The Houston Texans finished their first day of joint training camp with the Detroit Lions on Wednesday. The practice is the second time training camp session that the team has played against another hailing from the NFC North.
Players tend to be fans of joint practices, as it allows them to compete against someone other than their teammates. Wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins is one of those players.
“Going against your team is fun, but we go against those guys every day so being able to go up against other guys like Darius Slay [is beneficial],” Hopkins said Wednesday at Houston Methodist Training Center.
Hopkins mentions facing Darius Slay as an excellent opportunity. Slay is considered to be one of the NFL’s best boundary cornerbacks; his two-straight Pro-Bowl nods and a first-team All-Pro selection in 2017 reaffirms that.
“Oh yeah, that was great work [facing Slay],” said Hopkins. “Darius is one of the best doing it right now, and he matched up against me well.”
Hopkins and Slay put on a show. Hopkins got Slay on a sliding red zone touchdown; a play worthy of entering his 2019 training camp highlight reel.
“I feel like going out against him [Slay] today, I learned some things,” Hopkins said. “And I feel like we kind of bounced knowledge off each other.”
There seems to be mutual respect between two of the best in the game. On Thursday, the two will be able to continue learning from each other in training camp.
