The Houston Texans didn’t have much to be pleased with during their 3-13-1 season, but their rookie class may have provided some hope for the future.
According to Aaron Schatz from Football Outsiders and Alex Vigderman from Sports Info Solutions, who collaborated with ESPN, the Texans were ranked as having the fifth-best draft class in 2022.
By the end of the year, the Texans were starting six rookies. First-round cornerback Derek Stingley had a strong season when healthy, with 6.6 yards allowed per target in nine starts. But he didn’t make anywhere near as many plays as second-round safety Jalen Pitre. If we add together tackles, assists, passes defended and turnovers, Pitre led all NFL safeties with 155 plays made as a rookie. The Texans also got 11 games started from linebacker Christian Harris, who had issues with broken tackles but was good in pass coverage.
On offense, Dameon Pierce was the starting running back for most of the season, with a fairly average season of 4.3 yards per carry. Kenyon Green started most of the season at left guard but doesn’t earn many Total Points because he finished near the top of the league in blown blocks. And Teagan Quitoriano was the starting tight end for the last third of the season, although he ended with just 113 receiving yards. The Texans should get even more out of this rookie class in the future if John Metchie can regain his health after a cancer diagnosis cost him his rookie campaign.
While the case for Metchie’s return is a good point, the Texans also have two players with unrealized potential in fifth-round defensive lineman Thomas Booker and sixth-round tackle Austin Deculus. Booker was active for 10 games, including a start, and provided the defense with 11 combined tackles, a quarterback hit, a tackle for loss, a pass breakup, and a half-sack. Deculus was active for five games and had 27 special teams snaps.
