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Well that pizzs me off because with both Tunsil & Cooks on our roster that sounds more like it's maybe a conscious and intentional effort to exclude any and all Texans from the list !Texans shut out in CBS Sports Top 100 player rankings list - NewsBreak
Do the Houston Texans really not have one player in recent Top 100 list?. How little does the national media think of the 2022 Houston Texans?...
I'm looking forward to seeing the Texans smear egg on the "expert's" faces.
Tunsil coming off of an injured season could revert back to his Pro Bowl ability but we don't know that. Brandin Cooks aka the ghost is one that is never thought about until he surprises.
Where were you during the Kubiak offensive glory years?
We’ll get there again. Right now we don’t have the superstar names.
Right. This “top 100” isn’t the new All-Pro list. It’s nice if a Texans makes the list.
I'm not really expecting much from Marlon Mack. I do hope I'm wrong & I hope he treats every game against the Colts as a statement game.
I'm gonna say Mills.
1 of which never saw the field so obviously didn't belong other than netting the Texans a boatload of picks once reality was exposed
Funny. This team will be playing for 3rd in the division
You’re overreacting bud lol. Naw you got to eat that crow raw.
Exactly, that’s the only injury he had there. Maybe some minor ones here and there, but he was healthy every year up until the last game
Isn’t that the case with all NFL players?
NotForLong.Isn’t that the case with all NFL players?
Isn’t that the case with all NFL players?
Metchie is more Hopkins than Fuller health wise
The Texans don't offer fans cover from the elements. But don't lose heart............for only $14.89, they offer the next best option to enjoy the practices in the unbearable heat in total comfort............a Texans personal fan............batteries not included.............
I believe this is a very good story that steelb needs to read. After reading this story, I’m rooting for Obo to find the success he enjoyed at Alief Taylor HS and Oklahoma so the Texans can be the team to uncover and enjoy his true potential. Hope you guys enjoy the read.
Picture this: Obo Okoronkwo wreaking havoc for the Texans
Brooks Kubena, Staff writer
May 27, 2022Updated: May 28, 2022 7:32 p.m.
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The Texans got a glimpse of Obo Okoronkwo’s smile last Oct. 31, when he recorded a sack against them in the Los Angeles Rams’ 38-22 victory at NRG Stadium last October.
There is not room enough on the walls for the Okoronkwos and their pictures. Frames border frames in a hall filled with faces. Frames stand on the tiled living room floor. They lean against the TV stand, the fireplace. There are more frames on the mantle. There is a palpable warmth from the wedding portraits and family photos, the tangible timeline of the Okoronkwos’ immigration from Nigeria to America. There’s a sense of approval and completion now that the newly signed Texans defensive end nicknamed “Obo” has returned home. “A picture is history,” says Obo’s father, Benson. “It reflects. You see how you were, how you used to be. And that brings memories.” Here’s a picture of a Gainesville, Fla., hospital room. Here’s Benson laying cultural fabric embroidered with the symbolic crest of the Igbo people and the words “Omu Arochukwu” over his son, who at 13 pounds, 3 ounces was the largest baby born in the hospital’s history, the family says. Here’s Obo as a young boy, shirtless and painted, performing the traditional war dance that males of the Arochukwu kingdom once danced before battling neighbors who sold hundreds of thousands of Igbo people into the slave trade from the 17th to the 19th century.
Benson Okoronkwo lays cultural fabric embroidered with the symbolic crest of the Igbo people and the words “Omu Arochukwu” over his son, Ogbonnia, who at 13 pounds, 3 ounces was the largest baby born in the history of a hospital in Gainesville, Fla., the family says.
“Omu” is the leaf of the palm tree, the Igbos’ symbolic life force. They believe they are God’s people, his descendants, and the Okoronkwos’ faith continues through Ogbonnia, whose name means favor from God.
The collective effect of the pictures nearly creates an audience, the kind of crowds that watched Obo hunt down ball carriers in state playoff games for Alief Taylor High, classic bowl games with Oklahoma, and Super Bowl LVI while supporting a historic Rams defensive front.
That success is demonstration of the favor received, Benson says. Even with the foot surgery that cost Obo his rookie year. Or the other nagging hurts that often relegated him to a reserve role during four seasons in Los Angeles. Obo chose to return to Houston in what will be his best chance to become an NFL starter for the first time, an opportunity to lift a rebuilding franchise into the sort of contender he left behind.
“You control your own destiny,” Obo says. “You get what your works deserve. There’s no dream that’s too big or too small. It’s whatever you make of it.”
