The Texans reworked their defense this off season. Coach DeMeco Ryans believes he’s discovered a magical pairing of pass rushers in Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter.
Anderson, the former Alabama star, arrived in Houston as the No. 3 pick of last year’s NFL Draft. And he earned the league’s rookie defender of the year honors. Meanwhile, the Texans signed Hunter, the former LSU standout, in free agency. Statistically, Hunter was the top pass rusher in the NFC in 2023.
Ryans, who is in his second season as coach of the Texans, bragged on the two this week as he met with the media.
“With Danielle and Will, I think they instantly have this connection that you need for both of those ends and playing off of each other, picking off of each other’s brain,” Ryans told reporters. “Danielle is a veteran in the league — he has done it for awhile. So Will being able to lean on him for advice on how he has seen it done, I think that is very important.”
Hunter, in picking the Texans as his new team, came home. A suburb on the west side of Houston. Some of the top high school football in the state is played in Katy. And Hunter was a four-star prospect who ended up as a starter at LSU and then a third-round draft pick of the Minnesota Vikings. After nine seasons there, he moved south.
He made his ninth season a special one, with 16.5 sacks and an NFL-leading 23 tackles for a loss.
Then there’s Anderson, who started 13 games as a rookie. He notched seven sacks, with 10 tackles for loss. Might this new pass rush pairing be the best the Texans have seen since J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus were harassing quarterbacks, together, a few seasons back?
“I like the connection that they have had, they are working well together,” Ryans said. “And it is great to see both of them collapse in the pocket and finishing on the quarterback.”
Of course, you can’t see the full impact of the two together til at least the preseason schedule start. But it’ll likely won’t be until the first game of the season. You can’t do friendly fire at your own quarterback, so Hunter and Anderson aren’t getting anywhere close to CJ Stroud.
Meanwhile, the Texans made changes elsewhere. They opted not to sign Jonathan Greenard, who led the team in sacks last year. It was the same for leading tackler, linebacker Blake Cashman. Coincidentally, both signed with the Vikings.
Then the Texans signed linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair from the Titans. He registered 163 tackles at Tennessee last season.
They didn’t stop there. The Texans traded Maliek Collins to the 49ers and signed Denico Autry, who led the Titans in sacks with 11.5.
“For me, I want as much depth as possible on our defensive line,” said Ryans, who started his NFL career as a Texans linebacker. “It is easy for those guys to come into our system and transition very quicky, especially when they are here during the offseason program. And having those guys around, I think it has helped everyone because they understand our style of play, they understand how we see the D-line play and how important it is, not only to our defense but to our entire team.”
