The Houston Texans, after much trial and error, have their offensive line.
A five-man unit of (left to right) Laremy Tunsil, Max Scharping, Nick Martin, Zach Fulton and Tytus Howard has given Houston its best blocking unit in eons. The problem: The quintuplet has struggled to stay together.
With Tunsil, Howard and Fulton each missing at least one start in 2019, the entirety of the unit has just 176 snaps together. In those snaps — worth two games and a half — they have allowed two sacks to Deshaun Watson.
As benefactors of the Week 10 bye, Houston won’t just have 176 snaps logged onto their rebuilt offensive line. Tunsil, who missed Week 9 (shoulder), is expected to come back for Week 11’s tilt with the Baltimore Ravens. Howard (partially torn MCL) returned in Week 9.
“I think any time you can have continuity up front, I mean, obviously that’s a good thing,” said coach Bill O’Brien on Monday. You don’t want to have guys moving in and out based on injuries. You really don’t want that, but sometimes, obviously, that happens and you have to deal with it like any other teams does.”
Houston recently employed the help of Roderick Johnson and Chris Clark to negate the injuries to Tunsil and Howard. That will no longer be the case for the Texans. O’Brien is giddy to get the offensive line he and former General Manager Brian Gaine slaved over to create.
“Any time you can have (Laremy) Tunsil and (Tytus) Howard at tackle, and (Max) Scharping and (Zach) Fulton at guard, Nick Martin at center, that’s a pretty good group and that’s good continuity,” O’Brien continued. “So, hopefully we can have that this week.”
Despite the never-ending rotation of players, the Texans offensive line has produced in 2019. Houston is eighth in the NFL in ESPN‘s Pass Block Win Rate (61%), 11th in adjusted line yards (4.37) and ninth in run-stuffed rate, per Football Outsiders.
The Texans’ offensive line should be together for their fourth start as a cohesive unit on Sunday. From there, the only place to go for Tunsil, Scharping, Martin, Fulton and Howard is up.