I would say vonta leach is our 3rd most deserving. He has been great.
And hate Mario all you want, but he has 11 sacks on a team that can't rush the passer and he never gets to play with the lead. The games in which he disappears are often games in which we are losing the whole time, and it is near impossible for Mario or anyone else to rush the passer while losing. Even Pittsburgh's defense couldn't come up with a sack when they spent the whole game against the Giants down by 10+ points.
Mario has managed to total 11 sacks on a team where nobody else provides any help. Here are the Texans sack leaders.
Mario - 11
Buhlman - 3
Cochran - 2
4 guys tied with ONE
This means he has more sacks than the rest of the team combined. Clearly it is personal with you or you'd see Mario deserves to go. He leads all AFC DEs in both Sacks and Forced Fumbles.
Now I'll be the first to admit, he's not Jared Allen at this point and I doubt he ever will be (he simply doesn't get off the line like an all-time elite pass rusher). But while he doesn't have the first step, he gets it done in other ways and the results are the same. He has the obvious size/speed combo combined with a GREAT motor. Watch a game and you see that Mario truly wears on the opposing OL. He never just clean beats guys and leaves them blocking air like freeney, and I rarely see him get to the QB on a bull rush, but he comes hard on every play and guys eventually wilt under the pressure. That's why so many of his sacks are in the 4th quarter. I have rarely seen a DL play that many snaps and give more effort on every play. Guys like Freeney don't even come off the ball on most running downs.
Either way, you can explain him away all you want, but leading the AFC in sacks and forced fumbles makes him deserving.
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