Houston Texans: Jacob Martin vying for more snaps after his Week 13 performance

The Houston Texans should explore using Jacob Martin as a pass rusher in pass situations more often after his performance against the New England Patriots.

It seemed the Houston Texans received the low end of the trade with the Seattle Seahawks for Jadeveon Clowney when they acquired Jacob Martin, Barkevious Mingo, and a third-round pick that was used as a bargaining chip to get Gareon Conley from the Oakland Raiders.

However, the trade is looking a lot better than it did at the surface level with Conley’s contribution to the Texans secondary, and now with Martin’s emergence after Week 13. Martin had 1.5 sacks against the New England Patriots and provided much-needed pass rush to the Texans defense after J.J. Watt’s season-ending pectoral injury in Week 8.

Martin has 10 tackles, 2.5 sacks, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery through 12 games of action. Up to this point, Martin’s biggest amount of snaps was 24 against the Indianapolis Colts, which accounted for 36 percent of the defense’s plays. He recorded his first sack of the season against the Colts as the third linebacker behind Whitney Mercilus and Brennan Scarlett.

Although the Texans were forced to rely on Martin more against the Patriots due to Scarlett ruled out because of a shoulder injury, so he played in 45 snaps, which was 52 percent of the plays on defense.

The Texans could be forced to give more playing time to Martin after putting up good production with a larger role in the defense. A smaller linebacker listed at 6’2 and 242 pounds, Martin is better suited to rush the quarterback than contributing in run support.

However, there is a role for him in the Texans if he can utilize his speed to beat offensive tackles to get to opposing quarterbacks.