SECONDARY SHUFFLING
Figuring out best combination among defensive backs continues to remain elusive
Justin Reid jammed a left tackle and watched the football spiral over the helmets of the Texans’ front seven. Josh Allen’s pass sailed over a linebacker, over a Buffalo receiver and hit fellow safety Lonnie Johnson square in the hands.
Reid became a lead blocker, curling around the edge, shoving a pursuing Allen into the boundary as Johnson returned the first interception of his career 32 yards.
“It was about damn time that he got one,” Reid said later with a grin.
Reid tipped what would’ve been Johnson’s second interception against New England, a Mac Jones first-half lob over the middle that would’ve been picked just as easily. The wait for another wasn’t long. On the first drive of the second half, Johnson jumped a deep crossing route and dove for the defense’s sixth interception of the season, doubling the team’s total in 2020.
Johnson has two picks. Reid has two of his own. Five games into 2021 have revealed a much-improved secondary that has so far lived up to the turnoverforcing promises Texans defenders made during training camp — and the two safeties are at the center of the fulfillment.
“We’ve got that evil twin magic going,” Johnson said.
But how long will the magic last? Will the same spell even be cast Sunday in Indianapolis?
More rotations likely
First-year defensive coordinator Lovie Smith and his staff have fielded three different starting combinations in the secondary this season. The rebuilding franchise will almost certainly field more, rotating its roster of defensive backs until they identify the lineup that suits the defense best.
“Everybody’s different,” safeties coach Greg Jackson said. “So, that’s why we’re trying to put guys at different positions, just to see what they can do and see who’s the best guys that can play together down after down. That’s the most important thing, and we haven’t found that yet.”
Part of the search is revealed in Reid and Johnson’s interceptions themselves. Both were playing free safety when they were caught: Reid in the first two games; Johnson in the last two. When Reid missed the Carolina game with a knee injury, Johnson, then his backup, filled in, and when Reid returned a game later against the Bills, he started at strong safety over Eric Murray.
Reid, whose exceptional speed and tackling aptitude make him versatile, is arguably the defense’s best player. Coaches still consider him a free safety in their system. Reid said he prefers playing back more, but he has been both willing and confident enough to play in the box at strong safety while the Texans tested Johnson at free safety along with other secondary combinations.
Desmond King, who previously played his entire career in the slot, has started on the outside opposite Terrance Mitchell for two straight games, replacing Vernon Hargreaves in a move that coach David Culley said favored King’s tackling. Tavierre Thomas, a special teams regular, has since bumped to slot corner.
The future must always be considered when watching a team in rebuild mode.
Reid, a former thirdround pick from Stanford, is entering the fourth and final year of his rookie contract. Johnson, a former second-round pick from Kentucky, is a converted cornerback entering the third season of his four-year deal. Murray, who has reverted to a special teams role, is in the second year of a three-year, $20.25 million deal he signed in 2020.
King and Hargreaves both signed one-year contracts in the offseason, and Mitchell and Thomas were among the five players who signed a rare two-year deal.
General manager Nick Caserio is involved daily with personnel decisions in what he and several coaches have described as a collaborative process. The first-year Texans executive will ultimately make the decision on which players will be part of the franchise’s future and which will be moved or traded for additional value.
“We go in trying to win one game at a time,” cornerbacks coach Dino Vasso said. “But you’re still evaluating the long term at the end of the day. So, we understand that. But the main task is to win this game right now, and we’ll move forward and look long term as we go.”
In spots to make plays
The secondary is just a snapshot of an entire Texans depth chart in which multiple players have shuffled.
Tytus Howard, a former offensive tackle, is still adapting to left guard. Charles Omenihu, a regular starter at defensive end, was made inactive against the Patriots to clear a roster spot and give coaches a glimpse of Jordan Jenkins, an offseason addition. Kamu Grugier-Hill (a linebacker on a one-year deal) started in nickel packages last week over Zach Cunningham (who last year signed a four-year, $58 million contract extension) because Smith felt Grugier-Hill gave the package its best chance at success.
But what about stability on the defense? Is there something to be said about giving players extra time to get comfortable? Smith demurred when asked if the frequent shuffling inhibited the players from building a chemistry. They instead value good practices, good games. They evaluate a player based on how he performs under pressure in crucial situations.
“In order to get a chance to build that chemistry, you need to play well when you get an opportunity,” Smith said. “I think it’s more about that. You get an opportunity, and if we don’t like what we see and don’t think that’s the best, you look for other options.”
Former Texans safety Danieal Manning, who played for Smith in Chicago, can vouch that such mix-and-matching happened even in successful seasons. Manning started at free safety as a rookie on a star-studded 2006 Bears defense that reached Super Bowl XLI, and, throughout his five seasons in Chicago, Manning rolled between free, strong and nickel safety while filling in at cornerback for two games while players were hurt.
“In Lovie’s defense,” Manning said, “if you can play, they’re going to put you all over the field to make plays. I can say that’s my experience with it.”
Manning spent most of the 2008 season playing nickel. He’d leave his regular defensive back meetings to spend about 30 minutes with Smith one-on-one in his office. They’d watch various nickel plays, and Manning began to realize how much football he didn’t know. He began to notice how a lineman’s alignment could project a play, where the defense would eventually need to fit.
During games, he’d hear the chatter of presnap offensive checks, see the guards and tackles pull when the ball snapped, sense the slot receiver crashing down to fold him with a run block. He couldn’t notice these things backed up at free safety. He even tried to convince Smith to keep him at nickel safety full time. But when Manning moved back to free in 2009, he noticed his ability to read offenses had been sharpened.
Such diagnosis is perhaps more important than any other trait for a defensive back in Smith’s scheme. Smith historically plays more zone coverage, entrusting defenders to play instinctively with the expectation they’ll make critical stops on their own. According to Pro Football Focus, nearly all of Houston’s defensive backs play zone coverage more than 60 percent of the time.
This is behind the reasoning for why the Texans have recently favored moving King to outside cornerback, a position the fiveyear NFL veteran hasn’t played since he was a twotime All-American at Iowa. Vasso said King has impressed in the limited time since making the transition, and King and Thomas have both showcased quick reaction times and the willingness to tackle, which are heavily valued within the scheme.
“They’ve gotta continue to trust their eyes and trust their technique,” Vasso said. “That’s really all you have out there. It can’t become a guessing game. You have your eyes and you have your technique, and you rely on those things heavily on the perimeter.”
Johnson’s move from corner to safety last year significantly changed his view of the field, which can sometimes be a difficult position switch. Since corners are already lined up on the boundary, they can focus on the field from the outside in. Safeties, in the middle of the field, must take in everything at all angles — a challenge that can sometimes provide sensory overload.
A corner converting to safety must also adapt the responsibility of providing checks and calls to the rest of the defense. Miscommunication has been at the center of some of the defense’s issues this season, Culley said, and, although it has improved in recent weeks, the secondary will continue rotating to find the best lineup combination.
“We judge everybody the same way,” Smith said. “We let everybody know why we’re making any move if we have to. Just like we let those guys initially start playing, we let them know why they were in that starting rotation. But that’s why it’s that way: It’s the starting rotation and you go from there.”