Rookie defensive end Will Anderson has made a fast impact on the Houston Texans defense. After being drafted third overall this past April, he’s already considered the best edge rusher on the team and that talent flashed during his Week 1 debut where he sacked former MVP Lamar Jackson while generating six pressures.
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It was a great game plan that saw Anderson employed on various stunts and constantly finding ways to pressure the quarterback. This week, Anderson announced a partnership with Klutch Sports by New Balance and took time to talk with the Texans Wire. During that discussion, he wasn’t afraid to give credit where credit was due to the coaching staff.
“Let me start by saying this, I’m a rookie so I don’t really get no input,” Anderson said. “I don’t get a ton of input on what goes on with the game plan. They may ask me what I like and what calls do I like but I have to give the coaches credit for the game plan that they come up with.
“Coach [DeMeco] Ryans is the defensive mind and [defensive coordiantor] (Matt) Burke does a great job as well. It’s Coach Ryan’s defense at the end of the day and they come up with the game plan and I’m just a rookie, just listening to what they’re telling me.”
Ryans played a great part in transforming San Francisco into one of the NFL’s elite defensive units over his two years as defensive coordinator. It was no surprise when him and the defensive staff found an excellent game plan for Baltimore.
In terms of how his big day came together, Anderson was complimentary of the game plan and the overall performance of the defensive line in contributing to how they contained Jackson:
“I think the plan that they had was really great,” said Anderson. “Going against a quarterback like Lamar Jackson you have to keep him in the pocket. It really started with us up front and we had to do a good job of containing him, rushing together and rushing as one. We had to make sure nobody was stuck as an individual. We could have had more success up front, we made some mistakes, but we did a lot of good things and that was a good start for us up front.”
Anderson has 15 games to go now and is coming off a contest against the Indianapolis Colts where he was unable to find either Anthony Richardson or Gardner Minshew for a sack. Don’t count on the lack of sacks detering the rookie’s motivation. He had a fascinating takeaway from his first NFL game that is likely to continue all season.
Said Anderson: “Really, just keep rushing. That’s one of the biggest things that Coach Ryans harps on all the time. No matter what happens just keep rushing, don’t rush timid, just everybody rush from the same page. That’s one thing that I took from the last game that you may miss a few here and there but just keep rushing and track your angles. When the ball is thrown just tracking to the ball and take your angles. That’s what I want to take with me.”
The tape was better than the numbers for Will Anderson.
Really nice motor play. pic.twitter.com/McQWJhMov3
— Jeremy Branham (@JeremyBranham) September 18, 2023
Houston will need Anderson to keep rushing and to play at a high level if they want to turn their season around. They’ll have an opportunity in Jacksonville to take their first win when they travel to play the Jaguars and quarterback Trevor Lawrence on Sunday.
