Houston Texans general manager Nick Caserio likes the direction of the new look defensive line.
The line is finishing up a transition from a 3-4 front to a 4-3 front as part of new defensive coordinator Lovie Smith’s Tampa 2 scheme.
Taking over the transition for the defensive line has been Bobby King, who was the Texans’ inside linebackers coach last season.
Caserio told Texans Radio play-by-play voice Marc Vandermeer and sideline reporter John Harris on Sports Radio 610 [KILT-AM] on Monday that King has performed well handling the different strengths of the personnel.
“BK (King) has done a great job of kind of rolling those players though,” Caserio said. “When you actually look at the distribution of reps, it’s pretty balanced. It’s not the easiest thing for a coach to do that, but Bobby has handled it great.”
Defensive end Shaq Lawson told reporters on Aug. 6 that he likes the “deep group” along the defensive line, which boasts defensive ends Whitney Mercilus, Jacob Martin, Jonathan Greenard, Charles Omenihu, and defensive tackles Ross Blacklock, Maliek Collins, and Brandon Dunn.
“We’ve got a lot of guys that played a lot of ball in this league, help teams win games,” said Lawson. “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 past.”
What King and Smith will have to work with when the Texans take on the Green Bay Packers Saturday night is how to balance the personnel to provide for even snap distribution.
Said Caserio: “You want to see different people with different groups go against different players. To coordinate that and try to mix and match that, it takes some planning. So, they have some different strengths and weaknesses. Our responsibility is to be able to put them in a position to accentuate their strengths so we can maximize their performance on the defensive side of the ball.”
Houston plays Green Bay Aug. 14 at 7:00 p.m. Central Time from Lambeau Field.