Spinning and winning: How Texans’ Danielle Hunter uses cerebral approach, track background to perfect Euro step move

HOUSTON – With a rare and incredible blend of speed, power and precision, Danielle Hunter displayed in one fluid motion why he’s one of the most dominant pass rushers in the game.

Hunter launched himself out of his three-point stance with a quick, short jab step to his left that got Detroit Lions Pro Bowl offensive tackle Penei Sewell off-balance as he reacted to the threat to the outside of his shoulder pads.

That was just the preview, though, and the next motion from the Texans’ star defensive end would completely discombobulate Sewell’s mind and center of gravity.

Hunter attacked the gap between the tackle and offensive guard with his right cleat, causing Sewell to shuffle his feet and hands toward his left. Once Hunter got him to commit, Sewell was absolute toast as he left him flailing at the line of scrimmage.

An ultra-crisp, twitchy spin move back to the outside, around Sewell and a smack on the back with his hand while propelling his momentum into the backfield made the veteran blocker look silly. And it created immediate, present danger for Lions quarterback Jared Goff. Hunter collapsed the pocket and crashed into Goff as he released the football on a pass that was nearly intercepted.

Checkmate. Another chess match won by Hunter, who combines the athleticism of a former award-winning track and field athlete at Morton Ranch High School to his intellect as a deep thinker who envisions success and practices his moves until they’re razor-sharp.

“I shake my head every play that I’m lining up next to this dude who looks like a mannequin and plays like he’s running track,” Texans defensive tackle Tim Settle Jr said. “You go off him and he’s going to lead you the ball. He sets stuff off. The more he stresses offense, the more it loosens things up for everyone.”

Hunter has emerged as the master of the Euro step pass rushing move and many other strategies that have befuddled opposing linemen and the quarterbacks they’re paid handsomely to protect. Heading into Sunday’s road game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Hunter ranks second in the NFL with 10 1/2 sacks behind Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson.

Although he’s a chiseled 6-foot-5, 263-pound defensive lineman who represents the prototype for an NFL pass rusher, Hunter has a smooth, loose way of getting after the quarterback that belies a frame that looks like it was carved out of granite. His body-fat percentage is lower than most cornerbacks and wide receivers.

Hunter leads the NFL with 78 quarterback pressures, according to Next Gen Stats and ranks second in the NFL with 15 tackles for losses. He trails Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby by one tackle for loss, but Crosby has played one more game than Hunter.

What was that move against Sewell?

“That’s actually a jab step,” Hunter told KPRC 2. “That’s just something I’ve been doing over the years. I’ve kind of perfected it, almost perfected it. I’m still trying to work on it. It comes with pass rushing, setting up your opponents, setting up your tackles.”

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With a low-key personality and a humble approach to football and life, Hunter doesn’t beat his chest with pride.

At 6-foot-5, 263 pounds, the four-time Pro Bowl selection has run the 40-yard dash in 4.58 seconds with a 36 1/2 inch vertical leap, a 10-10 broad jump and has bench pressed 225 pounds 25 times. He has every physical trait an NFL team could cover in a pass rusher.

Whether it’s the Euro step, spin move, cross-chop, bull-rush, swim move or just a pure speed rush, Hunter, 30, is a dominant force whatever move he chooses to employ on any given snap or Sunday. He’s at the peak of his game and physical ability.

The Texans don’t have to do much with Hunter, just cut him loose and listen to him.

“He’ll always say to me, ‘Man, let me cook, let me cook,” Texans defensive coordinator Matt Burke said.

One decade into his NFL career, the former LSU standout has 98 career sacks and 123 tackles for losses with 154 quarterback hits and is coming off a career-high 16 1/2 sacks last season with the Minnesota Vikings. He’s ranked second by some oddsmakers for NFL Defensive Player of the Year behind Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt. He’s facing some competition from teammate Will Anderson, who has 9 1/2 sacks.

Hunter already has 22 quarterback hits with five games remaining in the regular season. One of the smartest investments, Texans general manager Nick Caserio has ever made was signing Hunter to a two-year, $51 million contract this offseason to join his hometown NFL team.

Hunter has a combined five sacks in the past two games. That includes a season-high three sacks against the Tennessee Titans and a pair of sacks in a road win over the Dallas Cowboys.

Against the Cowboys, Hunter set up right tackle Terence Steele adeptly. He pretended he was going to rush against his outside shoulder to try to beat him with superior speed. Instead, Hunter beat him with power and quickness on an inside spin move to burst past Steele. Steele tried in vain to grab Hunter to prevent him from striking quarterback Cooper Rush. That didn’t work as Hunter exploded into Rush’s upper body to nearly cause an interception.

Source: Texans strike two-year, $49 million deal with defensive end, Katy native Danielle Hunter

“He’s a good player, he’s a pretty unique rusher,” Burke said. “He is very cerebral and intentional with how he approaches rushing and practicing it and his moves and setting things up. And, so, I think this is sort of starting to show. The more he kind of grows into the game, early in that game, we were probably kind of chopping it up too much.

