RB Josh Jacobs should be a huge part of the gameplan for Green Bay on Sunday.
If you haven’t been following the news about the Houston Texans’ defense this week, they’ve been going through a lot of unfortunate breaks — particularly in the spine of their defense. Everything points in one direction for the Green Bay Packers: Run the ball.
At defensive tackle, the Texans’ most played player there (according to NFL Pro’s alignment data) in Mario Edwards Jr. was suspended this week for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. The second-most played defensive tackle for the team, Foley Fatukasi, missed Wednesday’s and Thursday’s practices in Houston and was only a limited participant on Friday. Officially, Fatukasi is listed as questionable with a shoulder injury going into this weekend.
The Texans are getting an extra body back in Denico Autry, who was just activated off of suspension this week, but Autry hasn’t even been allowed in the facility since the preseason. His status in this game is a major question mark, but Houston desperately needs him to have an impact.
On the second level of the spine of the defense, both Azeez Al-Shaair and Henry To’oTo’o — the Texans’ starting linebackers — have already been ruled out with injuries. According to NFL Pro, those two have played a combined 520 defensive snaps at the linebacker position. Their replacements, Neville Hewitt and Jake Hansen, have combined for 42 this season.
Over the last three seasons, Hewitt has played just 66 defensive snaps for the Texans compared to 527 special teams snaps. The 31-year-old does have 44 career starts under his belt, but those all came earlier in his career before he transitioned to his special teams role.
Hansen, not to be confused with former Packer Jake Hanson, made two starts as a rookie, but hasn’t been featured on defense much since that 2022 season. Over the last two years, he’s played 54 defensive snaps to 435 special teams looks.
On top of all this, the Texans like to play a lighter defensive personnel by nature. They play a nickel set, with five defensive backs on the field, north of 90 percent of the time and don’t match defensive backs to the number of wide receivers on the field. When offenses add a fullback, a second tight end or even a sixth offensive lineman, Houston seems perfectly fine keeping nickelback Jalen Pitre on the field.
The Texans are missing at least one starter at defensive tackle. They’re missing both starting linebackers. The depth behind those injured players isn’t great. They also like to play with too many defensive backs on the field. This one’s simple: Run the football. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out this gameplan.
Packers running back Josh Jacobs has only been able to crack 20 carries in a single game once, Week 2 versus the Indianapolis Colts when starting quarterback Jordan Love was out injured. Look for Green Bay to push the limit there this week. Hell, Jacobs might finally get the first receiving touchdown in his career, too, and get that monkey off his back.