HOUSTON (AP) — Demaryius Thomas is playing for a team other than the Denver Broncos for the first time in his career after his trade to the Houston Texans.The receiver won’t have long to miss Denver though Christian Covington Color Rush Jersey , with the Texans visiting the Broncos on Sunday.“It was strange to get traded first off, and then come here and get ready to play in the Mile High City that you’ve been playing for the last 8½ years is very strange,” Thomas said.The Texans traded for Thomas on Tuesday, adding the veteran to replace Will Fuller, who tore a knee ligament in Houston’s win over the Dolphins last week. The 30-year-old Thomas was a first-round pick by the Broncos in 2010 and has piled up 9,055 yards receiving with 60 touchdowns since then.“I like his size … I think he can do a lot of different things,” coach Bill O’Brien said. “I like his intelligence, his experience. I don’t think there’s any substitute for experience. Obviously, he’s got good hands. There’s a lot of things to like about Demaryius Thomas.”Acquiring Thomas was a big move for a team which has reeled off five straight wins since opening the season 0-3 to move into first place in the AFC South. The Texans have star receiver DeAndre Hopkins, but didn’t have any proven playmakers to pair with Hopkins after Fuller was lost for the season.Quarterback Deshaun Watson, who tied a career high with five touchdown passes against the Dolphins, is excited about the possibilities for this offense with two receivers as talented as Hopkins and Thomas. Watson doesn’t think it will take long for Thomas to get acclimated in Houston and expects big things from him immediately.“It’s going to be great,” Watson said. “Nothing really should stop the train. (Thomas) is a veteran guy that can do a lot of different things and he’s played a lot football, so it’s a great opportunity for all of us to get on the same page and continue to put a lot of yards in the air and put a lot of points on the board. We’re going to bring him along and he’s going to fit in … well.”Despite his years of experience, Thomas admitted to being a little nervous on his first day with the Texans on Wednesday.He said the transition was made easier by the warm welcome he received from his teammates, including Watson, who was the first to text him after the trade. Thomas said he’s admired Watson from afar for a while and is looking forward to playing with him.“He gets the ball out, great throws, on time, on point,” Thomas said. “He can also scramble, too, and that’s another exciting thing. That’s some of the things you see from him that you can count on as a receiver, because if he scrambles outside of the pocket, he’s looking downfield, he’s not looking to run. So, that’s big plays for guys like me, Hop (DeAndre Hopkins) and everybody else.”Another change Thomas will have to get used to in Houston is wearing a different number since the No. 88 he’s worn for his entire NFL career is taken by rookie tight end Jordan Akins. NFL rules mandate that a player isn’t allowed to change numbers if he’s played more than 30 percent of the team’s snaps on his side of the ball in a season, which applies to Akins.Thomas didn’t know the rule when he first learned of the trade and was prepared to negotiate with Akins for the number.“I was ready to pay him and everything,” he said. “I was going to give him whatever he wanted for it.”Since that wasn’t an option, Thomas settled on No. 87 Lamar Miller Color Rush Jersey , but said that if he remains in Houston next season he’ll try and snag his number back.With his new team and his new number, Thomas is ready for a new start in Houston. But first he’ll have to revisit his past on Sunday and knows that it will be a difficult trip considering all the memories he made in his time in Denver.“It’ll be tough,” he said. “But that’s ball and I have to deal with it.” So many things send NFL coaches into a tizzy. Most of them get addressed immediately.The one item they can’t get done quickly, and often not at all, is finding consistency.Rarely have the first six weeks of a season provided so many up-and-down performances, from weaklings to world beaters, from turnover machines to takeaway monsters.Consider that there are seven teams with 3-3 marks, and another one, Green Bay, at 2-2-1 heading into its Monday nighter against San Francisco. There also are eight other clubs within a half-game or full game of the break-even mark. Had the Panthers and Redskins, both 3-2, and Lions (2-3) not had byes, they might well be .500 clubs now.Those with a positive approach will call it competitive balance. We’ll stick with mediocrity.And, most maddeningly, inconsistency.“Yes, it always hurts more when you know you beat yourself, but that’s part of the game,” Carolina wide receiver Torrey Smith said after a 23-17 defeat at Washington in which the Panthers lost the turnover battle 3-0. “Sometimes you overcome it, sometimes you don’t. There’s no one particular person at fault. We know it’s us as a team.“Great teams play well all four quarters. Good teams do it sporadically. If we want to be great, we have to be consistent. We had our chances, but we got to be able to do it every Sunday.”What so many NFL teams do is dominate one week, deliver a dud the next. In Week 6, we had:—Chicago (3-2), so powerful in its previous game before a bye, blowing a big lead at Miami (4-2), which was coming off messing up a 17-0 edge at Cincinnati in Week 5.—Dallas (3-3), inept offensively in a prime-time failure at Houston, turning around and pummeling Jacksonville 40-7. The Jaguars seemed like a special group after a 3-1 start that included beating New England. They are now 3-3 with two poor showings in a row.—Tennessee (3-3), which has followed three successive victories with two awful displays of invisible offense, including falling at Cleveland (2-3-1), a team that was hammered Sunday by the Chargers. Indeed Nick Martin Color Rush Jersey , the Titans, Jaguars and Texans, who lost their opening three before winning the next three games, are tied atop the AFC South. At .500.—Seattle (3-3), where Pete Carroll is doing one of the best coaching jobs of his career in keeping a retooling — say rebuilding in the Emerald City and you will be thrown into Puget Sound — club competitive. But still inconsistent, despite a 27-3 thrashing of the hapless Raiders.—Pittsburgh (3-2-1), which once again stole a win at Cincinnati, a regular occurrence over nearly the last two decades. The Steelers have so many issues on and off the field that keeping them from sinking the season is paramount now compared to finding any steadiness.Don’t expect much of this to change as we move deep into autumn and then into winter. While there are a few teams that are quite good and a bunch that are very bad, the truth about the NFL these days is that the majority of clubs are so-so.Some can’t find a consistent offense to balance a solid defense, including the three AFC South leaders.“I also know that we’re not going to be able to be where we want to be unless we figure this thing out on offense,” Houston coach Bill O’Brien admitted Sunday. “And figure out what we have to do to be able to run the ball, throw the ball consistently, and at times we look like a good offense, not really today, but at times we have this season. We have to figure that out.”Others can move the ball, put up some points, but not regularly stop anybody. The Steelers and Vikings, two teams with a history of strong defense, won’t remind you of the Steel Curtain or the Purple People Eaters right now.Even some of the true contenders, such as Kansas City and New England, have great offenses and sieve-like Ds.Injuries always are a plague in the search for consistency. The schedule, especially when weather becomes an issue, can be, too.Still, the folks at the league offices won’t bemoan ordinariness when it means those teams will be carrying the playoff races down to the end of the schedule. And fans of those teams will be thrilled that, even at 9-7 or 8-8, their guys are in the thick of things, consistency be damned.