Tag: Jerry Hughes

Will Jerry Hughes play this week? Latest injury updates for Texans DE

Houston Texans DE Jerry Hughes has been dealing with a hip injury. Here are the latest updates entering Monday’s practice.

(This story was updated to add new information.)

The Houston Texans aren’t back to full strength yet, but they could gain an essential part of their defensive depth in the trenches for Sunday’s matchup against the Detroit Lions on NBC.

Defensive end Jerry Hughes was cleared to practice first time in four weeks on Monday afternoon. Here’s what happened and his current status entering Sunday Night’s matchup at NRG Stadium.

Jerry Hughes injury update

Hughes, 36, was placed on the injured following Week 4’s win over the Jacksonville Jaguars with a hip injury. The veteran had been limited in his play time, often used on pass-rushing downs late in games.

Houston elected to activate Hughes’ 21-day windows to be restored to the active roster. The team will have until Nov. 25 to decide if they’ll bring him back to the 53-man squad or return him to the injured reserve for the remainder of the regular season.

Jerry Hughes stats

Entering his third season with the Texans, Hughes only recorded one tackle before being placed on the IR back in September. A former first-round pick by the Indianapolis Colts, the Pro Bowl defensive end led Houston with nine sacks in 2022.

A native of Sugar Land and former TCU star, Hughes has totaled 70 career sacks, 480 tackles, 142 quarterback hits and 19 forced fumbles.

Texans DE depth chart

With Hughes out, former 2023 fourth-round pick Dylan Horton has seen an expanded role in Houston’s defensive front. Here’s the rest of the defensive ends on the active roster:

  • Will Anderson Jr.
  • Danielle Hunter
  • Denico Autry
  • Dylan Horton

Autry is coming off his best outing in Texans’ uniform after totaling two sacks and a tackle for loss in Thursday’s 21-13 loss against the New York Jets.

Anderson, who left Thursday’s game with an ankle injury, is currently on pace to win Defensive Player of the Year after totaling 7.5 sacks in eight games. He also led the NFL with 11 tackles for loss entering Week 9.

Barnett has been an ideal No. 3 option this season. In Thursday’s loss, the former first-rounder totaled three pressures and a tackle.

Two former Bills players might not play for Texans in Week 5 due to injury

Two former Bills players might not play for Texans in Week 5

No, not Stefon Diggs.

The former All-Pro receiver for the Buffalo Bills (3-1) is slated to play for the Houston Texans in Week 5 when the two teams clash.

However, two others might not. One for sure, the other it’s unknown.

According to the final injury report released by the Texans, ex-longtime Bills pass rusher Jerry Hughes will not play. Hughes is listed as having a hip injury.

Hughes, 36, has played in his hometown Houston since 2022. He departed Buffalo via free agency. Prior to that, Hughes spent 2013 to 2021 with the Bills and was the team’s longest-tenured player by the end.

The other that is on the fence is wide receiver… Robert Woods.

Like Hughes, Woods departed Buffalo via free agency but way back in 2016 after his rookie contract expired. Woods was a second-round pick of the Bills in 2013.

Woods, 32, has a foot injury.

Both players are currently featuring in rotational roles with the Texans and the pair did play in Houston’s last outing.

Woods has faced the Bills twice since leaving Buffalo, meanwhile, this would have been Hughes’ first chance to take on his old team–But he did face the Bills once prior to joining them while with the Indianapolis Colts.

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Drew Brees’ 69-yard TD pass to Kenny Stills is the Saints Play of the Day

It’s a throwback to 2013. Drew Brees’ 69-yard touchdown pass to Kenny Stills is the New Orleans Saints Play of the Day:

We’re taking the time machine back to 2013 for our New Orleans Saints Play of the Day while counting down to kickoff in 2024. Facing the Buffalo Bills at midseason, Drew Brees found a mismatch in coverage and hit rookie wide receiver Kenny Stills with outside linebacker Jerry Hughes trailing him down the sideline.

It wasn’t much of a footrace after that. Stills streaked ahead of Hughes to walk into the end zone untouched for a go-ahead touchdown, and the Saints poured it on. Jimmy Graham caught back-to-back touchdown passes, and Stills scored again from 42 yards out to seal a 35-17 blowout win.

While he was only targeted four times on the afternoon, Stills finished the game with three receptions for 129 yards. Brees was in vintage form; his final passing line included 26 completions on 34 attempts, gaining 332 yards with five touchdown passes. He was sacked four times (including once by Hughes) but remained cool under pressure, and the Bills couldn’t keep pace with him. We’ll see a couple of those throws in his highlight reel when Brees is inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in a few years.

