For Texans rookie tight end Brevin Jordan, it's all about finishing the season strong and then constructing a sound offseason plan to make improvements for his second NFL season.
More on that in a bit, but, first, Jordan dropped a fun nugget during hisFriday afternoonpress conference about Texans rookie quarterback Davis Mills.
A third-round draft pick from Stanford, Mills has earned a nickname that has caught on with his teammates that started with tight ends coach Andy Bischoff: Zuckerberg, as in Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
"Davis is my guy," Jordan said. "We call him ‘Zuckerberg’, that’s our little nickname for him. Davis, he’s been unbelievable. He’s super poised. He’s only a rookie, but just the way he is, his maturity, he’s only going to keep growing. So, I’m just excited for what Davis is going to bring in the future.”
How did the Atlanta native earn the nickname? Well, it goes back to his academically prestigious alma mater and Bischoff's penchant for keeping the atmosphere light.
“Just because Mark Zuckerberg is a super smart guy," Jordan said. "Davis went to Stanford, so that’s just what we call him: Zuckerberg. .. Our tight end coach be saying a lot of, ‘Jump around, Johnny’, and just a lot of slogans that he has. He just came up with ‘Zuckerberg’ for Davis and it honestly just tracked with all of us.”
Does Mills like the nickname?
“He’s a real guy that likes to just laugh," Jordan said. "He doesn’t really comment much on a lot of stuff, so he just laughs about it. He likes it, I’m pretty sure.”
Mills and Jordan are building timing and chemistry.
An athletic fifth-round draft pick from the University of Miami, Jordan has made the most of his first NFL season.
He has caught 20 passes for 178 yards and three touchdowns in eight games and two starts on 28 targets. It's a high percentage of success.
Being held out of the first seven games as a healthy scratch appears to have benefited Jordan greatly. He was able to watch and learn.
“It’s helped tremendously," Jordan said. "I give a lot of credit to the fact that I wasn’t active those first seven games just because it helped me to grow. It helped me to learn how to read coverages, how to be a better pro, just getting into a routine. It really just made me sit back and observe and just watch. Being able to just watch the older guys in front of me, it helped a lot, for sure.”
The Texans are 4-12 heading into their season finale Sunday against the AFC South champion Tennessee Titans. It's a disappointing record, but the Texans have made improvements in the second half of the season.
“We’re just hungry," Jordan said. "We’re at a stage right now in the season where we’re hungry. We want to finish out strong and we want to try to keep the Titans from getting a first-round bye, so that’s our motivation right now."
A Las Vegas native who credited his workouts previously with private trainer Tripp Hale, Jordan wants to come back for training came next year as a bigger, stronger, faster and more flexible football player.
"This offseason, I’m going to take an approach of pretty much resetting my whole body," Jordan said. "I want to be able to just have my mobility in my hips. Just overall, I want to become a better football player. I want to get bigger and stronger, I want to get faster, but the main emphasis for me this offseason, because I know how long an NFL season is now being in it, is I want to go into the offseason just really focused on mobility, hip mobility and just being able to get more flexible.”
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