Chance to bond in the mountains

General manager Rick Smith and coach Bill O’Brien wanted to move training camp to The Greenbrier in West Virginia because the cooler weather should allow them to get more accomplished over the three-week period.

When the Texans began practice at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, the temperature was in the high 60s.

It was cloudy with a cool breeze blowing across two practice fields with a mountain backdrop.

“It’s a great place,” O’Brien said. “We miss the Houston fans. We know how important our training camp is to them.

“We’ll be back there in a few weeks, and we’ll have a couple open practices for them, but it’s great up here.

“It’s a chance for us to bond, a chance for us to eliminate distractions and have good practices and become a better team.”

He also said Brown should be at training camp.

Coach Bill O’Brien was asked about Brown after practice.

“I’m just coaching the guys that are here,” O’Brien said. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for Duane. He’s been a captain for us my first three years here, and he means a lot to me, but I’m going to really concentrate on the guys that are here, and I’ll let Rick handle that side of things.”