Secretive start
There are no pictures of Obo playing youth football. He didn’t play the sport until he was a freshman at Alief Taylor, and he had to keep that a secret from his parents. Benson and his wife, Augusta, were culturally focused on education. Benson left Nigeria to pursue his pharmaceutical career by studying at Texas Southern, and Augusta was a nurse.
Their six children were strictly instructed to focus on academics. But Brian Randle, Taylor’s former defensive coordinator, noticed Obo’s long build in the hallway and persuaded him to join the team.
Obo was considerably raw, Randle says, and he wasn’t particularly large. But he was tough and relentless, and he made for a perfect inside tackle on an aggressive three-man front that included eventual collegiate pass rushers Torrodney Prevot (Oregon) and Duke Ejiofor (Wake Forest), a 2018 sixth-round pick by the Texans who played in Houston for three NFL seasons.
Randle fixed Obo’s stance, wound him up for one-on-one matchups with guards, and watched him knife into opposing backfields.
Obo’s bend and balance made him an exceptional rusher. His speed and persistence made him a lethal tackler.
Randle once watched him wrangle an Elsik quarterback on an option run, realize the quarterback didn’t have the ball, let him go, then run down the line of scrimmage and swallow the running back.
During a particularly sloppy practice, Randle challenged the defense’s work ethic. Obo threw down the running back for losses on three straight plays, each time punctuating the hits by looking over at Randle and screaming, “I ain’t got no heart?”
“Once he caught on to the game’s nuances, he was able to fly around,” says Manjah Fernandez, who coached Obo as a freshman. “After that, he was unstoppable. He manhandled people.”
Football was Obo’s getaway, his older sister Chioma says, his release from what was otherwise an artistic life. Like his father, he found philosophy in photography. He burned through disposable Kodaks. He wrote blogs and poetry. His parents let him draw on his bedroom walls. But by his sophomore year, he started to realize he had a future in football, and he relied on Chioma to help keep the sport a secret from their parents.
“We’d say we were studying after school,” says Chioma, who’s a year older than Obo. “There were activities we’d do after school. But it wouldn’t be sports. It would be, ‘Oh we’re studying, talking to teachers, getting extra help, talking to your friends after school.’”
All the while, Benson was checking on his children’s grades. Nothing slipped, so he didn’t become suspicious.
Benson Okoronkwo, father of new Texans defensive end Obo Okoronkwo, peruses family photos.
“I would have stopped him if I had known,” Benson admits.
The secret came out in soreness. Obo was resting on the living room sofa in aching pain. Augusta noticed and asked what happened. Maybe it was the soreness. Maybe he was tired of keeping up the lie. But Obo sat up and looked at his mother.
“You want to see why I am so sore?” he asked.
Of course, she said.
“Can you come to school tomorrow at about 4 o’clock?”
I’ve got to work.
“Mom, you can’t come for one hour and see what I want to show you?”
OK, she said, I’ll come.
Every time Obo played, he’d tell Augusta where they were playing. She traveled to each game on her own until Alief Taylor had a game at Katy. Maybe she didn’t know the way. Maybe she was tired of keeping up the lie. But Augusta turned to her husband and asked for a ride.
“What is happening in Katy?” he asked.
When you get there, you’ll see, she said.
Benson watched his son in awe.
“Is that Obo?” he asked Augusta.
Yes! That’s Obo!
After the game, Benson called his son to him.
In advance of national signing day in February 2013, Obo Okoronkwo, left, gets in another line formation with Alief Taylor teammates Torrodney Prevot, center, and Duke Ejiofor. Okoronkwo became a first-team All American for Oklahoma, Prevot played at Oregon for two years, and Ejiofor went to Wake Forest, eventually joining the Texans for three seasons.
Karen Warren, Staff / Houston Chronicle
“God has given you a gift,” Benson told him. “Now what you need to do is use it to better mankind.”
Cheerful but fearsome
Obo’s favorite phrase in his parents’ native Igbo language doubles as a personal mantra.
It’s a simple exchange of salutation. But there’s an understanding embedded in the initial word “Kedụ.” By its meaning — Hey, how are you? — the speaker is implying he is having a great day himself, and if the other person responds, “Adị m mma,” those words also go beyond their meaning — I’m having a great day — and acknowledge they’re both having a great day.
“So it’s a context, too,” Obo says. “It’s spreading cheer.”
On June 11, Obo will host a youth football camp at Crump Stadium. Ten days later, he’ll spend a week in Ghana as part of the NFL’s increased efforts to cultivate global talent and boost international interest in the sport. He’s prepared to mentor untapped potential, late arrivals to football like himself who thrived through guidance.
Obo still needed to mature and tighten his sense of direction upon his arrival to Oklahoma, his former defensive coordinator Mike Stoops says. There was always the kindness and intelligence, but Stoops said they had a few “come to Jesus” meetings to ensure he wasn’t lagging behind academically and was carrying himself like the leader he eventually became.
