HOUSTON (CBS Houston) – For the second day in a row Texans coach Gary Kubiak is feeling like he dodged a serious injury bullet with one of his key starters Thursday.

Second-year defensive end J.J. Watt went down during the morning practice with an elbow injury. But Kubiak was later told it is just a dislocated elbow, which could have him sidelined for the next two to three weeks of preseason.

The original prognosis was that Watt would miss the entire preseason and the way Kubiak sounds, even it cleared it’s likely they will continue with the plan to keep him sidelined until the regular-season opener against the Miami Dolphins on Sept. 9. But in the meantime, Kubiak said there is no set timetable for Watt’s return. Texans Schedule

“The reason we won’t do that is because it’s not like we are trying to rush him back to play in preseason game 2 or something like that,” Kubiak said following Thurday’s afternoon practice after X-rays came back negative. We’re not going to do that. We know what we are going to get from JJ. The key is that he is there at noon Sept. 9 and we know he is going to be there. It’s just a rehab process and making sure we keep his conditioning up and go from there.”

In the short-term that means more practice and preseason game reps for fourth-defensive lineman Tim Jamison along with rookie defensive lineman Jared Crick. Kubiak left the door open to possibly signing a free agent defensive lineman for practice purposes.

But for now Jamison will have every opportunity to show what he can do with increased playing time.

“Timmy is a grinder, hard worker and gives a lot of effort” Kubiak said. “He gave us a lot of great time last year. He has a chance to act like a starter so we will see how he handles it.”

In other injury news, Kubiak said neither receiver Andre Johnson (groin) nor offensive tackle Duane Brown (ankle) will return to practice this week. Brown suffered a bone bruise to ankle during Wednesday morning’s practice.

Contact Terrance Harris at terrancefharris@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @Terranceharris