Houston Texans Draft: 4 players who could replace J.J. Watt

2. Dayo Odeyingbo

If the Houston Texans want to find a defensive end in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft then look no further than Dayo Odeyingbo of Vanderbilt, because he could become a quality player in the league.

Odeyingbo is versatile, and has the size to stand up to offensive linemen in the NFL. Odeyingbo is a 6’6, 276 pound player who played in 428 snaps this past season with Vanderbilt. In those snaps he played the run well with 10 run stops to go along with five sacks and eight QB hits.

Odeyingbo also this past season collected eight QB hits and played on 247 pass rush snaps. The pass rusher also had one pass defensed in 2020.

For his collegiate career, which was a total of four seasons, Odeyingbo finished with 126 total tackles (63 solo) with three passes defensed, 12 sacks, one forced fumble, and one interception (2017).

Nick Falato of Sports Illustrated’s Giants Country wrote the following on the defensive end for a draft profile in late January:

"“Very versatile at Vanderbilt; played in with his hand in the dirt and a two-point position while also lining up everywhere on the line of scrimmage, including edge, 3-tech, 1-tech, and at nose tackle.”"

The versatility of Odeyingbo is what draws the attention in the pre-draft process. If the Houston Texans could use his positives to their advantage, if they were to draft Odeyingbo, then like the others mentioned, he could learn as the defense rebuilds. That means the longer the season goes, the better Odeyingbo would be if given the proper coaching moving forward.