Changing of the guard: Texans shuffle line, moving Juice Scruggs to left guard, inserting Jarrett Patterson at center

HOUSTON – The Texans are instituting a changing of the guard in a reaction to their ongoing pass protection crisis, shuffling their offensive line before a key football game.

The defending AFC South champions are expected to shift over Juice Scruggs and make him their new starting left guard after he started eight of nine games of the season at center and will insert Jarrett Patterson as his replacement at center for a Sunday night primetime game against the Detroit Lions at NRG Stadium, according to league sources.

With starting left guard Kenyon Green placed on injured reserve with a left shoulder injury suffered in a loss to the New York Jets during which Pro Bowl quarterback C.J. Stroud was sacked a career-high eight times and hit 11 times overall last Thursday, the Texans are making a change.

The obvious and stated goal: protect Stroud. The former NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year has already been sacked 30 times, the second-most in the NFL behind injured Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, who has been sacked 33 times. Stroud is on pace to be sacked 56 times this season.

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This has been an untenable pass protection issue the Texans have been unable to solve so far. Now, they hope this change will allow Stroud to have more time in the pocket to operate and more of a comfort zone instead of the relentless pressure and hard hits he’s been dealing with throughout the first half of the season.

Having Scruggs at left guard where the second-round draft pick from Penn State started as a rookie last season when he was activated from injured reserve from a hamstring injury should allow him to concentrate solely on his blocking assignment without having to make line calls on protection adjustments at the line of scrimmage. In an AFC wild-card playoff victory against the Cleveland Browns last season, Scruggs had 22 pass blocking snaps and allowed zero sacks and zero pressures while lining up next to Pro Bowl left tackle Laremy Tunsil.

And Patterson, a cerebral, technique-strong former sixth-round draft pick from Notre Dame, is known for his vocal approach and understanding of pass rushing schemes. He should be able to stabilize the middle. He started at center against the Chicago Bears when Scruggs missed the game with a groin injury. Patterson returned to practice this week and was medically cleared under the NFL concussion protocol with no injury designation for this game after participating fully Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

“We’re always talking personnel, good or bad,” Texans offensive line coach Chris Strausser said Thursday. “We’ve had some good weeks and we’re still talking personnel because we’re always trying to figure out what the best five is, what the best mix is, not try and move guys too much because it’s a challenge at this point in the season to have to move guys from one spot to another. Really, everybody that’s on our roster is in play.”

And the new play is Scruggs at guard and Patterson at center. Kendrick Green, who stepped in against the Jets when Kenyon Green injured his shoulder, is in a backup role.

What the Texans have been doing so far has been substandard, especially in the interior offensive line where the majority of the sacks and pressures are coming from on a variety of stunts, blitzes and bull rushes that aren’t being accounted for properly.

As a rookie, Stroud was only sacked 38 times. With eight games remaining in the season, he’s already been sacked eight times less than last season’s total when he passed for 4,108 yards, 23 touchdowns and five interceptions. This season, Stroud has passed for 2,139 yards, 11 touchdowns and four interceptions.

He completed just 11 of 31 passes, a career-low completion percentage in the loss to the Jets.

“I think we’ve just got to do a better job,” Strausser said. “Me, specifically, of just coaching some of the details of what we’re doing technique-wise. The technique has shown up more than anything else. So, we’ve got to do a better job of emphasizing it during the week and making sure when we show up on game day, everybody and the unit has complete confidence in what we’re doing up front.”

Stroud passed for a career-low 86 yards in a loss to the Green Bay Packers and was pressured on 48.3 percent of his dropbacks, according to Next Gen Stats.

Stroud has been under constant siege.

Stroud got kicked in the shin against the Jets and walked it off. Of course, there’s always an increased risk of injury when a quarterback is hit this often.

The Texans lead the NFL with 151 pressures allowed.

To not protect Stroud better is holding the entire team back.

“We’ve got the best guy in the NFL and our guys love playing for that guy, just the tremendous plays that guys makes really for us is hugely important,” Strausser said. “I mean, nobody’s happy with the fact that we’re struggling in pass protection right now. Everybody across the board wants to do better, starting with myself. Like you said, it is a prideful group of those guys who care tremendously about taking care of of our quarterback,”

It wasn’t this bad last year despite fielding multiple different starting alignments due to injuries as Scruggs missed the majority of the season with a hamstring injury and centers Scott Quessenberry and Patterson were both placed on injured reserve along with Kendrick Green.

“Every year is a different year, for whatever reason,” Strausser said. “For us, as a unit, that’s our major challenge: finding a way to get better. I think last year, different guys being in there, you hate to have to switch guys around like that. I really don’t know compared to last year.”

Stroud was trapped in his own personal horror movie on Halloween, and there was no escape from the demons and villains invading the Texans’ unsafe backfield.

Stroud was relentlessly harassed, hit and hounded by the Jets’ aggressive, speedy defense as they dominated his overmatched offensive line.

“Of course, it’s embarrassing,” said Stroud, who completed a career-low percentage of throws as he went 11 for 31 for 191 yards and no touchdowns for a 59.2 passer rating. “To come out here on a primetime game and get embarrassed like that is never fun. I believe we have to be better in a lot of areas and that starts with me. I think there’s plays I got to make, throws I got to make. At times I have to sit in the pocket and just trust my guys.

“I really point the finger at me and realize I got to be better as a football player. If we want to win, this is not the recipe for it. We have to learn how to dominate and stop learning how to go with the flow and play in the fourth quarter like we should be able to play good in the first half and then roll into the second. I think we have to have a better mindset as a whole. This is definitely a great wake-up call for us to tighten up the ship.”