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Making a 53-man roster out of active ex-Buffalo Bills

Let’s have some fun:

The NFL is a league with plenty of turnover among players and staff. Every offseason, all 32 teams churn their roster through trades and drops, leading to recycling of personnel through free agency.

When Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott mentioned in his end-of-season presser to ‘not expect wholesale changes‘, it got us thinking: What if the entire roster was changed?

Well, as it turns out, we could.

Here are the ground rules we set for this exercise:

  • All players/coaches had to have been on a 90-man roster or practice squad at some point during the 2023 season (dating back to March 15, 2023) with one exception (below).
  • Players who weren’t in the NFL in 2023 were still considered if they were active in another league (CFL, XFL, etc.) this past season.
  • Players/coaches had to have been on the Bills’ 90-man roster, 53-man roster, or practice squad for at least one day at some point in their careers.
  • Construction of the 53-man had to be realistic and balanced in terms of numbers at each position (ie. we don’t have 1 running back and 15 wide receivers).
  • Players had to be listed at a position they’ve taken snaps in (ie. couldn’t put a TE along the OL, etc.).

This is what we came up with…

Sheldon Rankins gets a #THICCSIX fumble recovery for Texans

Sheldon Rankins of the Texans added his name to the estimable #THICCSIX list for the 2023 NFL season.

There are few more satisfying things in sports than a big man rumbling for a touchdown, and the Houston Texans experienced that phenomenon in their game against the Tennessee Titans with 10:10 left in the first half. Houston was already up 10-0 with the return from concussion of quarterback C.J. Stroud, and then, veteran edge-rusher Jerry Hughes strip-sacked Titans quarterback Will Levis, and the 6-foot-2, 305-pound Rankins took over from there.

Rankins just qualifies for a #THICCSIX under the official rules, which we hold here at Touchdown Wire. No man under three bills can have one, but Rankins now has the first of his eight-year career.

Unfortunately, Levis was injured on the play.

Texans DE Jerry Hughes says Will Anderson ‘has that Von Miller ability’

Houston Texans defensive end Jerry Hughes says that he sees similarities between All-Pro Von Miller and rookie Will Anderson.

Having played 13 previous seasons in the NFL gives Jerry Hughes unique perspective.

The Houston Texans defensive end has 201 games worth of experience to know what skills are on display, which makes Hughes a credible commentator on Will Anderson.

Hughes used a lofty comparison for the No. 3 overall defensive end when meeting with reporters Sunday at Houston Methodist Training Center.

“Just one, it’s great to have someone who is eager to be out there early on the field, and two, he has that Von Miller ability — just how great he is with his hands,” Hughes said.

Miller has 123.5 career sacks, eight Pro Bowls, three All-Pros, and a Super Bowl MVP. Hughes wasn’t forecasting Anderson would have the same career success, but merely noted the former Alabama product has some of the same skillsets.

“He is already fast and he’s able to kind of setup some of his rushes off of his speed already, so, that he’s able to kind of understand the game it’s going to be tremendous for us,” said Hughes. “Then just how he’s picking up our defense. Picking up the small things about attacking the ball as a defensive lineman.”

Where Hughes sees maturity in Anderson’s play is in his focus on takeaways.

Said Hughes: “We always emphasize turnovers and that’s going to help us be the defense we want to be. You see a lot of our young guys picking up on that, especially Will and that’s what you want to see especially up front. Just someone who can slow down the game, but also utilize his God given ability and then put some technique to that as well.”

Hughes led the Texans with 9.0 sacks last season. The 34-year-old may get eclipsed if Anderson plays like Miller, the 2011 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year.

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Ranking edge rushers in the AFC South entering 2023

Taking a look at ranking the edge rushers in the AFC South.

The AFC South has some young talented pass rushers across the board. Five players were selected in the first round, there’s a No. 1 overall pick, and only one of the five first-rounders has played at least five NFL seasons.

For this list, it features the top two edge rushers from each team in the division. Let’s take a look at how they rank:

Texans DE Jerry Hughes still productive as 7-tech pass rusher

Houston Texans defensive end Jerry Hughes is one of the best 7-tech pass rushers according to the Touchdown Wire.

The Houston Texans are undoubtedly getting younger at edge rusher with the drafting of No. 3 overall pick Will Anderson. However, the club still believes they have an effective defensive end in Jerry Hughes, and the tape may prove it.

