Houston Texans 2020 NFL Draft grades: Ross Blacklock joins J.J. Watt

Second Round

Part of the return in the Hopkins trade was this No. 40 pick overall, and the Texans used it to grab Ross Blacklock, one of the most heralded defensive tackles in the entire draft class. Given the team’s inability to re-sign D.J. Reader (who went to the Cincinnati Bengals in free agency), it wasn’t a surprise to see the Texans use one of their few early draft assets on the position and Blacklock certainly fits well.

Blacklock is the sort of disruptive player along the interior who should find the sort of spaces to push through given the presence of J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus around him. Teams will have a hard time keeping everyone occupied along this line and Blacklock should actually bring a higher ceiling that Reader had in time.

There are consistency issues here and it should be noted that Blacklock tore his Achilles back in ’18, but he came back strong last year and the Texans did well to fill a need with a Texas native.