Cunningham ready to tackle challenge
Texans linebacker has bigger role after injury sidelines McKinney
Texans inside linebacker Zach Cunningham plays with a hard-hitting style, an aggressive mentality that allows him to challenge heavyweight blockers.
And Cunningham has enough speed to chase down fast running backs in the open field.
Those physical traits and highlevel instincts motivated the Texans to invest a four-year, $58 million contract in Cunningham. He emerged as the third-highest paid inside linebacker in the NFL behind Bobby Wagner and C.J. Mosley.
Now, the Texans need Cunningham to play to that elite level every week. Especially in the wake of losing Benardrick McKinney to a season-ending shoulder injury that required surgery.
“For me personally, just keeping consistent with what I’m able to do in the defense, making sure I have my head on, being able to lead the defense out there,” Cunningham said. “Definitely having to step up more in that role now that Benardrick’s gone.”
With McKinney on injured reserve, the Texans will lean heavily on Cunningham as a defensive leader. With McKinney done for the year, Cunningham will have the green dot on his helmet and the communication device to relay the calls from defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver to his teammates. Cunningham has some experience operating the Texans’ defense.
“As far as the communication adjustment, it wasn’t that different,” Cunningham said. “I actually have had a lot of communication where I was having to communicate the calls and all that last year and some parts of this year. It wasn’t that hard going to that.”
As talented as Cunningham is, the Texans need him to playmore consistently.
He leads the team with 53 tackles, including 38 solo stops, to go with his two sacks and three tackles for loses.
Cunningham also leads the team in another category: missed tackles. He has eight, according to Pro Football Focus.
That’s a step backward for Cunningham that reflects the regression of the entire defense. He led the NFL in run-stop-rate a year ago.
Cunningham tackled way too high during the first four games, including a missed open-field tackle on Minnesota Vikings running back Dalvin Cook on a red-zone touchdown run.
Cunningham is coming off his highest-graded performance of the season, a season-high 81.1 mark. During a 30-14 win over the Jaguars, Cunningham helped bottle up rookie running back James Robinson to just 48 rushing yards as the NFL’s last-ranked run defense surrendered a season-low75 rushing yards.
“We expect a lot out of Zach,” defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver said. “He is obviously a tremendously instinctive player. He hasmade a ton of plays for us over the year, but I don’t think the responsibility lies solely on Zach Cunningham.
“When you lose a guy like Benardrick McKinney, you need all 11 guys on that field to step up and make up for his loss. Just leadership, football IQ, knowledge, and I think our guys will do that.”
A former second-round draft pick, All-American and All-Southeastern Conference from Vanderbilt, Cunningham led the AFC with a career-high 142 tackles last season. In his fourth NFL season, the Alabama native has 392 career tackles, 18 for losses, 5 ½ sacks, three forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries.
“Zach has turned into an elite player in this league,” Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel said. “If you don’t block him or block him well, he’s going to make the tackle. He can cover. He’s rangy. He can slip blocks. He can shock and shed.”
Competing this week against 6-3, 247-pound running back Derrick Henry, who stiff-armed Bills cornerback Josh Norman into NFL oblivion Tuesday, it’s pivotal that the Texans do a better job of tackling and swarming the football.
The Texans took a step in the right direction aweek ago, but this is a much more difficult challenge for Cunningham and Tyrell Adams, McKinney’s replacement.
“I think everyone played together more as a defense ,” Cunningham said .“There’ s noway to replace the things that( McKinney) is able to do. It’s always a next-manup mentality and I feel like T.A. has been able to showthat hewas able to step up into that role.
"I’m looking forward to going into this next week. I mean, it’s definitely going to be tough. I think we’re going to be able to step up to that challenge this week.”