Defensive Spotlight: Matt Burke is pulling the strings

Over the first six editions of our Defensive Spotlight series here at Toro Times, we've taken a look at someone of the top players on the Houston Texans defense. For the most part, we've hit the major names, such as Will Anderson Jr., Derek Stingley Jr. and Danielle Hunter. Today, we're going to go in a slightly different direction. Rather than shining the spotlight onto a Texans defender, we're instead going to let defensive coordinator Matt Burke get some well-deserved recognition. Ask a casual football fan who the defensive coordinator of the Houston Texans is, and they probably won't be able to give you a name. Hell, they might just assume its head coach DeMeco Ryans, and until just a few weeks ago, they weren't totally wrong. Ryans had been calling the plays for the Texans defense until Week 4 this year, at which point he relinquished play-calling duties to Matt Burke, who joined Ryans' staff just about a week after the first-time head coach was hired. It's not as if Matt Burke's name recognition is tha