NFL Draft: Grading the Houston Texans five picks for 2020
Round 3: Pick #90: Jonathan Greenard (EDGE)
It remains to be seen if drafting Jonathan Greenard was a part of O’Brien’s original plans as we all witnessed him having a meltdown on national television because of a potential deal with the Detroit Lions to acquire more picks fell through.
However, I’m positive that Greenard was on their draft board so, at the very worst, he was more of their Plan B just in case the deal they had in place didn’t work out. Nonetheless, Greenard is a member of Houston Texans and there’s a lot to desire with this pick out of Florida.
Greenard was a transfer from Louisville after Bobby Petrino was fired and he was able to flourish in his final season of collegiate play. He too has battled the injury bug while sustaining a wrist injury requiring surgery back in 2018, causing him to miss some time away from the field.
That’s certainly why he slipped a bit in the draft. But it didn’t stop Greenard last season because he swept the prestigious honor of being on the All-SEC first team as well as getting the honor from the AP, was a four-time SEC Defensive Player of the Week and even won the Walter Camp FBS Defensive Player of the Week award for his performance versus Missouri.
He’s quite menacing as an edge rusher and he’s excellent at being able to stop the run. I think he can be just as effective with his pass-rushing and he’s going to be one of the more exciting prospects to watch. He has amazing wit, football IQ, explosiveness, athleticism and versatility which will get him far with this team as well as in this league.
O’Brien plans to have him lined as the SAM linebacker in various sets as his physical traits would embody a defender that’s lined up on the strong side.
We’ll be seeing Greenard a lot more than likely in 2021 once he gets his feet wet with Anthony Weaver‘s playbook and will more than likely be a starter by then, just like Blacklock. I do see him morphing into being a heavily-relied upon cog on the team’s defensive schemes quicker than the blink of an eye.
I’d have to say that 10.0 sacks and 16.0 tackles-for-loss isn’t necessarily easy to get in the SEC so that alludes to his high-level of talent that he embodies.