Tag: Christian Kirksey

LB Christian Kirksey shares thoughts on being Texans’ Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year nominee

Houston Texans linebacker Christian Kirksey says that it is an honor to be the team’s nominee for the 2022 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award.

The NFL announced the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award nominees per all 32 clubs on Tuesday.

Linebacker Christian Kirksey was named the Texans’ nominee, and the ninth-year veteran shared what being nominated means.

“Truly, I have a lot of my teammates that go out in the community and do such a great job that in my opinion could be nominated as well,” Kirksey said. “I appreciate that the organization nominated me for it. I think that comes with being a football player. I know a lot of people see us on Sunday playing a game that we love, making plays, making tackles, touchdowns and all that stuff, but most importantly, it’s the people that are looking up to you.”

Kirksey elaborated that using the platform of pro football to give back to the Houston community sets a good example for youngsters that they can similarly impact their communities — and not need to be an NFL linebacker to do so.

Said Kirksey: “That you might be a kid’s role model. You’ve got to go out and help those that are in need. That’s our responsibility as football players. Not only just to play on Sunday, but to go out in our communities and be that hero for everybody. That’s my philosophy on what it means to be in the community and to actually be present there.”

Kirksey has collected 86 combined tackles, 2.0 sacks, six tackles for loss, six quarterback hits, an interception, a fumble recovery, and three pass breakups through all 12 of his starts in 2022.

Christian Kirksey named Texans’ nominee for Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year

Christian Kirksey is the Houston Texans’ nominee for the 2022 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award.

The Houston Texans announced Christian Kirksey as the team’s 2022 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year nominee Tuesday.

The award is considered the league’s most prestigious honor and recognizes a player for their outstanding community service activities off the field and excellence on the field.

“We are proud to call Christian Kirksey a leader on our team and in the Houston community,” Texans chairman and CEO Cal McNair said. “He sets an example for everyone on how to do things on and off the field, and he is incredibly deserving of this honor.”

In recognition of this nomination, Kirksey will wear a Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year helmet decal through the end of the 2022 season.

The ninth-year linebacker was part of the Texans’ partnership with Texas Southern University last season and awarded a local high school coach with Coach of the Week honors.

In 2022, Kirksey traveled to Uvalde, Texas following the tragedy at Robb Elementary School to surprise the Uvalde High School football team at their team dinner. Kirksey also helped provide the players with new Nike uniforms and make meaningful connections with the young men.

“I think that we have a job not just playing football, but to be role models and to be a helping hand,” Kirksey said at the team dinner in September.

Each nominee from all 32 teams were announced Tuesday and will receive a $40,000 donation in their name to a charity of their choice.

The Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award winner will be announced the Thursday before Super Bowl LVII on NBC and receive up to a $250,000 donation to the charity of his choice courtesy of the NFL Foundation and Nationwide.

Texans fans are encouraged to vote for Kirksey by participating in the eighth annual Charity Challenge by tweeting #WPMOYChallenge and Kirksey’s Twitter handle — @Kirko58.

The three nominees with the most mentions between Dec. 6 and Jan. 8 will receive additional donations to the charity of their choice. More information and official rules for the social media contest can be found at NFL.com/manoftheyear.

Linebacker Christian Kirksey named Texans’ Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee

Kirksey was named as the #Texans’ nominee for the prestigious Walter Payton Man of the Year award

The Houston Texans have named linebacker Christian Kirksey as their nominee to receive the Walter Payton Man of the Year award in 2022. According to the team, Kirksey exemplifies the qualities of what it means to be a Texan both on the field, but especially in the community.

The Walter Payton Man of the Year award is considered the NFL’s most prestigious, and “recognizes a player for their outstanding community service activities off the field and excellence on the field” according to a release put out by the team on Tuesday.

Texans owner Cal McNair issued a statement with the release in which he expressed his support in nominating Kirksey to receive this highest of honors.

“We are proud to call Christian Kirksey a leader on our team and in the Houston community,” McNair said. “He sets an example for everyone on how to do things on and off the field, and he is incredibly deserving of this honor.”

Kirksey was nominated because of his numerous off-field projects, not only in the Houston area but around Texas as a whole. According to the release, Kirksey helped cement the Texans’ partnership with Texas Southern University last year, awarding a local high school coach with Coach of the Week honors and speaking to high school students about the right way to carry themselves both on and off the field.

He also made a trip to Uvalde, Texas in the wake of the tragedy at Robb Elementary School to surprise the Uvalde High School football team at their team dinner, and provided players with new Nike uniforms.

His good deeds have not gone unnoticed by the Houston community, and Kirksey is more than deserving of the nomination. One player from each team is chosen as a candidate to win the award, and fans will need to wait until the end of the season to find out if Kirksey will be the eventual winner of this cherished accolade.

Christian Kirksey ready to move on to Cleveland after loss to Dolphins

Kirksey, a former Brown, is ready to get a win over Cleveland after the #Texans laid an egg against the #Dolphins in Week 12

The Houston Texans have had a bad season, to say the least. At 1-9-1, they’ve managed to take a step back from their abysmal 2021 campaign where they managed to win four games under head coach David Culley.

