Houston Texans: Brandon Dunn, Justin Reid won’t finish regular season

The Houston Texans won’t have two starters for the rest of the 2020 season.

As tough as the Houston Texans season has been in 2020, things are now a little worse for the defense with the announcement that defensive tackle Brandon Dunn and strong safety Justin Reid are on the reserve/injured list and are done for the final three games of the season.

Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle reported that Dunn was out due to a hip injury, and Reid’s injury is a hand injury, which was a torn UCL (thumb). Since the report, Reid tweeted that his “surgery went successfully.”

This has been a unique season for the defense of the Houston Texans because it hasn’t been the best unit for the franchise in recent memory. The 2020 season of Reid saw him play in 13 games, where he was on pace for a career-high in tackles.

Reid wraps up the season with 83 tackles (62 solo) with two sacks, four passes defensed and two stuffs, according to ESPN.com. For his three-year career, Reid has 249 total tackles (149 solo) with two sacks, one forced fumble, three fumble recoveries and five interceptions. He’s also scored one touchdown in his career, 19 passes defensed and seven stuffs.

As for Dunn, his season also ends with 13 games played, with the defensive tackle having 24 tackles (10 solo). In seven seasons now with the Chicago Bears and Houston Texans (the past six seasons), Dunn has totaled 76 games played with 105 total tackles (53 solo), one pass defensed and one sack.

Though the Texans are out of playoff contention as they were officially eliminated this past Sunday following their loss to the Chicago Bears, the final three games are going to be even tougher without two important players on the defense, and it will most likely show in the overall play we’ll see for the final three games, especially if the defense plays like it did last Sunday.

This season, Reid has a Pro Football Focus grade of 60.7, as he was targeted 38 times with 26 receptions allowed. Dunn has player grade from PFF of 35.5 this season, which is worse than the 2019 grade of 56.4 by PFF.

These two might have had their faults in 2020 on the field, but which player for the Houston Texans other than Deshaun Watson has excelled above high expectations this season?

With three games left and both Dunn and Reid out with injuries, the defense will have to find others to replace them, and now it is time for those two to recover and start preparing for the 2021 season, as that will be a clean slate for everyone on the Houston Texans.