No stranger to NRG Stadium, Obo Okoronkwo played there with Oklahoma in September 2016, sacking Houston Cougars quarterback Greg Ward Jr. in the process.
Getty Images, Contributor / Getty Images
By the end of his college career, Obo satisfied his father’s “no degree, no NFL” rule and became the example the Sooners athletic department showed other athletes to follow. The university even used Obo in a marketing video to recruit other students.
Obo’s highlight reel remains his largest collegiate legacy. Stoops slotted Obo along the edge of Oklahoma’s odd defensive front, where the uncanny quickness of his first step along with a series of signature spin moves and side swipes made him one of the more dangerous defenders in Sooners history.
Obo’s ascent began as a junior, when his nine sacks tied teammate Eric Striker’s single-season school record for a linebacker. His strip sack of Sam Ehlinger helped seal victory over archrival Texas, and after recording two more in a Big 12 title win over Oklahoma State, he logged 1½ of his 12 total tackles for loss in a Sugar Bowl win over Auburn.
His final year was more productive and more painful. He was named a first-team All-American and co-Big 12 defensive player of the year in 2017, and he was picked in the fifth round by the Rams after a gutting 54-48 double overtime loss to Georgia in the College Football Playoff semifinals at the Rose Bowl.
Texans defensive ends Ross Blacklock and Ogbonnia Okoronkwo (45) line up during OTAs on May 24 at Houston Methodist Training Center.
Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer
“Him and Eric Striker will go down as the modern-era greatest pass rushers Oklahoma’s had,” says Stoops, now the inside linebackers coach at Kentucky.
The Rams influence
Now, take a look through the viewfinder. It’s surreal seeing Obo wearing a Texans jersey during the team’s offseason workouts. He grew up idolizing J.J. Watt and modeled his game after Whitney Mercilus. He watched them push the young franchise into its deepest playoff runs, falling agonizingly short of Super Bowl berths the city still hasn’t seen.
That’s an image for Houston that Obo dreams of capturing. After his rookie contract expired and he signed a one-year, $3.1 million contract with the Texans, he called his father and told him, “It’s time to come home to play for the home team. I want to help them.”
Obo and the Texans are a sensible fit. The team is entering the second year of a massive rebuild, and after passing on edge defenders in the draft, newly promoted coach Lovie Smith needs veteran pass rushers to bolster a four-man front that pressured opposing quarterbacks at the NFL’s fifth-lowest rate in 2021.
General manager Nick Caserio continues to conservatively manage a cap space situation that still has him a year away from lavish spending, and Obo fits the sort of “prove it” profile similar to veteran linebacker Christian Kirksey or center Justin Britt, who signed one-year deals in 2021 before they were awarded two-year contracts after productive seasons.
Obo will have to prove he can stay healthy and elevate his play when given more opportunity. He never has played more than 28 percent of a defense’s total snaps in a given season, and he was buried on the Rams’ depth chart after they traded for Von Miller last season to galvanize a pass rush that included Leonard Floyd, who was second on the team behind seven-time All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald with 9½ sacks.
There were lessons Obo learned from what is arguably one of the greatest defensive lines in NFL history. Floyd taught him his fundamentals, how to slow the game down and see plays develop. Miller (6-3, 250 pounds) taught Obo (6-1, 253) how to use a slender body as an advantage along the edge. Donald showed him how to get off the ball even quicker, how to even manipulate plays into disruption.
They’re “little secrets,” Obo says, intricacies he believes will help him make the Texans’ front “the most relentless D-line in all of the NFL.”
“That’s going to be our identity,” Obo says. “We’re going to be nasty. We’re going to be the D-line you’re scared to play. That’s what Lovie expects of us, and that’s what we expect of each other.”
Expect a training camp battle to emerge. The Texans have nine defensive ends under contract. Houston never carried more than nine total defensive linemen on the active roster on game days last season, and most often they carried eight, so there will inevitable roster trimming within the defensive end room.
Obo must establish a foothold against Jonathan Greenard, who showed potential with eight sacks in his second season, plus established veterans Jerry Hughes and Mario Addison, who followed new defensive line coach Jacques Cesaire after strong seasons in Buffalo. The Texans also signed promising edge rusher Rasheem Green, who recorded 6½ sacks as a primary starter for the Seahawks last season.
But the Okoronokwos are confident favor will follow Obo in his hometown, and Smith already can see the image of an effective pass rusher taking shape.
“Everything I’ve seen from him, he’s exactly who we wanted and thought he would be,” Smith said.
brooks.kubena@chron.com
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