For all intents and purposes, their year is over. All they’re playing for at this point is whatever remains of their pride, which is sure to have taken a hit over the course of their disastrous year. In a week where they could potentially take on their former quarterback in his first start for the Cleveland Browns, a win on Sunday would go a long way toward rebuilding their credibility with the fanbase.

Linebacker Christian Kirksey seemed ready to get started with the team’s preparation for the Browns after the Texans’ loss to the Dolphins in Week 12. He recapped the game succinctly before telling reporters that Cleveland will be their top priority.

“It was good play calling by [Head Coach] Lovie [Smith] to get us in position to go get to the quarterback,” Kirksey said. “It just wasn’t a good game all over the place. Whenever you give up 30 in the first half, that’s not good. We got to find a way to play sound football – that’s offense, defense and special teams. We didn’t do that today. We showed some flashes of good things but for the most part, we didn’t do what we had to do today. We got to move on to next week and get ready for Cleveland.”

One win against their former quarterback would bring the Texans’ abysmal 2022 season a step closer to respectability. This Week 13 matchup will come to define their entire campaign and has almost certainly been circled on Houston’s schedule since the preseason.

For his part, Kirksey seemed to know the stakes and. as a former Brown himself, is sure to play with an extra chip on his shoulder to get a win.

Linebacker Christian Kirksey recorded 700th career tackle vs. Commanders

Kirksey became just the 11th active player to cross the 700-tackle threshold in the #Texans’ loss to the #Commanders in Week 11

Houston Texans linebacker Christian Kirksey recorded the 700th tackle of his career against the Washington Commanders in the team’s Week 11 loss at NRG Stadium. He became just the 11th active player in the NFL to achieve the feat and is just nine tackles shy of reaching the top 10, which may be a possibility for him by the end of the season.

While the final score of the matchup was far from ideal, Kirksey’s contributions were paramount to the Texans’ ability to keep it from getting completely out of hand. They managed to lose by just 13 points in the game after trailing by an even 20 heading into halftime.

The Texans have had their share of poor performances over the course of the 2022 season, but Kirksey’s presence has helped buoy their young defense amid what is turning out to be the beginning of an arduous rebuilding process. Houston’s coaching staff and front office will want to tear their roster down to the bare studs in the offseason, and Kirksey has proven with his consistently competent play that he deserves to be part of the defense next year.

What is becoming increasingly unclear, however, is the commitment of the team to Kirksey moving forward. Though he hasn’t been a liability for the Texans, they drafted up-and-coming linebacker, Christian Harris, back in April, and may look to a youth movement to solve some of the structural issues plaguing their team in 2023.

Veterans like Kirksey are a necessary component of any well-formed roster, but with the results that the Texans have drawn from their 2022 campaign, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them part with a significant amount of the older talent currently taking up space on their team. Time will tell if Kirksey is able to crack their roster once again next season, or if this milestone might serve as the last signficant accomplishment he makes in a Texans uniform.

Lovie Smith on linebacker Christian Kirksey: ‘He’s provided great leadership’

Smith was complimentary of the job Christian Kirksey has done in leading the Texans’ defense in comments to reporters on Wednesday

With eight games remaining in the Houston Texans’ 2022 campaign, the team is still searching for their second win of the season. While the results of their first nine matchups haven’t gone to plan, the team’s defense is starting to come into its own and may have a masterclass in the works for the coming weeks that could help get the team back on track before the season’s end.

Head coach Lovie Smith talked in detail about the leadership of one defensive player, Christian Kirksey, in comments to the media at the Texans’ Wednesday press conference. He admitted that the defense hasn’t played particularly well in every game to this point in the season, but told reporters that with Kirksey in a key role in both the locker room and on the field, the unit is trending up following their loss to the New York Giants in Week 10.

“I think defensively as a whole we haven’t played as well as we need to, and Christian [Kirksey] has been a part of that,” Smith explained. “Last couple games, I think you can see him trending in the right direction too. He’s provided great leadership. All those things you expect from a captain is exactly who he is. Just what we’re looking for defensively, not just Christian, everybody. One area is more possessions. We haven’t taken the ball away. I know it’s been documented how we play the run, and we haven’t taken the ball away. All of us are a part of that. There’s a reason why Christian leads our defense still. I think he’s been great for Christian Harris also, veteran presence that is showing him exactly how to do it.”

Kirksey’s mentorship of Harris is a key development that hasn’t been talked about enough by the media since the rookie’s debut a few weeks back. Harris is a hard-hitting playmaker at the linebacker position who could become one of Houston’s most valuable assets in the future with continued tutelage by a veteran like Kirksey on a week-to-week basis.

Time will tell if this Texans’ defense can step up to ensure Houston another win with a shutout performance over the next eight games, but for the time being, the team is in good hands with Kirksey overseeing the development of players on his side of the ball.

Linebacker Christian Kirksey reflects on upcoming career milestone

Kirksey is just two tackles away from the 700-mark on his career but he told reporters on Tuesday that he’d rather be winning football games

Houston Texans linebacker Christian Kirksey has had quite the career in the NFL since entering the league in 2014 as a third-round pick from the University of Iowa. He found early success as a member of the Cleveland Browns until 2019 when the team parted ways with him and played for one season with the Green Bay Packers before finding his way to Houston last year.

