Here's everything Houston Texans special teams coordinator Frank Ross said on Thursday ahead of Week 1's matchup against the Buffalo Bills, including his thoughts on containing Bills returner Ray Davis, standouts on special teams and more.
OPENING STATEMENT
“It's always an honor to be the week one NFL football coach and it's been the first game here in a minute in a few seasons to be home opener. Personally, not to get emotional about it, but I cherish that and I hope our guys do as well. You guys know that a Week 1 is, ‘Can we play clean football? Can we make an impact play by just playing sound and aggressive and start putting our brand on tape for the rest of the season?’ It starts there. Going onto Buffalo, we know a little bit about their
players. Ray Davis, we have to stop him. They've have some great gunners, Sam Franklin [Jr.], Joe Andreessen. They've got a rookie punter that's incredibly talented, a really good kicker, and their coordinator comes over from the Arizona Cardinals, who's one of the best special teams coaches in the league in [Bills Special Teams Coordinator] Jeff Rodgers. He is a great return game coach. He has a monster return resume. He has a lot of gimmicks on tape. He has a lot of things he does at his disposal to extend drives. We have to do a great job playing sound, our rules, playing the Texans special teams way, starting off on a high note.”
Question: On P Kai Kroeger
Frank Ross: “I’m excited for him. He's done an outstanding job. He has won our special teams room over by doing exactly what we've asked and that is play small ball, optimize and maximize the few things and do those well and then we'll expand from there. I’m really happy with where he's at. He's been an excellent addition to our field goal operation and a great overall addition to the room. For us, start yourself out on a high note, do exactly as we have done in training camp in the preseason games and he's a good kid. Excited to have him here and see where it goes.”
Q: On Bills RB Ray Davis as a returner
Ross: “There's a knack to run through the trash at speed. Most people, they start to slow down a little bit, their RPMs, when the lane closures happen. Running backs that are fast and stay on the move are hard to tackle. In addition to that, his contact balance. We know it all too well. That's a scar that we wore for the '25 season, and we have to do a great job of taking on, controlling blocks and essentially closing the lanes so that way we can gang tackle a guy as talented as Ray.”
Q: On what Darren Sproles was able to teach WR Jaylin Noel
Ross: “Great resource. Always try to be, especially from someone with expertise. Great resource for us. The ability for him to not only teach when we catch to run transition, but how to attack vertically. His stop and start is pretty unique. We all know the Kansas State tape all the way through San Diego, through New Orleans, and Philadelphia tape, like it's different. For us, the ability to attack this way [forward] stresses tacklers. It doesn't matter who the returner is. He was able to stress that to all of our returners in Training Camp. It was an honor to meet him. I did tell him, I don't really get starstruck. I followed that guy since I was in high school. It was a cool moment for us to get to meet, I should say for me to meet him. I didn't take that lightly. I was a little bit nervous. I tried to hide it. He's cool. He was awesome. I'm thankful to him.”
Q: On what needs to happen for WR Jaylin Noel to break through as a returner
Ross: “I truly believe this. I truly believe this. When you have a guy that's special and I believe that [WR] Jaylin Noel is special. We have to fight and strain and believe that he can go the distance every time as a blocker. The only thing that matters in my job, my assignment, hold that guy up, don't worry about anything else. Hopefully we're imploring that through the other 10 people blocking. Then week 2, he's trying to bring it all the way across the surface, and the answer to your question is to get north and south in the NFL, because pursuit players are fast in our league, and Jaylin Noel is fast, but pursuit is king. How can we start trimming some of those triangles for a harder angle and get down the field. He'll get there. Excited to watch him.”
Q: On how injuries affect special teams
Ross: “Injuries are always going to affect how you adjust and that's the name of my job. Might as well be calling me the adjustment coordinator. We adjust. The depth on Sunday is razor thin and you do that, you prepare for that by cross-training, putting people in multiple positions, but just teaching the scheme. Philosophically, we all know how this works. If you're a tackle on the punt team and you don't play a ton of guard but we've got to throw you in at guard, you have been taught the philosophies. I believe we do a good job of that. That allows us to swing people in and out of different spots on a regular basis when asked.”
Q: On whether one player stood out during Training Camp on special teams
Ross: “I think we had multiple undrafted players that made our roster. I just remember watching the Carolina practice, the days leading up to it, the Carolina practice and then the game, and watching Sabastian Harsh, who was dealing with an injury early on and he just kind of took off and made our team. That's the name of the game, take advantage of your opportunities. But just to remind you, this is week one. Week 4, Week 8, Week 12, whatever quarter of the season we're in, we're all trying to stay on that crescendo growth. He would be an example of early, but even our most advanced or veteran special teams player, [Jake] Hummel and [Jake] Hansen, those guys have been around a minute, we need to see them get better as we move on. Harsh was an example that stood out in camp. We want them to stand out early and continue to grow for the rest of the season.”
Q: On whether special teams incorporates the ‘S.W.A.R.M.’ mentality
Ross: "I want to be dynamic effort, and to me, that matches my personality. I want to be just overachieving effort. If our special teams does that, those guys are incredible athletes, incredible talents. If they do that just to your point, your chances of making an impact on Sunday skyrocket. I want to finish in a dominating position every time, all 11 of us in coverage, swarming to the football. That's a sign that team is scary to go against. Let's put that on tape week one.”
This article originally appeared on Texans Wire: Everything Texans ST Coordinator Frank Ross said ahead of Week 1's battle vs. Bills