“Doing a little too much gaming and trying to get things going. The ball was coming out quick and we kind of, second half, pulled back and kind of just tried to isolate him and let him get some of those opps to kind of do what he does. So, that is definitely not things that we normally teach, but when you have a special player, you let him go do special things.”

Special definitely is an apt description for Hunter.

He currently, with 554 defensive snaps, has 20 more pressures than Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett’s total of 58, followed by Hendrickson’s 57 pressures, Los Angeles Rams rookie Jared Verse’s 51 pressures and San Francisco 49ers All-Pro defensive end Nick Bosa’s 49 pressures.

Hunter had 12 pressures on just 32 rushes against the Indianapolis Colts, the second-most in a game by a player this season and had a 37.5 percent pressure rate.

Between 2016 and 2023, Hunter ranks fourth in the NFL in sacks behind Watt, Garrett and Aaron Donald.

“The thing that shows up with D. Hunter is just the persistence,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. “He’s getting after it, with everything that he has. Of course, he has a lot of different moves, but I tell him, ‘Whatever it takes to get to the quarterback.’ I just want him moving forward and being persistent.’ And he’s done that time and time again.

“Right now, I think he leads the league in pressures. He’s been around the quarterback a lot and is finishing a lot more as well. So, really proud of his work, his body of work. He’s done that when he was in Minnesota and it’s showing up again here.”

Lots of pass rushers are long-armed, tall and fast like Hunter.

Few can match his imagination and intellect. His vision for creative moves and his passion for the game, relentlessly chasing down quarterbacks are rare traits.

Figuring out how to generate explosiveness off the football and time up the snap count without jumping offsides is another plus for Hunter.

“The biggest thing is I just go by getting off the ball,” Hunter said. “Me being a vet, I know how to dissect my guy. Th biggest thing I do out there is dissect my guy.

Spoken like a true surgeon at his craft.

Does he have a favorite move? Not really. Whatever gets him into the backfield and reaching his destination, zeroing in to apply heat on the quarterback, at the top of his rush.

“Not really,” Hunter said. “My best thing is to just go. Find a way. Whatever your God gives you, adapt and find a way to the quarterback.”

The conversation surrounding NFL Defensive Player of the Year largely centers around Watt and Garrett. Hunter and Anderson have earned their place in that conversation with the impact they’re making, though.

“Honestly, I’m just locked in,” Hunter said. “They can talk about all that, but that’s outside noise to me. I’m locked in on what we’ve got going on with the Texans.”

The complimentary and humorous commentary from Settle, his teammate, had Hunter smiling in bemusement at his locker.

“That’s just Tim, man,” Hunter said. “He’ll say stuff like, but he’s a good guy and I like rushing next to him.”

At Morton Ranch, Hunter emerged as a blue-chip recruit on the football field who doubled as an extremely fast 400-meter runner who also excelled in the high jump.

At the time, he was roughly 6-foot-5, 225 pounds. Hunter hasn’t lost speed over the years while gaining roughly 40 pounds of muscle.

“Just doing what I can do to get better,” Hunter said.

When asked if he’s reached his prime, Hunter considered the question. The idea that this perhaps this is as good as he’s going to be physically didn’t coincide with his way of thinking.

“I always try to keep improving,” Hunter said. “I don’t ever become complacent. I’m always trying to learn. The biggest thing at this point of my career is to keep learning. I don’t ever look at myself as if I know everything. I try to learn and get better.”

The Texans had a specific vision for how Hunter would fit into Ryans’ traditional 4-3 scheme that emphasizes creating a ton of pressure with the defensive line.

“They definitely told me they wanted to help me out with my playing style,” Hunter said. “I believed in that. I came here and they taught me a lot of things to help my game get to the next level. That’s the biggest thing is making my play and the people around me better.”

Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud is simply glad that he doesn’t have to compete against Hunter.

And he marvels at how Hunter engulfs quarterbacks. He rarely draws holding calls, too. That reminds Stroud of how NBA superstar LeBron James doesn’t always get the calls in his favor.

“That dude is special, man,” Stroud said. “I think, honestly, like who he is at practice too helps us as a team. He don’t take no plays off. I think that is just iron sharpening iron, Proverbs 20:17 is one of DeMeco’s mottos: ‘Iron sharpens iron, and so does another man sharpening another.’ In the world. You can do it in football as well. Who he is on Sundays, is who he is during the week. No surprise, but I got to watch little more this week, which was amazing.

“I even feel like against a couple other teams, he is getting held a lot. There is no calls. His presence is felt. Now, I understand why LeBron got so many foul calls until he became a Laker. Now, I see why he gets so many fouls is that he is so dominant, and you have to hold him or you have to do something to stop a fast break. Same thing with Danielle. He is so dominant that you have to do something to chip him or do something to knock him off his game. I’m not saying he LeBron, but he’s up there though, for sure.”

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