Kenyon Green, a struggling former first-round draft pick from Texas A&M, leads all NFL guards with 36 pressures allowed and was nearly benched before his injury.

“By no means is it one guy,” Strausser said when asked about Green, a former 15th overall pick of the draft and consensus All-American at Texas A&M who was a blue-chip recruit at Atascosita High School. “To me, that’s an easy out in our unit. We know there’s a lot of guys involved. Kenyon, I really think of this as being his rookie season.

“That first year he was here, played some, got hurt. Last year, didn’t play at all. This year, coming back off an injury and really getting back into the mix. Also, this is his first time in our offense. But, by no means, is Kenyon the only guy.”

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Whatever the Texans have attempted to do, it isn’t working despite the heavy investments general manager Nick Caserio has made in the offensive line that includes a $75 million contract for Pro Bowl left tackle Laremy Tunsil, a $56 million deal for Howard, a $36 million contract for right guard Shaq Mason, who has allowed a league-high 7 1/2 sacks among guards, a first-round draft pick in Green and a second-round selection for center Juice Scruggs. Scruggs has allowed five sacks.

Tunsil is the highest-graded lineman on the team with an 87.0 pass blocking grade to rank fourth among all offensive tackles. He has allowed just two sacks.

Before he got hurt, Green allowed six sacks this season for the second-most in the NFL among guards. He has a 39.4 overall blocking grade, ranking him last among 77 offensive guards, according to Pro Football Focus analytics.

Only Tunsil didn’t allow a sack against the Jets.

Before he left the game, Kenyon Green had a 9.2 pass blocking grade on a scale of 0 to 100, according to Pro Football Focus analytics. Kendrick Green had a 0.4 pass blocking grade. Mason had a 22.0 pass blocking grade, allowing a pair of sacks and four pressures.

“That’s the one group where all five guys got to be on the same page at all times,” Howard said. “So, one guy messes up, we’re always one unit. I watched the movie, ‘Drumline,’ last night. I know it sounds funny, but one band, one sound. That actually kind of stuck out to me because that’s how it is as an offensive line. We all got to stick together, and we’ve all got to be on the same page all the time.”

Why can’t the Texans block it better?

Is it alignment, assignment, technique or talent? All of the above?

‘It’s the same thing that happens every week,” Tunsil told KPRC 2. “Overload, twist game, blitzing, same thing we see every week. I think we just got to be better. You don’t want to give up eight sacks. That’s not the type of game we want. It’s a long season, lot of football left.”

Stroud was pressured within an average of 2.87 seconds against the Jets, according to Next Gen Stats analytics.

Stroud was pressured on a career-high 57.5% of his dropbacks against the Indianapolis Colts in a narrow victory.

“Yeah, we just have to be better at every level,” offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik said. “Upfront there are technique and fundamental stuff and just execution of what we are doing, but it goes beyond upfront. It is every position in the pass game right now. We didn’t play good on Thursday.

“That is what we are talking about right now. We are fired up for the challenge this week and we are ready to go full-speed ahead in the regular season and address the things that have come up. The reality is that for us, as we look back at the game, we didn’t play very good. "

For the Texans, the job doesn’t get any easier. The red-hot, 7-1 Detroit Lions come to town for a Sunday night primetime game on NBC and KPRC 2 at NRG Stadium. Although they’ve lost Aidan Hutchinson to a broken leg, they traded for pass rusher Za’Darius Smith, who has five sacks this season.

The Texans’ offensive line is aware of what people are saying about them and the heat they’re under that has extended to Strausser with calls for him to be replaced on social media and sports talk radio. There’s been no indication that the Texans would fire Strausser in the middle of the season or that such a change would fix anything.

Their job is to protect Stroud. They haven’t been up to the task so far. There’s a lot at stake here.

“Man, you’ve got to take it to heart,” Howard said. “When you’ve got a quarterback like C.J., we’ve got to be at our best at all times. We see where everybody’s talking. We’ve just got to be better. Because, at the end of the day, we do our job, they won’t be talking about us no more.

“That’s the crazy thing about O-line is you just do your job, they don’t talk about you. You don’t do your job, you get here. We got to step up to the challenge. Everybody has a reason to say something right now. We’ve got to see what we can do as a group to fix it.”

Read more on the Texans:

• How ‘dynamic’ Texans RB Joe Mixon joined Arian Foster, Jim Brown, Emmitt Smith in statistical benchmarks in epic season
• Source: Texans signing guard Tremayne Anchrum Jr. to practice squad
• Texans designate corner Jeff Okudah, defensive end Jerry Hughes for return from injured reserve
• Source: Texans worked out linemen La’el Collins, Tremayne Anchrum Jr, Ike Boettger, Jerome Carvin, DB Jason Taylor
• Texans rookie Jamal Hill honored by official proclamation in Georgia hometown
• Texans’ Kenyon Green dislocated left shoulder, to be placed on IR, Kendrick Green steps in, Will Anderson Jr. ankle hurt
• ‘I know I have to step up, I know I have shoes to fill,’ Texans’ Tank Dell in spotlight after Stefon Diggs’ torn ACL
• Texans Pro Bowl defensive end Will Anderson Jr. is the AFC Defensive Player of the Month
• ‘I’m just trying to be that light as much as I can,’ Texans nickel Jalen Pitre nabs first interception since rookie year

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com.