PFF Reveals Extremely High Grade for Houston Texans Star

The Houston Texans put together an impressive defensive performance in their Wild Card win over the Los Angeles Chargers.

Not only did they beat the Chargers, they dominated them. A lot of that dominance had to do with the game plan that the Texans had in place against star quarterback Justin Herbert.

So many players played to the best of their ability throughout the game. One of them was star cornerback Derek Stingley Jr., who has become one of the best cover corners in the league.

Stingley ended up recording four tackles, two interceptions, and five defended passes in the game.

Due to his strong performance, Pro Football Focus gave him an extremely high grade. He ended up being the second-best graded player in the entire Wild Card round at 93.6.

"The honor of the wild-card round’s highest-graded coverage defender goes to Stingley, who secured a phenomenal 94.9 mark against the Chargers. Houston’s coverage, spearheaded by Stingley’s two fourth-quarter interceptions, surrendered little room for the Chargers to maneuver. The third-year cornerback also notched a pair of forced incompletions and a forced fumble, a credit to his sticky and aggressive coverage ability."

Looking ahead to the divisional round of the playoffs, Houston is going to need a similarly elite game from Stingley. Patrick Mahomes is a very different beast and the Kansas City Chiefs are a much better all-around team than Los Angeles was.

No one is going to write the Texans off after how they played last week. Very few gave them a chance to beat the Chargers, but they proved that they aren't in the playoffs to be an easy out.

Throughout the course of the 2024 NFL season, Stingley played at a superstar level. He ended up playing in all 17 games, racking up 54 total tackles to go along with five interceptions and 18 defended passes.

At just 23 years old, Stingley is coming into his own. The scary part is that he still has a lot of room to continue improving and growing as a player.

All of that being said, Houston has one of the best cornerbacks in football and they're going to need him to play like it this week. Hopefully, he can wreak havoc on Mahomes the same he did to Herbert.