Inside the Texans' defensive line meeting room, there's a large chart to commemorate every sack.
The leaderboard has been dubbed, "Sacks Fifth Avenue," and includes the faces of the quarterbacks they've sacked this year along with signatures and a few fun personal touches.
“Do we have a nickname? Nah, but when we sack quarterbacks, we’ve got a board up in our room, It’s ‘Sacks Fifth Avenue," defensive tackle Ross Blacklock said. "We were thinking of ‘Sack City’, ‘Sack Town’, but we picked ‘Sacks Fifth Avenue’ since the guys like fashion in the room.
"We’ve got a big, humongous board, says ‘Sacks Fifth Avenue.’ We’ve got faces of all the quarterbacks we’ve sacked, signed pictures, draw a doodle on their face, or whatever.”
Texans second-year defensive end Jon Greenard leads the defense with a career-high six sacks, including two multiple-sack games over the past two games. The defense has 14 sacks overall.
"Jon’s a dog," Blacklock said. "He’s just finding ways to get back there. We all kind of work together in sync. We all try to figure out ways for each other to win. I may do something on a play that I may not get a sack or tackle on, but I was the reason why that person may have got a sack, and vice versa with anybody else on the D-line.
"We all kind of just feed off each other, we work together, and things happen. Get in big games, show up. We showed up last week, we showed up several weeks and several other games, but we just need, as a whole team, everybody to show up. That’s just speaking from a D-line person in that room.”
Greenard had one sack as a rookie after being drafted in the third round out of the University of Florida. His game is taking offf this season, though.
"Just seeing him shine," Blacklock said. "We’ve had long talks, and I know he’s ready to take over. Each game, he’s just getting better and better, and it’s exciting to watch. I’m beyond happy for him, and I just know the sky’s the limit for him.”
Maliek Collins, Blacklock and Jacob Martin all have one sack apiece. Former Texans defensive end Whitney Mercilus, cut and now with the Green Bay Packers, still ranks second on the defense with three sacks.
Could the sack leader be rewarded with a gift card or something else at the end of the year?
"We better get something," Blacklock said. "I’ve got to get up there with everybody else. I’ve got to catch up with J.G.,but I hope he’ll get a little something after the season.”
The leader board name has a double meaning, per Blacklock, it also has to deal with being fashionable. That's apparently a fierce competition with Blacklock and Charles Omenihu.
“Oh, please don’t start, because I’m going to say me," Blacklock said. "But if Chuckwas in here, he would argue. I’d say the person who’s into fashion the most that room is definitely Chuck. Charles Omenihu, he can dress.
Aaron Wilson has covered the NFL for 20 seasons, including the Texans, Baltimore Ravens, Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars. He has previously written for The Houston Chronicle and The Baltimore Sun. He’s on Twitter: @AaronWilson_NFL and Instagram: @aaronwilson7128.
Photo: Getty Images