A to Z Sports' recent mock draft has Houston Texans making a big move on draft day in the first round
The Houston Texans have a very important draft coming up, where they find themselves outside of the top 20 for the first time in a few years, and it's not even their pick, but instead, one they acquired from the Clevland Browns when Houston traded away DeShaun Watson. Their pick is with the Arizona Cardinals […]
The Houston Texans have a very important draft coming up, where they find themselves outside of the top 20 for the first time in a few years, and it's not even their pick, but instead, one they acquired from the Clevland Browns when Houston traded away DeShaun Watson. Their pick is with the Arizona Cardinals after they traded it away last season for Will Anderson.
This draft is important because the Texans are obviously way ahead of schedule. They skipped the rebuild with your rookie QB part and went straight to being competitors in the AFC. They won a playoff game last season after winning just three games a year before. They did all that with a rookie head coach, a rookie offensive coordinator, and a rookie quarterback.
Now, all of those guys are back with the team, as is most of the coaching staff. Free agency is up next, and then after that, the Texans have to get started on the draft. But what should they do? The smart thing would be to continue building around Stroud.
However, the defense needs bolstering as well. Then again, you can always go with the best guy available strategy that teams do as well.
A to Z Sports puts together a mock draft or two, or three, every year. Recently, James Foster, A to Z Sports' draft expert and film review guy, did his third version of his mock draft, which featured the Houston Texans making a move in the first round.
Foster had the Texans trading up from pick No. 23 to 19 with the Los Angeles Rams. He has the Texans sending the 23rd pick and a future third to get the 19th pick. In this situation, the Texans moved up to get a defensive tackle out of Illinois; Johnny Newton is the second-best defensive tackle in the draft behind Byron Murphy of Texas.
Here are some of his strengths that Foster wrote down on his big board:
- Twitch, speed, & explosiveness to threaten blockers in every direction
- Extremely productive pass rusher, despite being the central focus of opponents' game plans
- Pass rushing technician with a full moveset at his disposal
- Wins routinely with a cross-chop, swipe, club-swim, & bull-rush
- Converts 1st step & natural leverage into a devastating power rush
- Quickly transitions to secondary moves when his first move fails
- Has the hand-pop to gain control of single blocks immediately
- Maximizes length with quality stack-shed & quick disengagement
- Flows with stretch plays like a linebacker
- Backdoors reach blocks & close in on the ballcarrier
It appears he would indeed be a perfect fit for a DeMeco Ryans system, and Newton is good at disrupting an offensive line. The Texans need that, as they struggled at times in both the pass rush and run-stop departments.
Here are some of his weaknesses:
- Very short arms for a defensive tackle
- Struggles to free himself when blockers land their punch
- Legs can die out at the top of the rush
- Small frame, can get covered up by reach blocks
- Misses too many tackles in the backfield. 12 missed tackles in 2023
There aren't many things that Newton wasn't good at. In fact, some of the things he wasn't good at he couldn't really help. Foster thinks his arm size could cause him to drop a bit but compared him to Calijah Kancey of last season, who played very well with some of the same issues. He has also drawn comparisons to Grady Jarrett for the Atlanta Falcons, who has been one of the more consistent defensive tackles in the league.
The Houston Texans would get even more ahead of schedule with this pick, and because of the draft capital they have, losing that third-round pick wouldn't hurt them as much as you would think. This is a solid mock by A to Z Sports' James Foster.
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Predicting what the Texans could do in the 2023 NFL Draft
