HOUSTON—As the Houston Texans offensive unit moved towards the sidelines after the final play of their first period of team 11-on-11 drills, second-year center Juice Scruggs waited patiently for quarterback C.J. Stroud to finish his conversations with wide receiver Nico Collins.
Stroud had thrown an incomplete pass to Collins on the play due to defensive pressure, which is why Scruggs was waiting to talk to him.
Once the second-year quarterback made his way to his center, Scruggs made a gesture to signify that he was responsible for the incompletion. Stroud conversed with Scruggs to make sure they were on the same page, to which he responded by not allowing any defensive player that came his way to get close to Stroud for the rest of the day.
Scruggs and Stroud communicate with each other constantly during practice. They also work a lot on snaps, snap counts, and learning audible language after each practice, which has helped the two become closer as the training camp progresses.
“It is just getting on the same page and making sure we are on the same page,” Scruggs said exclusively to Big Sarge Media. “After we get done with our sets (team drills), I come over and talk to him. I ask him what he saw (from the defense), and he asks me what I saw, and we are making sure we both are seeing the same thing.
“The post-practice work is just us getting better. That is what I learned last year watching the vets. I just picked up things from each vet that I saw, and each vet that was great was out here working. You have to put the work in.”
That type of mentality is what the Texans’ scouting department and general manager Nick Caserio observed about him from his playing days at Penn State University, which eventually led to Houston selecting him as the 62nd pick in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft.
His NFL career didn’t begin until Week 12 against the Jacksonville Jaguars due to starting the season on the injured reserve list. Scruggs was inserted into the lineup at the left guard position alongside Pro Bowl left tackle Laremy Tunsil.
He started in six out of the seven games in the regular season and was healthy enough to play every offensive snap in the playoff games against the Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Ravens.
Now headed into his second season with the Texans, Scruggs moves back to his natural center position and hopes to continue building chemistry with the offensive line and Stroud.
“Just being more comfortable,” said Scruggs. “Just coming out understanding the physicalness of the game and how fast it was last year. I feel like this year is slowing down for me, and I am just ready to take off this year.”
To prepare for the upcoming season, Scruggs devoted himself to a strenuous workout regimen alongside fellow offensive lineman Kenyon Green, returning from a shoulder injury that sidelined him for the entire 2023 NFL season.
“It was something we talked about,” Scruggs responded when asked about working with Green. “We are both young guys, and we are trying to get established in this organization. So. It was just me and him and we talked about it. He had done his pre-combine work there, and it was a good spot that he knew, so I trusted him. Just us getting those reps together in the offseason and getting that chemistry down makes it much better.”
Scruggs’s offseason work, both on and off the field, also caught the eye of head coach DeMeco Ryans, who has set the standard for the team by holding himself accountable for becoming a better coach each day, the same way he wants his players to continue to grow and learn with each repetition.
“Juice is looking great,” Ryans said to reporters. “He’s been here for most of the offseason. Even before we started our offseason program, Juice was here working out with our strength staff. You can see the growth. You can see he’s a little stronger and looks better. I’m encouraged where Juice is right now.”