Today we’re going to overreact a little bit. Last Sunday night was a big night for James Houston. It felt like it was a night that everyone had been waiting on for a long time because they actually had been.
In January of 2023 the Lions played the Bears at Ford Field and late in the game Houston sacked Justin Fields for what would be his third sack of the game and his eighth sack of the year. Everyone thought for sure that the Lions had found their guy opposite Aidan Hutchinson, what everyone didn’t know was that would be Houston’s last sack until November of 2024.
It’s been a long road for Houston. While it seemed he’d showed so much in 2022, the reality is that he actually hadn’t. The sacks really made everyone miss how much he had struggled outside of that. The Lions desperately wanted him to be a SAM linebacker and it just didn’t work out. They gave up this summer after three years of trying.
At that point it seemed like it was all over for Houston. The writing felt like it was on the wall and that he wasn’t even going to make it past the cut down period. Then he did, but then he became the healthy scratch guy. He got a chance to play against the Seahawks in Week 4 and arguably had the worst game of his career that night. It really seemed like it was over.
Then in the last three weeks we’ve started to see a bit of a change. Houston has been playing more and he’s been showing some things. In the last three games he’s played 71 snaps and has put up eight pressures, six hurries and a sack. He’s starting to come along again.
The Lions are at a bit of a cross roads here. 71 snaps isn’t really a lot. He played 16 last Sunday and 19 against the Titans. He played the bulk of that 71 against the Packers in the rain. The Lions have the choice of either pumping up his numbers to see if this is real or sitting back and playing it safe with him.
We think it should be the former. At 8-1 and going into a stretch against the Jaguars, Colts and Bears, now is the time to find out if it’s real because it kind of feels like it is.
Now, its important to temper the expectations a bit. Like I said, we’re overreacting a bit here. You don’t want to overreact a lot. Don’t expect Houston to just start racking up sacks like it’s 2022 again. The Lions have their guys in Za’Darius Smith and Josh Paschal. They see a real future for the latter.
The days of Houston potentially being that starter on the opposite side of Hutchinson have passed, but the days of Houston being a good part of the rotation are still able to happen. We’re going to see if the Lions believe that too on Sunday against the Jaguars. Based off Dan Cmapbell’s comments, it looks liek he feels the same way about Houston right now.
“You know, he looked different. There was a number of reps that looked different, and it looked like he’s beginning to get some of his confidence back. And even in the run game, was a little bit better, which is encouraging, because he’s got to be able to help us there in rotation.” Campbell said. “He had a couple of really good rushes. He had one where his get off was, man, you know that’s, that’s what we need on him all the time. He’s got that ability.”