Texans' Mallett, Hoyer to split 1st-team reps in OTAs

The Houston Texans will kick off their organized team activities later this month, beginning a quarterback competition that could very well decide the team's fate in 2015.

After re-signing Ryan Mallett and adding veteran Brian Hoyer to the mix, the Texans will have the two signal-callers share first-team snaps during OTAs starting May 26, according to Deepi Sidhu of the team's official website.

Mallett may hold a minor advantage early on given his experience in Bill O'Brien's offense from last season, but Hoyer is also quite familiar with the Texans head coach, having worked with him during his three years with the New England Patriots from 2009-2011.

"For me, I'm kind of re-acclimating myself, so we're all kind of learning together," Hoyer said. "We've put a lot of extra work in after our workouts, whether it's going in the film room and looking at formations or going over concepts.

"I think that's really helped me and it's helped those guys, too. Especially in this offense, you're asked to do so much, so if you can do without thinking, it speeds up the process that much more."

Mallett flashed some ability in his three appearances for Houston last season, throwing for 400 yards and two touchdowns, but a season-ending injury left him unable to establish himself as the long-term answer at the position, thus influencing the team to bring aboard an experienced veteran in Hoyer.

With a potentially dominant defense taking shape, the Texans could conceivably land a playoff spot for the first time since 2012 - and just the third time in franchise history - if Mallett or Hoyer can captain a respectable offense.