Texans safety Jalen Pitre expected to breakout in 2023

Jalen Pitre made an impression in 2022.

The Houston Texans’ 2022 second-round pick from Baylor led the team with 147 combined tackles, 99 of them solo, and had five tackles for loss, a quarterback hit, 1.0 sack, a fumble recovery, eight pass breakups with five interceptions.

According to Sam Monson from Pro Football Focus, Pitre is the Texans’ representative in his breakout candidate list for all 32 teams, even though he had a 54.7 PFF grade his rookie year, largely due to his missed tackles over the span of 17 starts.

The Texans’ rookie safety led the NFL in a very undesirable category this year — missed tackles.

With 36 of them, he missed eight more than any other player in the NFL, but that accounts for a huge amount of his negative play overall, and he showed plenty of positive to his game.

Pitre missed the same number of tackles in his entire college career as he did in his rookie season, so there is good reason to expect that to clear up going forward.

Former coach Lovie Smith compared Pitre to former Texans safety Justin Reid, who returned to NRG Stadium in Week 15 when the Kansas City Chiefs visited.

“He has a great intellect for the position just like Justin does,” said Smith. “He knows how important it is to take the football away. He’s getting more and more comfortable back in his position. I think he’s (Jalen Pitre) going to be a great player in our league for a long period of time.”

Reid was a constant on lists relating to breakout candidates or potential Pro Bowlers, but it never manifested during the former 2018 third-round pick’s four-season career in Houston — partly due to the changes in schemes and responsibilities over the years.

If Pitre could get a coaching staff that allows him to flourish, the Stafford High School product could breakout in 2023.