Strangely, there are bright spots to the Houston Texans’ simultaneous 51-31 choke-blowout loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC divisional playoffs at Arrowhead Stadium.
One of them is the play of rookie left guard Max Scharping. According to Pro Football Focus, the second-rounder from Northern Illinois graded out at 90.9, the highest grade of the weekend across all four games.
In a game most Texans would like to forget, the o-line showed just how far it's come.
The top pass block grades among linemen last weekend:
1. Max Scharping, HST (90.9)
2. Zach Fulton, HST (88.3)
3. Josh Kline, MIN (87.5)
4. Laremy Tunsil, HST (85.1)
5. Nick Martin, HST (83.5) pic.twitter.com/Lft6EUrPNy— PFF HOU Texans (@PFF_Texans) January 14, 2020
While other Texans offensive linemen such as left tackle Laremy Tunsil, right guard Zach Fulton, and center Nick Martin made the top-5, it is especially impressive that Scharping topped the list. It demonstrates that the Texans got a quality pick in the second round, and one that still has a high enough ceiling to help lower Deshaun Watson’s sack numbers going forward.