Houston Texans: Top 30 players in franchise history

Oh, what could have been. When the Texans drafted Amobi Okoye, he was the youngest player to ever enter the league through the draft at a little over 19 years old. That was the culmination of a crazy football journey after immigrating to the United States from Nigeria not too long before he made his NFL debut.

The Texans definitely took a risk when they drafted him, as they were betting on his immense upside. He had insane potential, kind of similar to what Aaron Donald has had more recently. However, we all know that Okoye turned out to be nowhere near the player Donald has turned out to be for the Los Angeles Rams.

Okoye did however, have a fine rookie season that made it seem like the Texans’ gamble had paid off. He notched 5.5 sacks, while starting 14 games as a rookie in 2007. He also managed double-digit pressures and hits beyond the sacks, 32 tackles, a swatted pass and a forced fumble.

After that, things didn’t continue to trend up and he never approached those numbers again as a member of the Texans. The following three years he started 44 of a possible 46 games and only managed 5.5 more sacks. The Texans didn’t re-sign him and his career petered out with the Chicago Bears before some scary health issues ended it entirely.