According to Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar from the Touchdown Wire, who studied edge rushers in various techniques from the 0-tech to the wide-9, the best rusher using the 7-tech is none other than Hughes.

The same positive attributes that apply to 6-tech rushers basically apply to 7-techs, and here, we have to point to Jerry Hughes, the veteran pass-rusher who amassed seven solo sacks, 12 quarterback hits, and 17 quarterback hurries in the 7-tech position, to the tight end’s outside shoulder. Hughes was a stalwart in this role because he’s able to combine speed and bend around the edge with power moves to foil the best left tackles. Here, against the Eagles in Week 9, left tackle Jordan Mailata got a taste of what that looked like.

On the year, Hughes generated 9.0 sacks. It was the first time since J.J. Watt’s 16.0 sacks in 2018 that a Texans defender had come close to reaching the double-digit mark.

Despite how Hughes was used in former coach Lovie Smith’s Tampa 2 scheme, the former Sugar Land Stephen F. Austin High School product will be part of an attacking front with new coach DeMeco Ryans.

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The Xs and Os: The NFL’s most disruptive pass-rushers from every gap

From Dexter Lawrence to Nick Bosa, who are the best pass-rushers from every gap — wide-9 to nose tackle? Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar investigate.

Today’s NFL is about two things above all else — creating and defending explosive plays. In the effort to defend explosive plays, defenses align their pass-rushers all over the line of scrimmage in everything from stunts off of base fronts to overload fronts, where offensive linemen have to adjust more than they’d like to against numbers that don’t work for them.

Anything to get to the quarterback as quickly as possible.

Still, quarterback disruption is about more than just scheme — you also have to have a certain number of guys with the right tools and traits to blow things up from every gap.

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” Greg (of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup) and Doug (of Touchdown Wire) get into the traits needed to get after the quarterback from every gap — from 0-tech (right over the center) to wide-9 (far outside the offensive tackle).

Greg and Doug spent this week’s “Xs and Os” building the ideal defensive line with those specific traits, and here, we drill down to the best pass-rushers in the 2022 season from every gap. Who does it best, and what are the tools needed to do it?

You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os” right here:

[mm-video type=video id=01h4070wd6c5h5xc5h4x playlist_id=none player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01h4070wd6c5h5xc5h4x/01h4070wd6c5h5xc5h4x-4f09cde313c169cad39a8a8a06c224b8.jpg]

You can also subscribe to “The Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

(All metrics courtesy of Sports Info Solutions and Pro Football Focus unless otherwise specified). 

DE Jerry Hughes predicts Texans will be ‘more violent’ on defense

Houston Texans defensive end Jerry Hughes believes the defense will be “more violent” in 2023 under new coach DeMeco Ryans.

Houston Texans defensive end Jerry Hughes can already see the changes to the defense.

New coach DeMeco Ryans spent the entire offseason program from April 3’s voluntary workouts to June 14’s mandatory minicamp laying down the foundation of his scheme he ran with as the San Francisco 49ers’ defensive coordinator the past two seasons.

Hughes spent his first season with the Texans under then-coach Lovie Smith’s Tampa 2. Although the former Sugar Land Stephen F. Austin product was able to lead Houston with 9.0 sacks last year, the focus of the defense was different.

“We’re not trying to run around blocks anymore,” Hughes said. “It’s moreso attacking. We got to be defenders, we got to be the aggressor. I think that’s what a lot of guys were excited to get back to, is kind of football, in my mind.”

Not only has the defensive philosophy changed for Houston, but the Texans have added younger personnel with rookie defensive end Will Anderson, fifth-round linebacker Henry To’oTo’o, and the continuous ascension of second-year safety Jalen Pitre. Houston also signed defensive tackle Hassan Ridgeway, linebacker Denzel Perryman, and safety Jimmie Ward in free agency.

Hughes has also noticed the defense is “probably faster.”

Said Hughes: “Guys are running around making plays. They have been with our strength staff here who has done a tremendous job of keeping everyone healthy. With that added element, guys are moving a lot faster.”

A faster scheme with an attacking scheme should lead to a different on-field profile for Houston in 2023.

“I think you’re see a lot more violent defense, guys that are flying around the ball,” said Hughes. “We got 11 hats coming after you. It’s going to be something that a lot of people are going to be excited to see. I know I am. I know the guys on defense are. We’ve just been perfecting it for these past couple of months. It’s going to be really exciting.”

The Texans were tied with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Philadelphia Eagles for the fifth-most takeaways last season with 27. However, Houston gave up the third-most total yards in 2022 with 6,452.

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