Now in his ninth year of professional football, Kirksey is closing in on marking his 700th career tackle, a mark that is indicative of his knack for being at the right place at the right time over the course of his playing career. He reflected on the upcoming accomplishment in comments to reporters on Tuesday, when asked about what achieving such a concrete marker of success meant to him.

“To be honest, playing linebacker in this league, yeah, you look at the tackles and say it’s a good milestone, but I’m worried about winning,” Kirksey explained. “What good is it if you’re making tackles and you’re not winning? For me, where I can really excel in my game is the big plays, the takeaways, the game-changing plays. That’s what I’m concerned about. It is a milestone, and you never want to overlook anything, any type of success you have. I give it up to god, and thankful to play a long time to get to that milestone. I’m more worried about winning games and seeing where I could be the best fit to help my team.”

While his somewhat flippant response belies the fact that the milestone will reflect highly on his achievement at the professional level, one can certainly appreciate that his mind is on winning football games and not career milestones. He will need just two tackles against the Washington Commanders on Sunday to cross the 700-tackle mark, and for his benefit, fans should hope that the Texans manage to pull out their second win of the season in the matchup so that Kirksey’s outstanding accomplishment isn’t made bittersweet by the team’s underachievement.

Texans face a huge challenge against the Commanders in Week 11

After a disappointing 1-7-1 start, the #Texans will take on the #Commanders in Week 11 in a challenging matchup

When the 2022 NFL regular season schedule was released, most fans and local sports media personalities saw that the Houston Texans would be playing the NFC East.

The thought was that the back-to-back games against the New York Giants and Washington Commanders were winnable. They had reason to be so comfortable with the two teams finishing with a combined record of 11-23 in 2021.

Now in Week 11, the odds do not look good for the Texans, having lost to the Giants by 24-16 in Week 10. They will now face a red-hot Commanders team on Sunday that has won four out of their last five games and gave an undefeated Philadelphia Eagles team their first loss on Monday night.

“They play with a lot of intensity and a lot of aggression,” said Texans linebacker Christian Kirksey. “I think they have a team that never backs down and is always looking to get an edge. That’s when you become successful, and we saw that last night (Monday) against the Eagles. We’re going to expect them to bring their best and try to run the ball against us. For this week, we just have to stop the bleeding and be a better run stopping defense.”

Washington dominated the time of possession against Philadelphia, holding the ball for 40 minutes. They used a balanced attack from running backs Brian Robinson Jr. and Antonio Gibson to rush for 130 yards and two touchdowns.

“He’s a good player,” Texans defensive lineman Ogbonnia Okoronkwo said about Commanders running back Brian Robinson Jr. “I think a lot of teams will try to run the ball, so I don’t think we’re going to stop seeing that until we stop it.”

Stopping the run is something that Houston’s defense has not been able to do this season, surrendering 181.8 yards rushing per game. Against the Giants, running back Saquan Barkley rushed for a season-high 35 times for 152 yards and a touchdown.

Even with their run-stopping deficiencies, the Texans have competed throughout the game this season; they just haven’t been able to put together a string of complete games.

“Well, it is frustrating,” Texans head coach Lovie Smith said after the loss to the Giants. “You can only talk so much about, ‘Hey, we’re close man and keep going, we’re going to get over the hump.’ But for whatever reason, and not for whatever reason we kind of know the reason, turnovers, not taking the ball away. Just some explosive plays at the end, we’re going to keep going to work on that.

“We realize what the problem is and what the results say a little bit, but we are close. Eventually I do feel like we’re going to get over the hump. So far, we look at the first half of the season. We just finished up the first half of the season – not good enough. But we still can see promise for the second half.”

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Trade bait: 3 Texans who could be on the move at trade deadline

These three #Texans could be trade bait if the club is looking to add capital for the future.

The Houston Texans have struggled in 2022, but have plenty of talent on their roster that might prove to be prime trade bait for other teams ahead of the NFL’s November 1st trade deadline. Given their early-season struggles, Houston will likely be willing to part with some of their more established players in exchange for draft picks or prospects who might help them in the future.

Here are three Texans who may find themselves on their way out of Houston in the coming weeks:

Texans S Jonathan Owens says defense has to find ways to finish

Houston Texans safety Jonathan Owens says the defense has to find ways to finish following the 16-9 loss to the Denver Broncos.

The Houston Texans weren’t able to hang on to their 9-6 fourth quarter lead against the Denver Broncos Sunday.

The home side prevailed and handed the Texans their first loss of the season, 16-9, at Empower Field at Mile High.

Safety Jonathan Owens led the Texans with 10 combined tackles. In fact, pending the results of Monday night’s doubleheader, Owens is the NFL’s leader in tackles with 25 through the first two weeks.

Owens joined Texans Radio Network sideline reporter John Harris after the loss to talk about the game, where Houston needs to improve, and what went well for them despite leaving Denver with an 0-1-1 record.