GREEN BAY – Two years ago, the Houston Texans won just three games.
Then along came coach DeMeco Ryans and two of the top three picks in the 2023 NFL Draft – quarterback C.J. Stroud and defensive end Will Anderson Jr.
As those two players won the NFL's Offensive and Defensive Rookie of the Year awards, respectively, Houston's turnaround was as dramatic as any the league has seen in a while.
The Texans went from 3-13-1 in 2022 to 10-7 and AFC South champions last year. They're off to a 5-1 start this season as they come to Lambeau Field for a matchup with the Packers on Sunday.
Interestingly, Head Coach Matt LaFleur was on Houston's staff when Ryans was a player there. LaFleur arrived two years after Ryans himself won Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2006, and LaFleur is by no means surprised Ryans became not only a head coach but a successful one very quickly.
"Phenomenal player, phenomenal leader, captain. He was an extension of the coaching staff on the field," LaFleur said. "That's who you want your players to be like."
Now running his own show, it also helps Ryans to have a "super talented" quarterback, which is how LaFleur termed Stroud, he of the triple-digit QB rating (100.8) as a rookie with more than 4,000 passing yards and 23 touchdowns against just five interceptions.
Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley was on the Ohio State coaching staff when the Buckeyes were recruiting Stroud and knows well what Green Bay's defense is up against.
"He's more athletic than people think, and I keep telling everybody that," Hafley said of the 6-3, 218-pound Stroud. "He's bigger than you think, too. He's got a big lower body, he's got a strong base, he's hard to tackle. He's poised.
"He's a really good player right now and I think eventually he's going to be one of the premier guys if not sooner than later."
The same can be said for Anderson, who had seven sacks last year and already has 5½ this season, including three last week against the Patriots, which won him AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors.
QB Jordan Love called Anderson a "high motor" guy, while LaFleur had plenty of praise as well.
"He is a problem," LaFleur said. "He's just so disruptive and he's relentless, too. I just love his play style. I mean, he's going to come off the ball, he's going to fight you every snap. He plays the game the way it's meant to be played."
The Packers will certainly have their hands full with two of the up-and-coming stars in the game. What follows is a brief look at Green Bay's recent history of facing rookie of the year winners in their second seasons:
As far as reigning offensive rookies of the year go, over the past 30 years the Packers have faced a dozen of them the season after winning the award. The list includes familiar division foes like Hall of Famer receiver Randy Moss and running back Adrian Peterson from Minnesota, an old NFC Central rival in Tampa Bay's Warrick Dunn, and even New England running back Curtis Martin – in Super Bowl XXXI.
Looking specifically at quarterbacks who won offensive rookie of the year and faced the Packers the next season, Stroud will be the fourth QB in the 30-year period researched. The others were St. Louis' Sam Bradford in 2011, Washington's Robert Griffin III in 2013 (when LaFleur was on the opposing coaching staff), and Dallas' Dak Prescott in 2017. Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger would've been another in 2005 except he missed that game against Green Bay.
The Packers won all three of the QB matchups, but all three previous QBs put up impressive numbers. Bradford and Griffin both threw for more than 300 yards, while Griffin and Prescott each threw for three TDs. Prescott came the closest to winning, but Aaron Rodgers threw a TD pass in the waning seconds to Davante Adams for Green Bay to leave Dallas with a 35-31 triumph.
On the defensive side, Anderson is the 10th reigning rookie of the year in the last 30 years to face the Packers in his second season, right after winning the award. The list includes Hall of Famer and former Packers star Charles Woodson with the Raiders in 1999, future Hall of Famer Aaron Donald with the Rams in 2015, and familiar division rivals in Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher from Chicago and Ndamukong Suh from Detroit.
There'd be one more if not for San Francisco's Nick Bosa missing the 2020 game against Green Bay. The most recent who did play were Dallas' Micah Parsons just two seasons ago and Washington's Chase Young the year before that.
The most notable performances in these matchups were turned in by Urlacher, who got both a sack and interception of Brett Favre in the second Packers-Bears game in 2001, and Suh, who got ejected for stomping on Packers lineman Evan Dietrich-Smith on Thanksgiving in 2011 at Detroit.
