After one month of Training Camp and three preseason games, here are five things we learned about the 2022 Houston Texans..

Now that the 2022 preseason is a wrap, the Houston Texans will trim their roster to 53 on Tuesday. After a month of watching camp practices and three preseason games, here are five things we learned about the 2022 Texans:

RB Dameon Pierce burst onto the scene, literally, with his flashy runs in two preseason performances. Pierce, with an equally exuberant personality, rushed for 29 yards on just five carries in the preseason opener against the New Orleans Saints. That performance was enough for Head Coach Lovie Smith to sit the rookie for Week 2. When Pierce returned in the third preseason game, he bulldozed defenders on the opening series with gains for nine, 12, seven and five yards (including two first downs) before scoring on a one-yard touchdown run. Without declaring Pierce the Week 1 starter, Smith did say this about the fourth-round draft pick out of Florida:

“I don’t have a mask on how I feel about things. Dameon Pierce has played good ball pretty much since he got in the facility. He’s a good football player, right amount of power. He’ll make you miss in the open field. He can catch the ball. He can do a lot of things that NFL running backs do.”

The Texans 2022 draft class could be starting games sooner rather than later. Under GM Nick Caserio, Houston selected five players in the top 75 slots. Except for WR John Metchie III who unfortunately will not play this season due to APL (Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia), several rookies are starters in the making. Smith named DB Jalen Pitre, a second-round pick (37th overall) out of Baylor, a starter and implied that more could follow.

“A lot of rookies are hungry and our rookies really are,” Smith said. “Just don’t think we’re going to be limited with what we do with them.”

Seven takeaways in the preseason. While it’s not regular season action, the emphasis on takeaways hasn’t waned. It’s changed. The Texans aren’t just…