AP

It wasn’t that long ago when Ryan Mallett was competing for the Texans’ starting quarterback job.

Now, he’s working his way up the depth chart from the bottom.

According to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle, Mallett was back in practice today after missing yesterday because he pulled a Jean-Paul, but he was running third in drills, behind starter Brian Hoyer and second-year quarterback Tom Savage.

If that’s not a message, nothing is, though Texans coach Bill O’Brien didn’t get into details yesterday when asked where Mallett was.

Mallett apparently threw a few touchdown passes in practice, and that’s going to be the only way for him to climb the ladder again — by performing.

Of course, they say biggest part of ability is availability (God I’ve heard a lot of coach cliches in my life), and that’s something Mallett obviously still needs to work on.