Nick Perry makes sense for Houston Texans defense

The Houston Texans could use help from the free agency market as they look to close the regular season strong.

The Houston Texans dealt with their fair share of adversity with several season-ending injuries to their roster. However, at 7-4, the Texans are once again the front runners in the AFC South and have the opportunity to do damage in the playoffs by getting back players that have been injured for an extended period.

Texans have improved a position of weakness in the secondary with a solid group of safeties and cornerbacks on paper that are piecing it together as they begin to get back to optimal health. Bradley Roby and Justin Reid could return to the lineup as soon as Sunday against the New England Patriots (10-1).

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Texans are arguably better in certain areas than they were last season, but other areas have dropped off due to several clear factors. The pass rush and run defense have suffered since Jadeveon Clowney was traded to the Seattle Seahawks and J.J. Watt out for the season for the third time in four years due to a torn pectoral muscle against the Oakland Raiders.

However, Houston will need to turn it around with their front seven since allowing a running back to run for over 100 yards in two of the last three games, which coincide with Watt’s season-ending injury. Texans can’t allow opposing offenses to run the football efficiently and expect to win games.

Having a porous defense doesn’t lead to winning football, nor does it make the offense’s job any easier to go out there and forcefully try to outduel the other offense. The Texans could use Nick Perry if they resort to the free agency market to improve their roster.

Perry isn’t going to solve all of the Texans’ problems on defense, but he would be a quality signing for a defense that needs pass rushers. Texans rank 29th in the league with 22 sacks and could use a veteran pass rusher in the rotation. Whitney Mercilus is the most complete edge player on the roster, and he could use more help than the combination of Brennan Scarlett and Jacob Martin.

Scarlett has shown promise in his career but has yet to play a full season healthy since signing with the Texans as an undrafted free agent in 2016, and Martin is limited to what he can do in the defense as only rushing the quarterback on passing situations.

Perry’s history of injuries makes it a tough sell as he wasn’t healthy in his last season with the Green Bay Packers dealing with a knee injury.

However, he is the best free agent available at his position and has previous success getting to the quarterback with 32 sacks in his career. Perry has 8.5 sacks in 21 appearances he had over the last two seasons.

Signing another pass rusher makes sense for the Texans if they aren’t able to turn their fortunes around and get to the quarterback at a reasonable clip to help the team win games.