PFF: Justin Houston’s Reign As One Of NFL’s Top Pass Rushers Far From Over

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INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Colts made major waves last week when they brought on veteran edge defender Justin Houston to bolster their pass rush.


While some have pointed to Houston’s age (30) and injury history as reasons to question the move, overall it has been met with much praise and fanfare.


Mark Chichester of Pro Football Focus is among those applauding the move, counting Houston as a bargain free-agent signing who has a proven track record and immediately upgrades the Colts’ pass rush. According to PFF:


“As PFF Data Scientist Eric Eager wrote earlier this month, Houston was a truly great player for the Chiefs, earning over a 75.0 PFF grade in all but his first NFL season, and an overall grade above 90.0 in each season from 2013 to 2015. He was a force as a pass-rusher as well as a run defender, racking up 408 total pressures and 285 run stops on over 6,400 career snaps for the Chiefs, and in our wins above replacement (WAR) metric, Houston was worth over four and a half wins, trailing only Alex Smith, Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce among his teammates during that period.”


Houston has undoubtedly been one of the NFL’s most productive edge players over the course of his eight years, totaling 78.5 sacks, 96 tackles for loss, 14 forced fumbles and another 10 recovered.


In PFF’s history (since 2006), Houston ranks fourth among edge defenders with at least 2,500 pass-rushing snaps in both the percentage of pass-rushing snaps he’s won (16.3) as well as percentage of snaps producing pressure on the quarterback (15.3).


Regarding Houston’s injury history, he is currently free from any major issue and has been since the 2016 season.


In 2013, he missed five games due to a dislocated elbow, but rebounded to play all 16 games in 2014 en route to a a historic season in which he finished a half-sack shy of tying Michael Strahan’s NFL single-season record of 22.5.


Houston’s 2015 season ended prematurely when he was forced to undergo ACL surgery, which bled into 2016 and cost him 16 games between the two seasons. However, since then, Houston has not missed much time — at least not with anything serious. He played in 16-of-17 games in 2017 (playoffs included), and missed four games in the middle of last season with a hamstring injury.