield — to go ahead and push through this little process.