SPOT ON

How Texans found secondary solutions despite draft challenges

Texans Nick Caserio, DeMeco Ryans
The Texans added to the secondary with two of their first three picks. Composite Getty Image.

The Houston Texans addressed some needs in the NFL draft despite not having a first-round pick this year.

A year after selecting quarterback C.J. Stroud second overall and trading up to get defensive end Will Anderson Jr. with the following pick, the Texans didn’t have a pick in this draft until No. 42 in the second round.

After beefing up their offense significantly by trading for star receiver Stefon Diggs and running back Joe Mixon this offseason, the Texans used their early draft picks to improve their secondary.

They did that by taking Georgia cornerback Kamari Lassiter with the 42nd pick and adding USC safety Calen Bullock in the third round at No. 78. Both could move into the starting lineup immediately with Houston looking to upgrade the cornerback spot opposite Derek Stingley Jr., the third overall pick in 2022, and the free safety position to play with strong safety Jalen Pitre, a second-round pick in 2022.

The additions should bolster a defense which ranked 23rd in the NFL last season by allowing 234.1 yards passing a game.

General manager Nick Caserio raved about Lassiter, who won two national championships with the Bulldogs.

“Lassiter has position flexed — he’s played in the perimeter, played inside the formation,” Caserio said. “I’d say he plays with a linebacker-type mentality. He’s a corner, but he tackles. He’s tough, he’s physical.”

Lassiter started 29 games combined in his last two seasons at Georgia where he broke up eight passes and had 3½ tackles for losses last season. His draft stock might have fallen because of concerns about his speed after he ran an unofficial 4.60 40-yard dash at Georgia’s pro day.

“I’m sure there will be a question about his speed, and how fast he ran,” Caserio said. “But he’s not slow. The speed really wasn’t a concern of ours. The time is the time. We’re drafting football players; we’re not drafting track teams… when you watch him play in the SEC, you don’t walk away and have that concern.”

Coach DeMeco Ryans constantly preaches the importance of a relentless mindset to his team — and particularly his defense. He said Lassiter is the perfect example of that.

“Kamari provides toughness,” Ryans said Saturday. “You talk about energy and the way he plays the game — he loves football … he’s everything that our team is about.”

Bullock was a three-year starter for the Trojans where he had nine interceptions — two that were returned for touchdowns — and 151 tackles.

“He’s rangy,” Caserio said. “He covers ground, he plays the ball well. He has good movement skills for a safety. He started his career as a corner. Not saying he’s a corner, but he moves well for his size.”

PROTECTING C.J.

The Texans chose Notre Dame offensive tackle Blake Fisher with their other pick in the second round at No. 59. Fisher is a versatile lineman after playing both left and right tackle in his college career.

“I think we’ve always been a big believer (that) you can’t have enough tackles on your football team,” Caserio said.

REUNION

Houston reunited Stroud with his former college teammate when it drafted Ohio State tight end Cade Stover in the fourth round. The 6-foot-4, 251-pound Stover, who spent his first year as a linebacker, had 982 yards receiving with 10 touchdowns combined in his last two seasons with the Buckeyes.

Stroud posted a picture on social media of the two of them celebrating in the end zone while at Ohio State soon after he was drafted Saturday.

“This guy is everything you want in a football player,” Caserio said. “This is probably one of our favorite football players in the entire draft.”

STAYING IN SCHOOL

The Texans added to their defense in the sixth round with Oregon safety turned linebacker Jamal Hill. He had 147 tackles, two interceptions and four forced fumbles in five seasons with the Ducks.

Later in the sixth round, the Texans nabbed another player who spent five seasons in college in running back Jawhar Jordan. He spent two seasons at Syracuse before spending his last three seasons at Louisville where he ran for a career-best 1,128 yards and 13 touchdowns last year.

Houston wrapped up the draft by taking USC defensive end Solomon Byrd and Auburn defensive tackle Marcus Harris and Michigan offensive tackle LaDarius Henderson in the seventh round.

Byrd was in college for a whopping six seasons after spending four seasons at Wyoming and two seasons with the Trojans. Harris played at Kansas for two seasons before spending the last three years at Auburn. Henderson spent four seasons at Arizona State before finishing with one season at Michigan.

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The Rockets are off to a 16-8 start to the season. Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images.

There was a conversation Cleveland guard Donovan Mitchell had during training camp, the topic being all the teams that were generating the most preseason buzz in the Eastern Conference. Boston was coming off an NBA championship. New York got Karl-Anthony Towns. Philadelphia added Paul George.

The Cavs? Not a big topic in early October. And Mitchell fully understood why.

“What have we done?” Mitchell asked. “They don't talk about us. That's fine. We'll just hold ourselves to our standard.”

That approach seems to be working.

For the first time in 36 seasons — yes, even before the LeBron James eras in Cleveland — the Cavaliers are atop the NBA at the 25-game mark. They're 21-4, having come back to earth a bit following a 15-0 start but still better than anyone in the league at this point.

“We've kept our standards pretty high,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “And we keep it going.”

The Cavs are just one of the surprise stories that have emerged as the season nears the one-third-done mark. Orlando — the only team still unbeaten at home — is off to its best start in 16 years at 17-9 and having done most of that without All-Star forward Paolo Banchero. And Houston is 16-8, behind only the Cavs, Boston, Oklahoma City and Memphis so far in the race for the league's best record.

Cleveland was a playoff team a year ago, as was Orlando. And the Rockets planted seeds for improvement last year as well; an 11-game winning streak late in the season fueled a push where they finished 41-41 in a major step forward after a few years of rebuilding.

“We kind of set that foundation last year to compete with everybody,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “Obviously, we had some ups and downs with winning and losing streaks at times, but to finish the season the way we did, getting to .500, 11-game winning streak and some close losses against high-level playoff teams, I think we kind of proved that to ourselves last year that that's who we're going to be.”

A sign of the respect the Rockets are getting: Oddsmakers at BetMGM Scorebook have made them a favorite in 17 of 24 games so far this season, after favoring them only 30 times in 82 games last season.

“Based on coaches, players, GMs, people that we all know what they're saying, it seems like everybody else is taking notice as well,” Udoka said.

They're taking notice of Orlando as well. The Magic lost their best player and haven't skipped a beat.

Banchero's injury after five games figured to doom Orlando for a while, and the Magic went 0-4 immediately after he tore his oblique. Entering Tuesday, they're 14-3 since — and now have to regroup yet again. Franz Wagner stepped into the best-player-on-team role when Banchero got hurt, and now Wagner is going to miss several weeks with the exact same injury.

Ask Magic coach Jamahl Mosley how the team has persevered, and he'll quickly credit everyone but himself. Around the league, it's Mosley getting a ton of the credit — and rightly so — for what Orlando is doing.

“I think that has to do a lot with Mose. ... I have known him a long time,” Phoenix guard Bradley Beal said. “A huge fan of his and what he is doing. It is a testament to him and the way they’ve built this team.”

The Magic know better than most how good Cleveland is, and vice versa. The teams went seven games in an Eastern Conference first-round series last spring, the Cavs winning the finale at home to advance to Round 2.

Atkinson was brought in by Cleveland to try and turn good into great. The job isn't anywhere near finished — nobody is raising any banners for “best record after 25 games” — but Atkinson realized fairly early that this Cavs team has serious potential.

“We’re so caught up in like the process of improve, improve, improve each game, improve each practice," Atkinson said. “That’s kind of my philosophy. But then you hit 10-0, and obviously the media starts talking and all that, and you’re like, ‘Man, this could be something special brewing here.’”

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