It took James Houston some time to find a place in the Lions defense as a rookie, but he made the most of the chance once it came.
Houston was a sixth-round pick who wound up on the practice squad after failing to make the team out of training camp. He was elevated to the active roster in Week 12 and recorded two sacks to kick off an unexpected run of success as a pass rusher.
Houston had eight sacks while playing 140 defensive snaps in the final seven games of the year and that puts him squarely in the team’s plans for the 2023 season. The size of his role in those plans isn’t set in stone, however, and Houston wants to convince the powers that be that he can do more than just rush the passer.
“For me, I’ve got to get on the field,” Houston said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “I don’t know what that looks like, but I got to figure something out. Just like last year, it was just like they didn’t really know where to put me. I feel like it’s kind of similar, the same way. They don’t really know where to put me, and so I’m kind of that guy, hopefully I can be a chess piece and not too much of a liability, I guess, where I really can only play one position, where you can move me in different ways and put me on the field. So that’s really my goal, to get the team to be able to trust me enough to get to that point.”
Charles Harris and Julian Okwara are also going to be vying for snaps at the same linebacker spot as Houston once the Lions get back to work at training camp this summer.
