Defensive end Shaq Lawson has seen before what the Houston Texans are trying to do in 2021.
With new coach David Culley came a new defensive coordinator, Lovie Smith, who is moving the defense from a 3-4, which they have ran since 2011, to a Tampa 2 scheme that deploys a 4-3 front.
While it may be a transition for some existing edge rushers on the team, such as outside linebackers Whitney Mercilus, Jonathan Greenard, and Jacob Martin, Lawson has played in the scheme before. From 2016-19, Lawson was with the Buffalo Bills, who used the scheme since the 2017 hiring of Sean McDermott, who had a Smith understudy, Leslie Frazier, as his defensive coordinator.
Even though the scheme is similar, and Lawson had a career high 6.5 sacks in the scheme in 2019, the former first-round pick from Clemson is focusing on taking a day at a time with the Texans.
“When a new team came up there and just basically got to take one day at a time,” Lawson said. “They try to change the coaching and things, about the building, try to bring a great group of guys in. But usually just got to take one day at a time and try to get one percent better as a team and as an organization every day.”
Lawson likes the depth the Texans have along the defensive line with Charles Omenihu, Ross Blacklock, Maliek Collins, and Brandon Dunn part of the fray.
Said Lawson: “We’ve got a lot of guys that played a lot of ball in this league, help teams win games. It’s just been a fun group. It’s a competition in that room, so it’s been going great, well. The guys they keep, it’s going to be wonderful because we’ve got a lot of guys, and each and every guy can play in there, and they’ve helped the team in the previous, in the past.”
The first job of the Texans defensive line will be to stiffen up against the run, where the unit gave up 5.2 yards per carry, the most in the NFL in 2020.