Obviously Houston is banished by this coaching staff. I’d love to see him get some snaps
How bad was he in every other aspect of the game other than rushing?
Anyone have a PFF membership to look up the grade splits?
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The sample size is just so small not sure pff data would help much.
He has played a total of 175 snaps in his entire career. Most coming in 2022 on 3rd down passing situations.
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Even great coaches can be wrong about a player. Hell, McVay was wrong about Goff, Tutu, Jones and more.
Houston preformed too well as a rookie to not get playing time to atleast prove it’s not a fluke . No one bats a .1000 and Detroit is ■■■■■■■ up on Houston in my opinion.
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Did a googles
“…Pro Football Focus graded 2022’s rookies and listed James Houston IV at No. 4 on its PFF Top Rookie Grades for the 2022 season. Houston’s overall grade is 83.2, and he posted a pass-rushing grade of 88.3 as a rookie. His first seven sacks came on just 88 pass-rush reps…”
It doesn’t go into splits but if his pass rush grade was 88.3 and his overall was 83.2, his run stop and coverage grades couldn’t have been too dismal
Not sure what gives
His last ‘start’ was this years third preseason game
“…Defensive end James Houston was a standout defensively, as he recorded a sack. Houston was the highest-graded Lion in Saturday’s game via Pro Football Focus with an 89.7 overall defensive grade. He had three total pressures…”
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Feels like we’re about to see a lot more of him after Davenport news today.
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I honestly don’t understand why they don’t like houston. I mean I get they want ‘well rounded’ to be a part of the gig but hutch doesn’t go on special teams.
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They wanted him to expand his game, to be a better run defender, to hold contain, etc.
Dont get me wrong, hes a flamethrower, but if you see him on the field, you know how the Lions are going to be rushing the passer, which means offenses can audible and adjust.
You cant with Hutch, or Levi, or Davenport (When healthy), with Mcneil, hell even Reader and Mingo you cant.
Hes a one trick pony, hes good at it, but he brings nothing else to the table, and the Lions tried to expand his game, can’t say they didnt, but here we are now with him.
He will see some snaps for sure, but if teams actually get big yardage with him in the run game or his assignments, would not be surprised to see him get pulled fast from the rotation
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100% spot on and accurate to what the actual sentiment is.
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The problem for Houston is that as a DE like Hutch/Davenport, he has run-stopping/contain responsibilities. If his superpower is rushing upfield and bending under the OT, he’s lost contain.
Same thing goes with playing SAM. Their first responsibility is playing the run. There are plenty of snaps from last year and even Sunday where the SAM (Barnes, Campbell and Niemann) charge upfield just enough to create a pocket, then hold their position to be able to play the C-gap and off-tackle runs.
This is why we are a top 5 defense against the run. Houston is a pass-rusher. He’s not a gap-responsible run stopper. (Yet)
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It seems like the only wrinkle you can toss in with Houston is to bring up defenders and show a blitz, with some or all of the extra men then dropping into coverage to throw off the protection scheme. Maybe you can make the offense think they need to keep the back or TE inside to pick up the free rusher instead of helping against Hutch or Houston. I don’t have a perfect solution. Houston is a dangerous rusher though, so if this coaching staff is as good as we need them to be they should be able to utilize him. Especially now with so many of our edge players hurt.
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I love our coaching staff but it feels like they refuse to find a way to try and utilize Houston. I know they want a big DE that can crash the pocket, but guys like Houston have a place rushing quarterbacks.
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So he’ll force them to run into our lights out run defense. Sounds good to me.
I’m sure your counterpoint is that our run defense is one James Houston away from falling apart. I would disagree with that rather vehemently. It didn’t close of 2022.
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I just thought of a question…
If Houston was so bad against the run, and we need our guys to be really good against the run, then how did he ever see the field for us in 2022?
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situational plays with very little film on how to handle him is my guess.
if I recall correctly, like the Thanksgiving game, Allen had to pass, so it sort of ‘is what it is’.
They tried to find a way, they put him at SAM last year hoping he could develop, he didn’t, he rushes the passer, that’s it.
With Barnes’ injury, I’m wondering if they’re willing to give that another try or if they bring up Ukwu to play that role. Campbell can do it, but he doesn’t offer a lot in coverage or pass rush compared to Barnes.
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I think that is part of it but let’s also not sell short Barnes and all the work he put in. He has turned himself into a plus starter IMO.
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I agree, he’s a glue guy who’s a testament to this staff’s ability to develop players. I hope they can resign him in the offseason. This is also the reason I’m more down on Houston than most, if they can’t get him to where he needs to be to be active on gameday, I don’t have much faith in him as a player.
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Super talented as well though
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I wouldnt say our run D would regress with him, but that we might give up more yards than we should.
Hes a high risk high reward player in that sense, you know his highs, but if he makes a mistake, it can hurt
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