(SportsRadio 610) -- Whenever Texans coaches and players talk about leadership within the wide receiver group, names mentioned consistently are Brandin Cooks and Chris Conley.
Cooks returns as the Texans' leading receiver in 2020, but with the departure of Will Fuller and the DeAndre Hopkins over the past two seasons, this will be a completely different outfit.
With Conley signed to a one-year, $1.5 million contract, he projects to start opposite Cooks after two seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Conley had spent his first four NFL seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, where current Texans head coach David Culley was his wide receivers coach for his first two years in the league.
What Conley offers that no other receiver has since Hopkins is his large catch radius. He's even bigger, at 6 feet, 3 inches, 205 pounds.
When rookie quarterback Davis Mills is asked about the receivers helping him most with the transition from college to the NFL, he mentions Cooks and Conley.
Cooks talked in May about Conley helping fill the void left by Fuller, who signed with the Miami Dolphins in free agency.
Texans wide receivers coach Robert Prince talked in June about Conley's size and experience.
Here is how Culley described Conley around that same time:
"He's a big receiver. He's a kid that can run. He's had some experience in this league. He's been productive. He kind of fits with what we want out there at that position. You want that kind of guy, not necessarily have to have that, but he fits what you want out there. He's come in and he's been what we thought he was prior to that and we're very fortunate to have him here.
"He's fit right in with that group and he's been very, very good with our young guys here also. He's another one of those guys like Mark Ingram (II). He's a team guy. He's a guy that would do anything that you need to do whether it's special teams or whether it's at his position. He's one of those kinds of guys and he fits the mold of the kind of player that we want in this organization."
Our own Seth Payne, an original Texans defensive lineman, noted that Conley looks like he could easily be an older, more mature version of rookie wide receiver Nico Collins, though Cooks has been clear that "this guy doesn't look like no rookie."
Collins is 6-feet, 4 inches and 215 pounds. He moves differently than his teammates, jumping higher and seemingly running faster on his routes.
The rookie out of Michigan is definitely taking tips from Cooks, despite being a different body type. Footwork, releases, and basically anything about route-running, Cooks can teach him.
"There's always room to get better in my game," Collins said last week. "So I nitpick Cooks' brain, just small things all around to become a better receiver."
Conley talked to Seth and In The Loop's Landry Locker earlier during training camp about how he can mentor Collins as a bigger receiver.
"If there is anything I can pass on to him it's just, being a bigger body, you have to know your body," Conley said. "And in order to know your body, you have to limit test a little bit. And so he's gotten a lot of work in after practice. We've had a lot of conversations about him dropping his weight, getting low. You're a larger human being and your cleats only go so deep in the grass. You've got to get your weight down, get your center of gravity down so that you can continue to move with a lot of speed and power.
"As you go, you're supposed to master your craft and master your body. You can only do that so much in college. Really, now that it's your sole responsibility, you need to know the ins and outs of everything you can do."
