If it seemed like Justin Houston was dropping into coverage on an annoying amount of snaps this year then welcome. You’re a Kansas City Chiefs fan. I’ve heard that a lot this year that Houston is dropping into coverage more often when he should be doing what he does best and is paid to do and that’s rush the passer.
I didn’t know the exact breakdown until I saw this:
According to PFF, Justin Houston has dropped into coverage 60 times this year. That's 26 percent of the passing plays he's been on field for
— Jon Ledyard (@LedyardNFLDraft) October 18, 2017
Note that’s 26 percent of passing plays, not all plays. That’s the third highest among “true edges”, according to the next tweet. So, yeah, he is dropping back a lot compared to others. Houston is a great athlete who can make plays all over the field and Bob Sutton knows more about defense than I could ever pretend to but I still don’t get why Houston drops in coverage that often.
The key to getting after the Raiders will be making life miserable for Derek Carr. The best way to do that is unleash Justin Houston on him. Let’s see how often Bob Sutton drops him into coverage tonight.