Oliver comes home to play Texans
Oliver continues path to stardom ahead of homecoming game
Furiously pounding his left hand into a wall behind the Buffalo Bills’ bench, A.J. Blum was busting with pride while celebrating a breakthrough moment with rookie defensive tackle Ed Oliver. The former Westfield defensive coordinator and University of Houston defensive line coach was at AT&T Stadium in a field-level suite for a November game, watching his star protégé dominate the Dallas Cowboys’ blockers. Following the Thanksgiving Day game, Oliver walked over to the stands to talk with Blum and his daughter and demonstrated and described the explosive pass-rush moves that allowed him to sack and strip Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott of the football during a 26-15 victory. Emotions overcame both men.
“I was caught up in the passion,” Blum said. “It’s amazing to watch Ed grow. It’s been awesome to watch his development in his first year in the NFL, but he’s been doing grown-man things for a long time. Just to be able to see him do it on the biggest stage, it’s been incredible to see everything come to fruition that we’ve worked on together since he was a freshman in high school.
“We speak pretty frequently. We talk about every play and all of the matchups. To see that perfect club-rip move against the Cowboys, it was really cool. He’s just playing with a lot of confidence, and you’re seeing that long-term vision unfold that they have in mind of him.”
Drafted ninth overall in the first round in April, Oliver delivered against Dallas a performance that reinforced how difficult it is to stop the former Outland Trophy winner and consensus All-American.
Oliver drove Cowboys guard Xavier Su’a-Filo, a former Texans starter, backward and darted into the backfield to slap the football away from Prescott. He recorded his first two-sack game and had a tackle for a loss and a quarterback hit. The 6-1, 287-pounder finished the regular season with five sacks.
Now, Oliver is coming home Saturday to square off with his hometown Texans in an AFC wild-card playoff game.
For those who know him well, including Blum, University of Texas assistant and former Westfield coach and UH assistant Corby Meekins, and his older brother, Marcus Oliver, there’s nothing surprising about the immediate impact the 22-year-old is having during his rookie season.
With his size, strength, speed, relentless style and uncanny knack for contorting his body to power through or slip past blocks, Oliver is a unique athlete.
“Players like Ed don’t come around every day from an athletic standpoint,” Meekins said in a telephone interview. “In high school, it was like having a middle linebacker playing defensive line, because he could go sideline to sideline and make plays. It’s like having two fast middle linebackers on the field at the same time. At Houston playing nose tackle, he was still able to go sideline to sideline.
“We knew early on if he kept growing and doing the right things, which he did, he would have a chance to one day be in a very special place. I’m just really proud to have known him since elementary school, middle school, high school and college. To watch him mature as a person and see the man he’s grown into today, it makes you really proud.”
On Saturday at NRG Stadium, Oliver will be hunting for Pro Bowl quarterback Deshaun Watson and running backs Carlos Hyde and Duke Johnson for the NFL’s third-ranked defense.
Homecoming not a priority
Oliver’s primary focus is on his job, not the obvious feelings that surround playing the biggest game of his young career in familiar territory.
“Honestly, it’s more about me locking in and staying focused and going out there and executing more so than playing in Houston,” Oliver told Buffalo reporters. “Houston is just a cherry on top, but it’s really about us going out there and executing and doing our job.
“You lose, you go home. You win, you get to keep playing. If we go out there and lay an egg, we’re going to be at home next week. If we go out there and we execute, we get to fight again.”
Unconventional in style and built low to the ground, Oliver plays the game only one way: full speed. He routinely sheds heavyhanded blockers to chase down running backs and harass quarterbacks.
Grappling with Oliver is akin to a heavyweight boxing match. Playing roughly half the snaps as part of a deep front seven, Oliver has 43 tackles in 16 games (seven starts).
“As a kid, he only knew one speed, and now he’s playing a bigger game at a bigger level and doing it one speed, which is fast,” said Marcus Oliver, a former UH offensive lineman who now coaches at The Cooper School in The Woodlands. “If he starts thinking too much, then he’s slow. If he’s not thinking out there, he’s fast. It’s been quite amazing to see it all come to full form.”
Oliver didn’t record his first NFL sack until the seventh game of the season, tackling the Miami Dolphins’ Ryan Fitzpatrick. Refining his technique and playing more disciplined football, Oliver notched sacks in three consecutive games in November against the Dolphins, Denver Broncos and Cowboys.
“I wouldn’t say he got off to a slow start, but it wasn’t what he expected it to be,” Marcus Oliver said. “He’s always had the mindset that he wants to be the best at everything. He hit the learning curve, and he started creating plays for himself and the people around him.
“It’s pretty amazing to see your brother play on national television in an NFL jersey. He has a standard for himself, and the Cowboys game was a signature game for him.”
Growing up in Houston, Oliver developed a passion for horses. His first horse was named Caledonia. His second horse, an ornery steed named Oreo, made him braver on the football field.
“I’m a country boy,” Ed Oliver said. “I swear that horse tried to kill me a couple of times. He honestly stripped me of fear.”
Being in Buffalo, a blue-collar community known for the rowdy Bills Mafia fans, Oliver hasn’t felt out of place.
“It’s a great fit for him, honestly, because that place is more country in some ways than Houston,” Marcus Oliver said. “It’s very low-key and has a lot of hardworking people like himself. When I went up there, I saw that they’re crazy about football. It’s like a college town all over for him again. To do it in front of those people, it makes you feel good.”
Signed to a fully guaranteed $19.675 million contract that included a $12.329 million signing bonus, Oliver has had plenty of eye-popping moments as a rookie. Now, offenses have to account for him when constructing their game plans.
“He’s a dynamic guy on the inside,” Texans coach Bill O’Brien said of Oliver. “Everything that you saw coming out. He’s an active player, a very strong player. Plays low, plays with good pad level, plays with a lot of energy. Very difficult matchup.”
During his pro day, Oliver chopped down blocking dummies at the loud direction of Baltimore Ravens defensive line coach Joe Cullen. Oliver nearly collided with Bills coach Sean McDermott during a drill. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.73 seconds, nearly as fast as retired former Pro Bowl wide receiver Anquan Boldin’s 4.72 clocking at Florida State.
“He did a good job,” McDermott said. “He’s developed. He’s further along now than where he was when he first got here, and that’s really a credit to his approach as he’s grown and then his work with the coaches.”
A good fit in Buffalo
Going to the Bills has been an ideal situation for Oliver.
“He lives in the country with four-wheelers, and it’s a college fan base in a pro town,” said Blum, who is back coaching at Westfield. “That’s what’s so amazing about that area. It’s Bills Mafia or nothing else.”
Oliver played three seasons for the Cougars before declaring early for the NFL draft. The threetime All-American recorded 193 career tackles in college with 54 tackles for losses, 13½ sacks and six forced fumbles.
So far, the NFL has been a continuation of Oliver’s productive career and a validation of the potential he displayed as a high school underclassman.
“Ed did amazing things as a 14year-old freshman,” Blum said. “Oklahoma offered him a scholarship after one practice. That was pretty telling.”
By playing his first postseason game back in Houston, Oliver is creating a lot of excitement for his family, friends and former coaches.
“This is a special moment for everyone. It’s going to be a homecoming,” Blum said. “It’s going to be the most exciting thing about this weekend to watch Ed. It will be the cherry on top of the sundae.”