The San Francisco 49ers are going to take part in joint practices with the Houston Texans this coming August leading up to their preseason matchup. The news was first reported by Texans beat writer John McClain, and 49ers beat writer Eric Branch confirmed it and added the dates (May 15-16) in Houston.
The 49ers have taken part in joint practices with the Denver Broncos the past two seasons, but are not facing them this year. Instead, they face the Texans the second week of the preseason in Houston. It marks a return to the site of the 49ers 26-16 victory last December. Of course, that victory came over a Texans team that was without emerging star DeShaun Watson. The quarterback tore his ACL on November 2nd, which should give him enough time to be ready for the coming season. I am curious though how much he is doing the first couple weeks of training camp.
The real storyline here however is Pierre Garçon getting another crack at a joint practice with Houston. Back in 2015, Garçon was with Washington when they took part in three days of joint practices. Joint practices give teams a chance to see how they do against another team while they are still installing things, and they can get heated.
The fight took place on the final day of practice, and Garçon said it might have broken out so the players could get practice ended early.
..#Redskins WR Pierre Garcon says brawl with #Texans was planned to end practice early, but got out of control pic.twitter.com/HdO5b8Drj2
— Draft Jesus (@1DeepMedia) August 8, 2015
The second week of the preseason is not the dress rehearsal we see in the third preseason game, but it will give us a chance to see the starters longer than the first or fourth game. And maybe we’ll see some productive practices before, minus the fights.