Texans coach Bill O’Brien seemed surprised that quarterback Deshaun Watson showed up for practice yesterday without a knee brace.
Watson seemed pretty matter-of-fact about it, declaring himself recovered from the torn right ACL he suffered last November.
“The knee is doing good,” Watson said, via John McClain of the Houston Chronicle. “For the nine-week goal we put in from the beginning [of the offseason program], I’m pretty much where I wanted to be. Kind of passed it inside in the weight room, mentally and also on the field, so everything’s going smoothly right now.”
Watson has participated in the Texans offseason program and OTAs and this week’s minicamp (though he was held out of team drills). He was initially wearing a knee brace, but replaced it with a sleeve last week, and then discarded the sleeve.
“I’m not really surprised,” he said of his rehab. “I kind of knew where I was going to be because I put the time in the work in every morning. I’ve just been grinding. I’m right where I need to be and where I want to be.”
That has the Texans back on track for where they want to be, before Watson’s injury derailed their season. He threw for 1,699 yards and 19 touchdowns in the seven games he played.